Space Allocation 2010: Final Numbers/Thoughts

Space Allocation 2010 is over. The committee placed 604 booths across 301,650 net square feet of exhibit space.

I spoke with several committee members today, and they all said it was another challenging year but they were happy with the result. Monty Lunde, principal for Technifex Inc., felt as I did the committee was never able to quite settle into an extended groove, where the booth assignments really flow at a regular pace, but as I addressed in earlier posts, all of you out there following along have made this a more interactive experience for the committee, so this type of pace is to be expected now. Lunde said overall this improves the process because people have what they want now and are able to immediately work out the details of their booths with their appropriate committee member, rather than having to wait until after the fact to try and sort things out.

Jim Seay, president of Premier Rides Inc., spent most of his day walking back and forth in front of the big board, making suggestions and helping to keep the flow going as well as possible. Despite the stop-and-go pace, the committee placed almost 50 more booths this year than last in the same amount of time, which Seay said had a lot to do with returning to Orlando's Orange County Convention Center, a place the members are obviously familiar with.

"It was nice to get back to a well-known environment," Seay said. "The convention center is set up so well for our show."

"It was good and worked out well," Committee Chair Jack Mendes said after assigning the final booth shortly before 3 p.m. "Everybody hung in there, did a good job, and we got it done on time. It was a good meeting, and the show's looking good."

All right, so that does it from another long, hectic, and productive IAAPA Space Allocation. This is always an exciting beginning to the IAAPA Attractions Expo season; it's easy to start imagining how all these booths are going to look on that big ol' convention center floor.

From here on out, if you have any questions about your booth, or for those of you following along who might not actually have space reserved yet, the Exhibit Sales Team can help if you e-mail them at exhibitsales@IAAPA.org.