Surf Expo, Agenda share plans for next shows

Do you have anything special planned for next show?

The next show will take place in conjunction with the US Open of Surfing, which is the largest action sports consumer festival in the world. Last year, it drew over a half a million people to Huntington Beach over the course of the week. Agenda is tied in with IMG Sports and the US Open and that creates an undeniable draw to the city all week and creates a great atmosphere.

The contest is over the course of six days and our show is in the middle of the week. Buyers are going to come to the show and then they can literally walk across the beach and watch the contest.

Also, on the same dates in Huntington Beach, right during and after our show is the Maloof Money Cup in Costa Mesa and on top of that, the X Games will be held the weekend leading into Agenda.

So, if you are an action sports professional, it's a necessity to be in Los Angeles and Orange County the week and a half around the show.

With the economy starting to turn, are trade shows making a come back?

Trade shows in all industries have gotten smaller, not just action sports. It’s inevitable since budgets have been cut and buyer travel is down due to the bad economy. I think because of our small format and exclusivity, we were positioned really well to be successful in this climate. Brands are getting a better return on investment with Agenda so that’s why we haven’t been affected like other trade shows.

Does it seem like brands are willing to spend more money on bigger booths for the next show?

You will only see about five or six larger booths at Agenda. We offer a prefabricated booth system and you pay one flat fee and there are no other fees like union and labor and everything else. Whatever price is on the contract, that’s it. You can have a bigger multiple of that prefabricated booth in some cases. Like Podium Distribution did a 20 x 30, but it’s all our materials. The fact that you show up with your samples and it’s all built is much simpler and more cost effective.

Are more people going to do what Podium did?

Just because people want to do it, doesn’t mean we let them do it. So even if you are a $100 million brand, the average space is 10 x 10 or 10 x 20.

We work on a case-by-case basis. You won’t see a brand doing a bigger booth as a marketing exercise. If they physically need that space because they have that many reps, sample sets and that many retailers coming in as a business function, we’ll expand their size.

Are you doing anything else, adding new features, etc. for August?

Last year we debuted a partnership with TheBerrics.com and a new section called Primer – a section that went back to Agenda’s roots just for independent designers. It’s $1,000 as opposed to $4,000.

The Primer section allowed these smaller brands to get exposure to all these amazing buyers and that section was very successful. So this summer we are expanding both the Primer program and the TheBerrics program in a big way.

The newest thing is trying to get more buyers to the show. Our awareness and hype has been growing over the last year because the word is out that our show is condusive for doing business. The bottom line is that Agenda is the leader in this show segment right now, we may not be the biggest show but we are clearly setting the pace for all other shows.