Field Notes

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10 things Trade Show Exhibitors can measure

Arizona Cardinals’ football stadium in Glendale, AZ

High-frequency hearing loss findings

Renovation of the Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL

Tampa Bay Amphitheatre opens

Lexington Convention Center expansion complete

NBA Memphis Grizzlies will have new home this fall

From the It Was Almost Like A Song Dept

Rockies, Blue Jays Perch Atop All-Time
Home Attendance List

but did they have Potty Parity?

Approximately 42,000 cubic yards of concrete have been placed on the site for the new Arizona Cardinals’ football stadium in Glendale, AZ. Workers have also started on the exterior wall and the steel roof on the facility that will open for the 2006 season and host the 2008 Super Bowl. Recently drafted rookies in the 2004 class were led on a tour of the structure by construction manager Charlie Prewitt and general superintendent Jim Garrison of Hunt Construction Group … The House Ear Institute presented findings from data compiled since 1997 from thousands of hearing screenings conducted at trade shows attended by people working in the music and audio industries. Perhaps not surprisingly, results indicate that high-frequency hearing loss from noise-induced inner ear damage is evident in this sector of the population that is repeatedly exposed to high levels of sound. Even when thresholds were within normal limits, all groups shared a characteristic “noise-notch,” or loss of hearing sensitivity around the 4 to 6 kilohertz frequency range.

The Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL, has completed a $28-million renovation that expanded the lobby and concession area at the 2,200-seat venue . . . Just in time to catch the shed season, the 20,000-person Tampa Bay Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds opens this month. The uncovered grass berm holds room for 10,100 people, while the reserved area has 9,900 fixed seats … The $50-million Lexington (KY) Convention Center expansion was recently completed. The expansion included a new 17,000-square-foot ballroom and the conversion of Rupp Arena lobby space into 19,000-square-feet of meeting space.

When FedEx Forum opens this fall as the home of the NBA Memphis Grizzlies, the area’s Ford dealers will become a founding partner of the facility with naming rights for the new 1,500-space, five-level Ford Parking Garage. Each of the five levels will be named after a Ford vehicle model in the deal … From the It Was Almost Like A Song Dept: Comerica Park’s singing hot dog vendor Charlie Marcuse had his pipes shut off at Detroit Tigers’ baseball games after enough fans raised their own voices to complain over Marcuse’s frank rhapsodizing. Box seat fans had apparently rather see the Majors than listen to dog sales pitches in the key of C-major.

Many people seem to think the only measurement for trade shows is a count of how many visitors’ badges were swiped at your booth. Here are 10 things you can measure:

1. What visitors think of your featured product – ask open-ended questions and record their answers.

2. If you know how many qualified leads it takes to get a personal sales call and how many calls generally it takes to close a sale, you can estimate sales from the qualified leads at a show.

3. You can measure media coverage at shows in terms of an ad equivalency. In other words, what would that same coverage cost had you bought an ad the same size?

4. Most frequently asked questions are often an indication of what your graphics don’t tell people or what people don’t understand about your products or potential perception issues about your company.

5. Exhibitions are a great venue for testing brand awareness.

6. What were your competitors doing at the show? How was their booth traffic? What products were featured? Was their CEO there?

7. Cost per lead, cost per reach, cost per person, cost per impression—all serve as budget benchmarks and tracking tools.

8. Leads give you names of companies not currently being prospected, geographic concentration of specific inquiries and they let you know whether or not you reached the target audience.

9. What are the current hot topics in the industry? Are exhibitors and show visitors on the same page?

10. If you hold a private event (even a small customer dinner), ask customers one question: Are we meeting your expectations and if not, what should we do differently?

Photos courtesy Skyline DFW Exhibits & Graphics

Rockies, Blue Jays Perch Atop All-Time
Home Attendance List
Perhaps the only misstep of the 2004 Major League Baseball season was when the New York Yankees benched Cracker Jack in favor of Crunch ’n Munch (…give me some peanuts and … Crunch ’n Munch?). Fortunately, it took only days for the Pinstripers from the Bronx to realize the error (E1?) of their ways and they returned the ballpark staple Cracker Jack to the starting lineup.

Attendance has always enjoyed a serious upswing as pennant races now take shape for some teams while others begin to cautiously eye the dog days of August. But whether any team can crash the Top 10 list of highest home attendance records remains to be seen. That list has not changed since 1998, when the Colorado Rockies etched their name in the list for the fourth time. In fact, the Rockies and Toronto Blue Jays pretty much have a monopoly on the Top 10 list.

Top 10 Highest Home Attendance Records

Team	Season	Total Attendance	Ballpark
Colorado Rockies	1993	4,483,350	Mile High Stadium
Toronto Blue Jays	1993	4,057,947	SkyDome
Toronto Blue Jays	1992	4,028,318	SkyDome
Toronto Blue Jays	1991	4,002,527	SkyDome
Colorado Rockies	1996	3,891,014	Coors Field
Colorado Rockies	1997	3,888,453	Coors Field
Toronto Blue Jays	1990	3,885,284	SkyDome
Colorado Rockies	1998	3,792,683	Coors Field
Baltimore Orioles	1997	3,711,132	Oriole Park at Camden Yards

but did they have Potty Parity?
The Roman Colosseum is arguably the most well-known facility in the world, if for no other reason than its longevity. But while a colosseum (or coliseum) evokes notions of an indoor, arena-type facility, the venue’s original name was actually the Amphitheatrum Flavium, which really makes it an amphitheatre. But since it seats 50,000, does that really make it a stadium? Take your pick. But for this look at the then-and-now in public assembly facilities, we offer up the splashy Reliant Stadium in Houston for comparison.

	Roman Colosseum	Reliant Stadium
Naming rights	None	Reliant Energy
Area population when built	1 million	4.8 million
Original name	Amphitheatrum Flavium	Reliant Stadium
Groundbreaking	72 AD	2000 AD
Opened	80 AD	2002 AD
Capacity	50,000	69,500
Hosted	Pope Benedetto XIV	Super Bowl XXXVIII
Beastly visitors	Carnivorous lions	Detroit Lions
Tickets	Pieces of broken pottery	Ticketmaster
Air conditioning	Hand-held fans	12,000 tons
Workers involved	20,000-30,000	1,900
Notable facility feature	Arches	Retractable roof
Crowd control	(See carnivorous lions)	Contemporary Services Corp.
Recent concerts	Paul McCartney	Warped Tour
Height of building	159 feet	245 feet
Mode of transportation	Chariot	Carr (David, Houston QB)
Noted guests	Romans	Romanowski (Bill, Raiders)
Powerful figurehead	Nero the Emperor	Toro the Mascot
Famous Caesar	Augustus	Salad

As for the potty question posed on the headline, Reliant Stadium boasts 652 women’s toilets, 392 men’s urinals, 145 men’s toilets and 22 family toilets. There are 96 restroom locations in the building. Numbers are sketchy on Colosseum latrines, but suffice it to say the Potty Patrol was not yet in vogue.