Analysis of business conducted by buyers at the second edition of IMEX America at the Sands Expo® in Las Vegas last October reveals that buyers placed – or expect to place – $3.3 billion of business as a result of attending the award-winning trade show. 
The figure is a 17.5% increase on the $2.8 billion achieved at and during the months after the debut show in October 2011 (source: 2011 post-show survey).
More than 1,000 hosted buyers and buyer attendees gave their feedback in the show’s exit survey which, according to IMEX Group Chairman, Ray Bloom, is “an exceptional response sample”. The post show surveys are used extensively by the IMEX Group to generate ideas and suggestions for refining IMEX America year-over-year and the high response rate reflects the enthusiasm for the show from the buyers.
The post-show survey asked buyers a series of questions about their aims, objectives and behavior at IMEX America, including “what is the estimated value of orders you placed at the show and the estimated value of orders you expect to place as a result of the show?” – a question which produced the $3.3 billion value.
Commenting on the figures, Ray Bloom said: “This is a firm endorsement of the high quality of buyers we attracted this year and proof, if any were needed, that the show delivers real business value and produces positive results for many months afterwards.”
The post-show survey also revealed a number of other statistics about buyer behavior at the award-winning trade show. The introduction of a new, personalized hosted buyer email inbox on the IMEX website was widely praised for helping buyers to manage their communications with exhibitors. The new approach generated a single email every day to each buyer which alerted them to their new appointment requests. Of the 38,000 individual appointments made by buyers, 20% were made as a result of the improved email inbox. This new practice will now be rolled out to all buyers attending IMEX in Frankfurt in May.
Hosted Buyer, Bryan Bruce of HPN Global summed it up by explaining, “I’m very impressed with IMEX’s focus on digital and what they’re doing to allow us as hosted buyers….to communicate on the mobile devices, on the web before the show, during the show and, of course, way after the show. Really, for me, the difference-maker has been the digital component of this show. It’s been very impressive.”
Bloom concludes: “It’s clear from this data that IMEX America is delivering on its promise of providing an active, high-quality global marketplace in which the meetings, events and incentive travel industry in North America can meet and do business. In the context of on-going economic challenges in many parts of the world these figures are welcome and positive news all round. The data also shows that the efforts we’ve made to perfect business interactions, such as the single email inbox and various other online appointment tools, are widely appreciated. They clearly provide added-value and true business efficiency at a time when buyers and suppliers want the process of qualifying each other and then doing business together to be as fast and seamless as possible.”
