You can't find it on a balance sheet. You can't pack it in a crate and consign it to a freight forwarder. You can't lock it in a security cage for safekeeping. But more and more show organizers are recognizing that, when managed correctly, their image can be their most valuable and enduring asset. Indeed, the payoff from a solid image in the marketplace can be tremendous.
Themes are usually topical or faddish and, therefore, ephemeral.
Your show's image is something that is lodged in peoples' minds and more enduring than each year's theme. You manage your show's identity through the careful and judicious repetition of key ideas, images and elements that evoke long-lasting impressions. With foresight and maneuvering, you can avoid these traps, control marketplace perceptions and communicate your vision for the future of your show. If you're caught in the image trap, you permit research findings about today's customers to virtually dictate your marketplace identity. You identify several needs, you fill them, and that's that.