Where market conditions warrant, the synergy of co-locating several regionally based shows — each serving a vertical segment of a market — creates an all-encompassing “front-to-back-end” event.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the $200 billion California marketplace, where Canon Communications LLC will on February 5 to 7, 2002, again combine its Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) West, PLASTEC West, Pacific Design & Manufacturing, Electronics West, and Nutritionals shows. Exhibitor and buyer response to the Anaheim events has so far been very strong. Two months out, 1,812 companies had reserved 96 percent of the space in the exhibit halls, and almost 10,000 buyers had registered to attend.

Canon's recent success in Minneapolis is testimony to the strength of regionally based shows. MD&M Minneapolis was held October 16 to 18 — just five weeks after September 11. Despite this, attendance increased 10 percent to more than 3,400 buyers, including more than 200 who paid to attend the show's concurrent technical conference.