CinemaCon 2021

[Bruce Cloutier]

Just wondering if anyone has heard from CinemaCon regarding the show next spring? We haven't heard anything lately and the question came up. As it stands we plan to exhibit and have space secured (I think). We've started discussing what exactly we might be showing. I think some trade shows have been occurring while somehow adhering to rules for masks, distancing, and all of that. What do you all think?

[Steve Guttag]

I'm sure they're planning an event as usual...however I don't think anyone, at this stage, with Europe starting to lock down again, is thinking about major travel and in-person meetings, at the moment. I think much of how 2021 plays out for things like trade shows is going to depend on the vaccine/treatment situations and the public's confidence in it/them.

[Greg Routenburg]

For what it's worth, I was chatting with someone in LA last week and they were saying that many of the large vendors and sponsors had yet to be contacted by NATO to confirm space for the 2021 show. I would consider that information hearsay at best right now though. What that says about an in-person show, I couldn't say. Presently our border is closed for non-essential travel to the US which may or may not include tradeshows. Either way, if the 14 day self-isolation rules remain in place after international travel, it would be tough to justify turning a 3 day trip into effectively a 17 day event if you include the downtime upon returning home. I think it's safe to say that there won't be many Canadians there this year even if the show does go ahead as planned.

[Marcel Birgelen]

To be honest, I think that all trade shows in the first half of 2021 are pretty much doomed. Flying in people around the globe and lots of in-person meetings? Simply not going to happen...

While there is a point to be made for virtual trade shows for many subjects, something like cinema isn't really made for that. Besides a few virtual keynotes and some virtual Q&A sessions, I don't see much added value in a virtual CinemaCon...

[Andrew Thomas]

Kiss it goodbye.

[Leo Enticknap]

Even if a vaccine is in mass rollout by next April, and everyone seems reasonably confident about it, there is another reason why I'd be pleasantly surprised if CinemaCon goes ahead next year: the industry has been whacked financially so hard that a lot of vendors and delegates, especially those from smaller vendor companies and exhibitors, simply won't be able to afford to go. The cost of setting up even a small booth is very significant, and the cost for each delegate to attend is in the low to mid four figures. Unless a miracle happens, many companies that normally set up a booth and/or send several people will be in a fight for survival, and attending a trade show won't be a priority for spending.

[Frank Cox]

I don't think many theatres will be in the market for a bunch of new toys by that point, anyway.

[Mike Blakesley]

I always figured CinemaCon (and our regional convention) was mostly about drumming up enthusiasm for upcoming product. At least, that's what it's always been about for me. Sure it's fun to look at new stuff and dream about what we could do (and in fact, we've made several big decisions at conventions about upgrades) but without fail, I've come out being more gung-ho about the upcoming product than I was going in.

Maybe CinemaCon could be re-tooled to be more like ShowEast, which is more about movies and less about the trade show, at least for the near term.

But I tend to agree with the above posts that it's probably a goner. Hell I'll be a little surprised if we are getting big new movies by then, unless a vaccine is widely available. L.A. just announced rules for theme parks which will keep them closed into 2021, so what hope do their theaters have of reopening, considered they get lumped in with those other "mass of people" venues.

[Bruce Cloutier]

I am on the same page with all of you. We had noticed that we have not been contacted about floor space. That prompted this thread. We would normally be looking to secure hotel space and flights before the end of the year. CinemaCon has been our only real face to face contact with this market. We used to do ShowEast. Yeah that is less about trade show because the trade show at ShowEast became a disappointment for exhibitors (my opinion). Well, we kept our deposit for floor space in for CinemaCon 2021. It would be nice if we could get some communication from them as to the plan. I'd hate to pull out and then be absent if things did return to some normalcy. I realize the odds of that are slim. We always looked forward to seeing all of you there.

[Jim Cassedy]

To be honest, I think that all trade shows in the first half of 2021 are pretty much doomed.

I agree with Marcel. One of my (union) jobs is sometimes working AV setup & support at the convention center here in San Francisco, and the other day I just happened to be looking at the internal event calendar for next year, and right now, many events that had been scheduled thru April have either been downright canceled or are 'greyed-out' indicating that right now they're on "hold", so they may, or may not, happen at all.

As far as CINEMACON- I agree with others that I'm not sure a lot of cinemas, which have been hit hard by the Coronavirus closures and the restrictions and extra expense incurred upon re-opening, are going to be financially able to make any major purchases next year. Geez, a couple of the big chains have either declared bankrupts or have indicated intentions of possibly doing so.
If anything- - the "used equipment" market may see a spike next near!

[Jim Cassedy]

In the past 3days:
> Southern CA announced cancellation of the 2021 Rose Parade:
> The 2021 Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco is cancelled:
> The Palm Springs 2021 Film Festival has cancelled.

As most of you know, those first two parades are MAJOR, internationally known events, so cancelling them was not a decision that was made lightly, I'm sure. But the fact that things are already being canceled into 2021 doesn't seem to be a good sign that anything is going to get any better any time soon. ... or that movie theaters here in SF will re-open anytime in the near future. I'm already resigned to the fact that I'll probably be involuntarily taking the rest of the year off. (Aside from a few "odd jobs", I haven't worked since February)

[Leo Enticknap]

It's lack of confidence. Sorry if this is getting too political, but Governor Newsom himself used the (now mercilessly parodied) phrase "toggle the dimmer" to describe his C19 policy, meaning that decisions are being made about opening up and locking down are ongoing, and made with very little notice. Even if most of the restrictions are relaxed by Christmas, there is no way you could organize a large public event with any confidence while that legal framework (i.e. the possibility that you could be forced to cancel at the click of the send button) remains in place. The significance of this news is that the people organizing these events now believe that this uncertainty is likely to persist at least until February (Palm Springs).

[Bruce Cloutier]

Even events scheduled for the second half of 2021 are questionable from a planning point of view. As was mentioned there are the COVID-19 limitations that may or may not ever go away. And, then there is the interest level of the market given the differing stages of recovery that we hope to be working through. Would there be budgets to fund trips to trade shows let alone any immediate ability to purchase new equipment?

For us CinemaCon was a chance to shake hands and meet our customers face-to-face. Shaking hands might be a thing of the past and, well, masks somewhat alter the fact-to-face concept. It is less about actual sales. Although we help bring clarity to a number of cinema owners who know that they have JNIORs but do not know what they are. Of course, some learn about us for the first time. In the absence of the trade show opportunity, we are completely relying on word-of-mouth for marketing. It's not like we would run a Superbowl ad.

[Leo Enticknap]

Another straw in the wind: Australia's biggest international airline has announced that it will not sell plane tickets for travel to the USA and the UK for flights before October 2021. So the business sector that has arguably been hit the hardest of all by C19 (and therefore is likely to be making the biggest and most careful investment in contingency planning), civil aviation, is now working on the assumption that ours and the British government won't be letting any "non-essential" international visitors in until then. I'm guessing their thinking to be that is realistically the earliest that a significant proportion of those populations are likely to have been vaccinated, and for it to be known with reasonable confidence that the vaccine works.

...we are completely relying on word-of-mouth for marketing.

As are many other niche and specialist businesses that previously used trade shows as their major marketing tool. Again, using an aviation example, it is being speculated that the airlines are seriously scared that as businesses have figured out ways to replace sales and executive travel with online alternatives, the days of megacorps spending $150k per person per year flying their sales guys and gals around the country to make pitches are over for good. Scared, because this was where they made their biggest margins. If even a niche business discovers that they can recover their sales without spending $100k a year putting up a small booth at two or three trade shows, will the trade shows ever come back?

[Bruce Cloutier]

Unfortunately the signal-to-noise ratio on every other means of communications is so poor that there is no alternative. Skip and Delete are daily rituals and actions that have practically become involuntary. We all learn not to believe everything (anything?) that you read on the Internet. This is in sharp contrast to the days before Internet. Presently, we refuse to become part of the noise and otherwise to contribute to anyone's daily spam quotient. So our product remains a well kept secret.

Even my home answering machine (yes, we still use and answering machine) on the house phone (and a landline) has been loaded with the classic "The number you have dialed is no longer in service... If you think you have dialed in error please check the number and dial again." This seems to thwart a good percentage of robo calls as the number of bullshit messages declined dramatically after recording that. Everyone who we care to speak with knows our individual cell phone numbers. And there we only answer calls from people we recognize and the rest (unfortunately too many) of the calls go the voicemail where we perform the daily delete exercise.

Maybe I am grumpy but... I don't see how business can survive unless somehow trends are reversed across the board. And I am not just referring to the impact of C19. Why doesn't our government see the ongoing attack on, and the erosion of, our ability to communicate and our personal privacy as a political issue? Business was so much easier in the 1980s.