COVER STORY

Regardless of country of origin and job title, all attendees share a common frustration: finding a hotel room in downtown Chicago

RSNA show grows bigger
despite vendor consolidation

The number of exhibitors, however, has dropped-from 648 to 603-due in part to consolidation, according to Steve Drew, the RSNA's assistant executive director. While a few last-minute additions are expected, the recent spate of corporate mergers and acquisitions may leave RSNA staff with some large gaps in the exhibit halls.

It does not appear that economic turbulence in Asia and South America has affected the meeting, at least in terms of technical exhibitors, Drew said.

"None of the Asian or South American companies have pulled out or scaled back," he said. "Overseas exhibitors have requested about the same size space as they used in 1997."

Indeed, officials from Toshiba America Medical Systems, Shimadzu Medical Systems, and Hitachi Medical Corporation of America say they have not cut back. Shimadzu recently donated $200,000 to the RSNA's Research and Education Fund and was on the verge of opening a new plant in the Philippines. All of these companies, however, operate independently as U.S. subsidiaries and appear to have benefited from a strong U.S. economy.

U.S. prosperity does not rule out some major exhibit hall reconfiguring, however. Picker announced in September its intention to acquire Elscint's CT division, while GE has agreed to buy Elscint's nuclear medicine and MRI units. If Elscint's products are divvied up, the RSNA staff might be left scrambling to fill a hole in the middle of an exhibit hall. Executives from all three companies declined to comment about this aspect of their RSNA exhibits because the deals have not been finalized.

Even if certain vendors streamline their exhibits or drop out completely, the RSNA still has their fees in hand, which could minimize the pain of shuffling exhibit space. The charge for exhibit space starts at $23 per square foot for "preferred,"-i.e., veteran-exhibitors and climbs to $34.50 for others. First-time exhibitors also pay the $23 rate. The minimum booth size is 100 square feet and exhibitors pay premiums for corners and other special arrangements. No maximum is set, but the largest booth at this year's meeting will occupy 16,000 square feet, reported Tom Shimala, RSNA's managing director of technical exhibits.

The RSNA generates income of more than $9.5 million from the exhibitors, not counting the corner premium fees and higher rates charged to nonpreferred vendors. Nor does this include the fees paid for technical exhibits in the infoRad area. The deadline for any type of refund is Aug. 21, so changes that take place after this date will not affect the RSNA's technical exhibit income.

COSTS ADD UP

For vendors, the exhibit fee is just the start of their expenses. A large, eye-catching booth can easily cost $100,000. And because setup for the RSNA meeting occurs over Thanksgiving week, many of these exhibitors have to pay holiday rates for union labor.

Exhibitors are not allowed to set up their booths, but must rely on McCormick Place's union teams of carpenters, decorators, electricians, and riggers, as well as the local Teamsters. The under-the-table payments for moving up the pecking order of exhibit delivery and assembly are an open secret at the RSNA meeting show. Smaller exhibitors, whose booths tend to be of the simple "pop-up" variety, often complain about being forced to have professionals set up even the most basic display. Some vendors have been known to do most of the assembly with their own staff, with the union laborer standing by in an "advisory" capacity.

These expenses can be justified if the exhibitor returns home with orders in hand and a substantial number of sales leads. In a survey made after the 1997 meeting, 44% of responding exhibitors reported that they gained more leads at the RSNA meeting than at any other. Nearly 20% said they received fewer leads than at other meetings, however, and the remainder said other meetings served them just as well. The RSNA claims that each solid sales lead costs vendors less than $100, but does not explain how it arrives at that estimate. Even those who don't find the RSNA show financially worthwhile figure they still have to come because of the public relations value of appearing at the RSNA.

"If a vendor doesn't have an exhibit, most radiologists will consider that the company has expired-that it's dead in radiology," said Dr. Thomas Imray, a professor of radiology at the University of Nebraska and a member of the RSNA's committee on technical exhibits.

MAINTAINING CONTROL

The venues for gaining information about new products and services will be under strict RSNA control, a decision that rankles some exhibitors. Both vendors and professional attendees have complained about the RSNA's refusal to allow vendors to hold even small private meetings in Chicago during the conference.

In the 1997 RSNA's exhibitor survey, 50% of respondents gave the meeting a good to very good rating, with 12% calling it excellent. But nearly 30% rated the meeting as only fair, and slightly less than 10% considered the RSNA a poor value.

Exhibitors may have considered the attendee mix in its value rating. The survey found that more than half the respondents strongly believed they were able to meet the "appropriate purchasing decision-makers." Only 4% strongly felt the RSNA did a poor job in this respect.

Radiologists recognize they must share purchasing decisions with hospital executives and other staff, a shift that has not escaped the RSNA's notice. Its Executive Marketing Service (EMS) allows each technical exhibitor to submit as many as 25 healthcare executives to receive special invitations to attend the conference and assistance with registration.

"Until about three years ago, the hospital at the University of Nebraska pretty much left the choice of equipment to the radiologists," Imray said. "Now we form a user committee for major purchases. You see similar things going on elsewhere."

Imray believes healthcare executives involved in radiology purchasing decisions should attend the RSNA meeting, but not at the expense of cutting the number of radiologists a facility sends to the meeting.

"Purchasing a large piece of equipment shouldn't be done in a vacuum," Imray said. "While it's important that these executives are involved, the radiologist is the user, and if you don't listen to the user when you buy a piece of equipment, you're making a big mistake."

The number of nonradiologist healthcare executives attending this year's meeting is on par with last year. In 1997, 266 hospital executives registered. This year, only 200 have signed up, but another 75 attendees have enrolled under the new category of medical service professional. Shimala believes most of these people could also register in the hospital executive category.

Overall professional attendance appears to be down by about 4%, Shimala added, with a 10% drop in international professional attendees. Numbers for radiology support personnel, a category that includes technologists, are also down about 4%.

"Some of these are registering later than usual, so the numbers may rise a bit," he said.

Late registration is common for international radiologists, so their attendance rate may not be a reflection of overseas economic woes. In addition, the largest block of international professional attendees comes not from Asia or Latin America, but from Europe, where economies are relatively healthy. According to RSNA statistics, the 1997 meeting drew 4826 radiologists from Europe and 983 from Asia and the Far East. Another 679 radiologists came from South America.

HOTEL SQUEEZE

Regardless of country of origin and job title, all attendees share a common frustration: finding a hotel room in downtown Chicago.

Although RSNA contracts restrict participating hotels from raising their room rates more than 5% over last year's rates, the number of hotels with rooms in the $100 price range-the limit for many international attendees-keeps shrinking. Only five hotels at this year's meeting have rooms costing about $100. The single rate at more than 20 participating hotels is around or above $200. Registrants are complaining about price gouging during the RSNA. Singles at the Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel, for example, cost $196 a night; the same room's nondiscounted "rack rate" the week after the RSNA conference is $136 a night. At the Hampton Inn, usually considered a moderately priced lodging, the RSNA rate starts at $149 a night.

"It's all supply and demand," said Robert Hope, RSNA managing director of housing, travel, and events. "There's an incredible amount of pressure for these hotel rooms, and we don't set the rates," he said.

Hope said the RSNA does not penalizes exhibitors who book hotels outside the RSNA's ITS housing service. He denied that the RSNA profits from the hotels' high rates.

"We do have a service charge of about $11 per room included in the room rate," Hope said. "That pays for the shuttle bus service and the cost of processing reservations. As for penalizing exhibitors, I'd like to know what they think we can do."

To keep up with housing demand, three office buildings in downtown Chicago have been converted into hotels. The newest of these, the Hotel Monaco, is not slated to open until Nov. 2, although ITS has been booking registrants into the hotel.

The intense pressure to find hotel rooms is one of the main reasons the RSNA conference will move to Orlando in 2002. But some vendors believe the benefit of more hotel rooms will be offset by decreased traffic in the exhibit hall.

"I have problems with Orlando as a destination," Toshiba's Burch said. "There are a lot of distractions. We have tried to be very straightforward with the RSNA about this. People will bring their families with them and turn the RSNA into a vacation. We spend a considerable sum exhibiting at the RSNA, and we don't want to lose the return on our investment."

Exhibitors are asking themselves-and their customers-if their continuing commitment to the RSNA is worth the expense and headaches. For most, the answer is a qualified yes.

"The RSNA is a double-edged sword," Burch said. "It has become incredibly successful in providing excellent sources of scientific and technical information for a greater and greater number. But as a vendor, while we would love to talk to everyone, we have to work harder to make sure we speak to the right people. Overall, that's not a bad negative."

MS. TILKE is a freelance medical writer in Philadelphia.