EICMA 2023 - Hardcore P & A / G & A Exhibitor Number Down to Around 500 Vendors
This is the first opportunity for me to write a piece for an AMD edition since we got back from EICMA ( the ' Milan Show ') in early November . And with apologies in advance , my perennial obsession with the rise and fall of trade shows remains alive and well even after all this time ! Our primary review of that show appeared in the post expo review edition of sister magazine International Dealer News ( January / February - available to read online or download at www . idnmag . com ). This edition of AMD includes an alternate , or rather an additional , selection of show and vendor news , with the selection having as much of a V-twin slant as a ' metric '/ mainstream expo allows . Truth be told , there really wasn ' t much H-D or custom industry action there , and it gets less every year . I dare say , there would have been some Indian Motorcycle models on the Polaris booth , somewhere , but I have to confess that I didn ' t see them , not even from a distance , and there certainly was no Harley booth ( nor even a LiveWire presence , as far as I am aware ). The claimed attendance of 563,000 still lags on a 2019 pre-pandemic total that was claimed to be close to 800,000 visitors , but the hall-count was back to the best it has ever been at eight halls . These days , one of the fastest growing sectors are the number of EV exhibitors . That includes the motorcycles and scooters on conventional OEM booths as well as the new gen of purely EV exhibitors . There are some great electric PTW ( Powered Two Wheeler ) manufacturers - a star of the show for me this year was the RAWRR brand that I first encountered at AIMExpo at Las Vegas in February 2023 - and there were others too . But I am always left with the overall impression that most such start-ups are a triumph of hope over expectation . Even in the few short years since they started to come up like an annual crop of mushrooms , there has been churn . Many bright eyed but clearly undercapitalized ' wannabees ' have appeared for a year or three , but are already disappearing back into the ground just as quickly as they had emerged in the first place . Now that the established motorcycle OEMs are finally betting their stators in a row , the critical mass that their distribution power brings to the table will inevitably make it ever harder for the ' new gen ' brands to sit at the top table . Indeed , a process of M & A is already consolidating some of the more promising start-ups into the balance sheets of the bigger fish . What interested me about EICMA ' s post show communications this year was the apparent confession that it knows that its show ( and other similar shows ) are not in fact about ROI at all . In planning for our three days of intense aisle yomping , it quickly became apparent , in P & A and G & A terms , that the list of important and traditionally viable and ' core ' brand absentees gets longer every year , despite the apparent show growth . EICMA cites 2,036 brands as " present " - but that is based on the sometimes huge number of uncurated and sometimes duplicatory brand cross-references that single exhibiting vendors will list in the show catalog . EICMA says that this was " a historical
record for the event " in brand terms . It also states that there were more than 700 direct exhibitors , which - in the context of the history of this show - is just about as far from being a historical record as its possible to get ! It is claimed that 67 % of those exhibitors came from abroad , which is quite likely , and that they came from 45 countries . However , the interesting statistic is that more than 30 percent of the companies were present for the first time . Meaning that only around two thirds of the 700 could be returnees or considered ' core ' - around 500 at best , and that includes the OEMs , ICE and otherwise . The ' short list ' of vendor ' core ' mission critical absentees that we have been in the habit of keeping for a few years is now more of a ' long list ', so , all things considered , the show , indeed all the traditional formula shows in Europe and elsewhere , are , as many have pointed to , increasingly failing to ' speak convincingly ' to the core of the parts and accessories and gear and apparel sectors that brought us ( and the shows ) to where we are . The exhibitors , in effect , pay for , create and subsidize the opportunities that the OEMs and other trade association members are able to exploit . I ' ve been hearing this from customers since before the pandemic - the whispers probably started around 2017 , and they had certainly started by 2018 . That was the last year we made our $ 150,000 annual biennial commitment to INTERMOT at Cologne in Germany ( 2014 , 2016 , 2018 - do the math !), and the damaging cycle of pandemic , economics and now even warfare , that has had an inexorably negative effect on our show landscape , has made INTERMOT the primary casualty . Capitalism , like nature , like evolution , abhors weakness , and INTERMOT has been dealt with harshly - those whispers became shouts , and the noise has now drowned out the show altogether . Having had to cancel the planned 2020 show , the 2022 comeback was a shockingly thin outcome for a once mighty business nexus that completely dominated the international show circuit , including holding EICMA in its shade . But my , how the wheel turns ! At the time of writing , there remains much confusion about whether or not there will be an INTERMOT this year , and if so , where . The organizers have gone suicidally dark over it , and while they claim there definitely will be one , the organizers will not confirm what the plans are or whether there is any truth in rumors of a switch to an early December 2024 date . Meanwhile , budgets are being allocated , plans made , negativity swirls and EICMA prospers - despite delivering a much lower buying power value despite the higher attendee numbers .
Robin Bradley
Co-owner / Editor-in-Chief robin @ dealer-world . com