Could AIMExpo Become a ' Global Motorcycle Industry Forum '?
As I say in our signature photo review of aftermarket vendor news from the 10th AIMExpo at Las Vegas in February , the show was a success . No question about it . But in continuing to emerge as a radically different style of industry expo to those we associate with the ' Pipe & Drape ' expo culture of the motorcycle industry in the United States , is it possible that expo evolution is playing out right in front of us ? That a new kind of industry event is emerging - one that has the potential to become a ' Global Forum ', or at least to spawn a formula that could be replicated in the world ' s other two key markets of Europe and Asia ? Yes , there is dealer attendance at AIMExpo , and while it did increase this year , it is still largely focused on the American Southwest , and still largely focused on off-road markets ( motorcycle and ATV / SxS ). However , that is only part of the AIMExpo story . Many years ago , there used to be a motorcycle ' Distributor Expo ' held each year in Las Vegas ( one of Advanstar ' s motorcycle industry events ). That expo was , as its name suggests , purely a manufacturer and brand owner opportunity to meet importers / distributors ( and vice versa ). It did not have the conventional ' Pipe & Drape ' standard ' Pip and Drap ' grid layout set-up of the American dealer shows seen at places such as Cincinnati , Indianapolis and elsewhere . In its style , it was more of a business convention than a product display . It was a ' meet and greet ' contact-making forum , a deal negotiation and making nexus , that , while ( inevitably ) mostly focused on the domestic U . S . market , nonetheless had global reach . There are elements of that old expo in what we are seeing emerge at AIMExpo now . It is not something that the organizers can nourish through direct intervention and planning though . Their role now has to be to take a back seat and not try to intervene and dictate show policy and direction . There are characteristics of the old Advanstar formula about the staging of AIMExpo , no surprise there . But their role should be simply to stage it and let the people come . To allow the industry itself to continue to steer the event . Their role is to not now ' screw their own pooch ' in the way that Advanstar did . Originally , when it started in Orlando , Florida , AIMExpo had been conceived as a domestic U . S . equivalent to the hybrid consumer and industry shows that are seen in Europe - especially EICMA and INTERMOT . OEM dominated shows where new model-driven public attendance would be the primary objective , with aftermarket vendors , in effect , subsidising the OEMs and funding the show . In that model , the aftermarket P & A / G & A sectors and the dealer-buyers of those products are essentially collateral - feeding off the critical mass of attendance that the Original Equipment Manufacturers draw . In the U . S . context , that formula failed . Timing maybe had a lot to do with it , but whereas riders in Europe will quite happily ride out for a day to see a show , the United States is as much a continent as it is a country . Regardless of the theoretically attractive add-ons to a venue city such as Orlando or Las Vegas , an enthusiast in the
Midwest or elsewhere simply isn ' t going to pay for a return air fare and two nights hotel in a southern city just to see bikes that will be in their local showrooms within a couple of weeks anyway . So , what is the new and improved AIMExpo and why is it starting to work ? AIMExpo V 2.0 is a strictly industry only ' B2B ' expo environment , just as the traditional ' old model ' U . S . powersports industry shows were , and reduced to three rather than four days , just as the traditional ' old model ' U . S . powersports industry shows were . After wandering around the regional U . S . markets ( Columbus , Ohio etc . - for what appeared at the time to be perfectly valid reasons in the years preceding the pandemic ), it has now dropped anchor annually in an established fixed location . Having done all that , the MIC now has on its hands a show that has started to emerge convincingly as a different kind of hybrid to the originally envisioned European model - very much a continental sized market hybrid with an altogether different , but patently useful dynamic . A show that can reward a visit through the new industry contacts that can be made , not through contact renewal and maintenance . AIMExpo is a show where the action is as much in the aisles as it is on the booths . Though that sounds obvious ( isn ' t it true of all trade shows ?), in the American context , AIMExpo is a nexus where the much more internationally dependent broad spectrum of the mainstream of the American powersports industry is creating a critical mass gravitational pull that is starting to be felt in Europe and Asia , more so , than in the Midwest . That is leaving a void for the more domestically self-sufficient and historically monoculture sector that is America ' s V-twin / custom market . One that is being filled by the distributor exhibitions ( LeMans ) that are mostly staged in the Midwest . Whether or not the MIC will ever be able to square that circle remains to be seen . While Harley remains the one major manufacturer that sits mostly outside the scope of the trade association , the MIC will likely continue to remain primarily focused on the broader mainstream , leaving the question of independent trade expo opportunities for that half of the U . S . motorcycle market remaining unanswered for now . It is likely that the existing rallies at Sturgis and Daytona will continue to do that heavy lifting - an annual gravitational pull that reaches beyond the hundreds of thousands of people they draw . In ' B2B ' trade show terms , if there is to be any kind of ' World Motorcycle Industry Forum ', then it is entirely logical that the developed western world ' s largest single national market is where it would and should emerge . As of right now , maybe that is what AIMExpo is headed towards becoming .
Robin Bradley
Co-owner / Editor-in-Chief robin @ dealer-world . com
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