In its newly released Q3 2024 Index, the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) has announced that the U.S. business-to-business (B2B) exhibition industry is picking up after a minor slowdown in the second quarter of 2024.
A more moderate performance for completed events—especially in exhibition attendance—set back the Q2 2024 Index value to 87.7 after a post-pandemic record 92.3 in Q1 2024. In Q3, the stronger performance of Net Square Feet (NSF) and exhibitor participation supported an increase to 88.8.
The Q3 CEIR Total Index—a measure of overall exhibition performance—registered 11.2 percent below the same period in 2019, marking an improvement over the 14.6 percent shortfall in Q3 2023. The Index gained 3.4 percentage points compared to Q3 2023 and 1.1 points compared to Q2 2024.
The latest results for Q3 2024 show a slight upturn relative to the second quarter of 2024, consistent with economic activity. Among all events, 33.8 percent have surpassed their pre-pandemic CEIR Total Index performance. This represents a significant increase from Q3 2023 when only 25.9 percent of events held in that quarter surpassed 2019 results.
The cancellation rate for in-person events remained low at 0.3 percent, significantly lower than 1.6 percent in Q3 2023.
“The data show a picture of continued rebuilding for the exhibition industry,” said President of Tourism Economics Adam Sacks in a media announcement. “These events remain vital to successful business operations and our forecasts for corporate performance support an outlook of further growth in 2025.”
“The Q3 2024 CEIR Index reveals a resilient B2B exhibition industry on a continued path to recovery,” added IAEE President and CEO Marsha Flanagan, M.Ed., CEM. “While we are still tracking below 2019 levels, we are seeing encouraging signs of growth.”
Following are more details from the report:
- Net Square Feet has shown the most recovery following a Q2 slowdown.
- Despite the hurricane impacts and a strike at Boeing which heavily dented job gains, the unemployment rate sits at 4.1 percent and layoffs remain low.
- While lower unemployment and lower interest rates are giving consumers an encouraging outlook, high prices continue to take their toll, potentially affecting trade show attendance.
- Looking into 2025, the U.S. economy is set to outperform other advanced economies, supported by labor growth (regardless of the new administration’s policies), strong investment, and an expansionary fiscal policy.
- The impact of lower immigration on the labor market will play out over the years (vs. immediately) because immigrant groups from the previous two years will continue to contribute to labor force gains a year after immigration constraints are implemented.
See the complete report here.
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