March 29, 2024

Trade Shows Excellent Path to Export Growth

How to make the most out of a trade show? Benefits can be stupendous, but costs can be significant. Experts at the county’s first export forum recommend looking into regional, state, and federal agencies with funds to help defray trade promotion costs.

The forum was sponsored by the St. Mary’s County Chamber of Commerce, The Patuxent Partnership, and the St. Mary’s County Department of Economic Development. Increasingly, Maryland is a player in international trade. Exports from Maryland reached a record high of $12.2 billion in 2014, up 113 percent since 2004. Cargo levels at the Port of Baltimore are up 52 percent since 2007, and expansion plans at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport are growing Maryland’s international footprint.

Trade shows are an important tool in opening up markets. The total number of business-to-business and business-to-consumer exhibitions held in the US, Canada, and Mexico is 13,447, accounting for more than 107 million attendees and 1.9 million exhibitors, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research.

Research is key – know before you go that the trade show is the right fit for your products.

“Unless you’ve had experience with US trade shows, I recommend going to an international trade show with someone who’s been before,” said Theresa Brophy, director of international marketing for the Maryland Department of Agriculture. Ms. Brophy facilitates participation at international trade shows for Maryland agriculture and food business owners eager to open up foreign markets and can lead them to grant programs that will reimburse a portion of their costs to participate.

For example, Maryland creators of high-demand specialty foods, might more effectively attend the Fancy Foods summer trade show in New York City rather than a winter version on the West Coast. The Southern US Trade Association has a pavilion to showcase member products. Maryland is a member, which allowed a Maryland candy maker to use SUSTA grant funding to attend the show and wound up getting its product into Wegman’s, the giant grocery retailer.

The US Commercial Service’s International Trade Administration, a division of the Department of Commerce, has 165 offices in 82 countries to help develop and support relationships between US businesses and foreign customers and vendors. The Commercial Service maintains a list of major trade shows held in the United States.

The Maryland division, in Baltimore, also mounts an international trade conference to promote exports from the Maryland-District of Columbia region, said Paul Matino, senior international trade specialist. Currently, his office is involved in recruiting companies for the US pavilions at the giant Hannover Messe industrial trade show in Germany in April 2016. The United States is a partner country at this trade show, which features products in energy, industrial automation, digital factory, industrial supply, and research technology.

President Obama is scheduled to speak at the Hannover show, becoming the first sitting US president to do so.

The Maryland Office of International Investment and Trade  provides support to Maryland companies planning to enter new foreign markets or advance their sales in their existing foreign markets. The team includes foreign representatives in China, Taiwan, France, UAE, Brazil, Nigeria, Israel, India, and Mexico who provide advice on exporting.

Among their services are planning and executing trade shows, and guiding business owners to existing shows. OIIT can offer free or subsidized space at selected trade shows, including the Farnborough Air Show in July and Africa Aerospace and Defense in September.

In December 2015, the Maryland Department of Commerce launched a new international initiative aimed at boosting exporting by Maryland companies. The Maryland Partners in International Trade program, or MAPIT, will bring together key partners from local, state, and federal government and academia to raise awareness of existing export promotion programs, facilitate greater access and usage of the state’s ExportMD grant and FlexEx programs, and build new collaborative globally focused programs.

The initiative also seeks to link Maryland companies with export opportunities they might not be aware of and work to increase Marylanders’ participation in overseas trade shows.

Leave A Comment