"We expect to close the revenue/expense gap in ’09,” said James Neal, chair of ALA’s Budget Analysis and Review Committee, “but the conference revenue picture will be critical.” The Annual Conference saw an attendance bump-up in Chicago, he noted today at the final meeting of the ALA Executive Board, but the final numbers will tell.
To begin the telling, Conference Services Director Deidre Ross then reported the latest attendance stats, saying that Annual Conference had 22,762 registrants, along with 6,179 exhibitors, for a total attendance of 28,941, possibly the highest ever. These are not final figures, Ross added, but they are close. At 106% of budget, “which is excellent,” she said, $2.1 million dollars was projected, so the numbers mean roughly an additional $120,000. Ross also noted that 60 people paid and registered for the virtual version of the conference that ALA offered for the first time this year.
Ross noted that exhibiting companies had rented 12% less square footage, which will affect advertising and commissions from hotels. High attendance does not automatically translate into high net revenue because much depends on attendees’ fee-levels, as well as the cost of doing business in the various conference cities that ALA visits.
Asked if major software vendors like Adobe have dropped out of the exhibit hall, Ross told the board that they have never really been there in significant numbers. “We have to work out a sales pitch for that kind of group,” she said. “It’s general software, but they are not going to come to a library conference. They have their own conferences.”
The Executive Board's general perception of the conference? In the final analysis, no matter how much revenue it generates for ALA, Chicago was a spectacular success.