AIMExpo 2017

AIMExpo’s Columbus, Ohio, debut a success with Harley and Polaris CEOs pointing to need to work together to promote motorcycle ownership to new generations as MIC unveils new ‘Ride’ initiative …

The fifth annual MIC (Motorcycle Industry Council) AIMExpo made a promising debut at Columbus, Ohio, in September, after four years at Orlando, Florida, with some 500 or so exhibitors from all sectors of the motorcycle and wider powersports industry being generally satisfied with the attendance, even if nobody there ‘was able to pull up trees’ in business-done terms.
The show had the backing of most of the top selling OEs in America, and many of those who wish to become so, and the choice of venue was especially popular with the V-twin parts and accessory industry in the United States – a market that was boosted by the participation of both Indian Motorcycle and Harley-Davidson for the first time.
There were more new product offerings on show than IDN had expected to see, especially given the pressure that new product development budgets are coming under in a U.S. market best described as “soft” in new model registration and parts and accessory sales terms. However, that may also be a timing consideration.

MIC’s Tim Buche revealed the new RiDE initiative, a broad industry programme to offer an impactful first-ride experience in a partnership with Feld Entertainment that will see first experiences offered at 11 Monster Jam Truck events in 2018

Although common sense dictates that the fall is the most logical timing for a market whose distributor inventory decisions and catalogue cycles place a premium on being ready early, the domestic U.S. parts and accessory industry has not always been one where common sense has been King.
The parts, accessory and apparel industry in America has always been geared towards launching new products in January and February, which is historically peak season for trade shows closer to peak cash cycle, and with the three leading importer/distributors now focussing their own events at that time and placing vendor expo budgets under ever increasing pressure in a declining market, achieving the worthy objective of bringing the aftermarket more in line with OE new model cycles may continue to be a challenge, especially as logistics and dealer inventories continue to be shaped by increasing online ordering.
The mid-western United States has always been the V-twin heartland of the American motorcycle industry, and although the organisers have confirmed a return to Columbus in September 2019 after a year in Las Vegas (October 11-14) in 2018, many V-twin-specific exhibitors were concerned that momentum could be lost without a firm long-term commitment to the Midwest.
The ‘metric’, and especially the off-road and ATV/UTV/SxS (side-by-side vehicle) markets in the U.S., will view Las Vegas favourably however, and the hope is that the show will have an opportunity to exploit the attendance of OE dealers should they decide to start co-locating their annual dealer conventions with AIMExpo. Whilst that would have been an anathema to the OE community in years past, through the MIC they now, effectively speaking, own the show, and doing so would be in keeping with the new spirit of working together for the long-term greater good.
Regardless of where the MIC decides to host AIMExpo after 2019, the organisers have acknowledged that they need to continue to work on the attendance. The two-day trade, followed by two public/trade weekend days, is largely popular with exhibitors and certainly marks a radical new formula for American shows.
When the event was first announced in 2012 (2013 was the first year for the show), the organisers (former MIC man Larry Little and show veteran Mike Webster) said they wanted to bring the “European style” of joint industry and consumer expo attendance to the United States show scene for the first time.

Matt Levatich, President and CEO of Harley-Davidson, pointed to a future in which “it’s all about the software not the hardware, and the software is the consumers whose world is defined by their screens”

While the overall objective does appear to be working, with dealer and consumer attendances appearing to grow or at least hold steady each year, many exhibitors were suggesting that another day could be lopped off the four days (it was originally five days), with one trade day being sufficient, based on current dealer attendance.
That may well be true, but it misses the point. As is the case internationally, securing dealer attendances at shows is a notoriously challenging ambition, not least in the United States and especially so, as it happens, the further west an event is being staged. The objective of all involved, exhibitors and organisers alike, should indeed be to work together, and in this instance work at attracting show visitors of all kinds.
At five years, it is still early days for the show in attendance terms. Many recall the heydays of the Dealer Expo at Indianapolis and the V-Twin Expo at Cincinnati (which has now announced that it has closed its doors permanently) when the aisles were packed and the organisers were citing (always exaggerated) visitor numbers in excess of 10,000. The truth is that the core dealer attendance at those shows was never much more than a couple of thousand of stores being represented at best, with the headline numbers boosted by ‘fellow travellers’ from the shop or friends of the owner and “best customers”.
It also has to be acknowledged that the number of retail outlets that could benefit from attending a trade show was a lot more a decade ago than it is now.
What is more, wherever such shows are staged in the United States, the industry and consumer attendance was always largely regional. In which respect, Columbus has much to commend itself as a permanent venue for the show. The organisers say that some 41% of franchised and independent motorcycle dealers in the United States are located within a 500 mile radius of America’s 14th largest and still fast growing city, with 50% of the entire U.S. population also located within a 500 mile radius.

Scott Wine, CEO of Polaris, pointed to the investment in technology as being the pathway to develop products that will speak to digital generations

Based on the results regularly seen when exhibitors and dealers are researched about their trade show venue preferences, the temptation to flirt with the western and south-western markets must be strong for the organisers. However, the further west you go in the continental U.S., historically the less inclined motorcycle dealers are to attend trade events.
Given the importance of the off-road motorcycle and wider powersports sectors to the overall market in the United States, and the fact that Adventure Tourers, ATV, UTV and SxS sales are the only growing sectors currently, it may well be that the OEs (who now largely drive show policy), will want to cater to the south-west. In which case, an alternate annual east/west cycle makes sense -  maybe dropping anchor at Las Vegas for the non-Columbus years (or perhaps, better still, exploit the larger hinterland at Phoenix, Arizona).
Either way, the date proximity to INTERMOT every other year is a misjudgement. If AIMExpo wants to get serious about attracting more European/international vendors in those years, they need a date that places them equidistant between INTERMOT and EICMA in the years when both those shows are being staged, unless the judgement is that proximity to OE dealer convention timing outweighs international considerations. In which case, I would suggest that the OEs themselves need to finesse their own scheduling if, after all, all parts of the industry are to work together in perfect harmony.