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INDUSTRY NEWSINDUSTRY - NEWSDALLAS, 19 March 2013 Today, the Center for Exhibition IndustryResearch (CEIR) has released year-end results for the CEIR Index. After anencouraging, first-half with growth near 2.4 percent and tracking to meetthe 2.9 percent projection, performance in the second half of 2012declined. The cooling that was reflected in the third quarter continuedinto the fourth quarter with the CEIR Index for the overall exhibitionindustry finishing at 1.5 percent growth for the year, lagging behind therevised government GDP estimate of 2.2 percent.Fourth Quarter CEIR IndexResults Show Slower Growth for Industry OverallCEIR Economist Allen Shaw, Ph.D., Chief Economist for Global EconomicConsulting Associates, Inc. said, "We had a positive outlook during thefirst and second quarters of 2012, however, the exhibition industry beganto slump in the third quarter and continued through the end of the year.We attribute this to the well-publicized prospect of the "fiscal cliff" whichsubstantially hurt business sentiment and willingness to incur travelexpenses, and ultimately hurt the exhibition industry."Based on the initial projection for the year, the sectors that were expectedto do well performed better than projected. Conversely, sectors with lowexpectations performed worse than projected. Two sectors that exceededprojections were Discretionary Consumer Services (CS) and Sporting Goods,Travel and Entertainment (ST). Both rely on consumer confidence as doesthe Consumer Goods and Retail Trade sector. For example, the movieindustry reported record growth despite consumer confidence today being10 points lower than it was this time last year. Encouraging performancewas also turned in by the Finance, Legal and Real Estate (FN), andCommunications and Information Technology (IT) sectors.Compared to the third quarter, Attendance, the leading indicator,slowed from 1.3 percent to 1.0 percent. Similarly slowing growth wasreflected in Net Square Feet which was down slightly from 1.2 percent inthe third quarter to 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter. Exhibitors slowedfrom 0.5 percent to 0.2 percent and Revenues which were adjusted forinflation slowed from 1.6 percent to 1.3 percent.As an objective measure of the annual performance of the exhibition industry, the CEIR Index measuresyear-over-year changes in four key metrics to determine overall performance: Net Square Feet of ExhibitSpace Sold; Professional Attendance; Number of Exhibiting Companies; and Gross Revenue. The CEIRIndex provides exhibition industry performance across 14 key industry sectors: Business Services;Consumer Goods; Discretionary Consumer Services; Education; Food; Financial, Legal and Real Estate;Government; Building, Construction, Home and Repair; Industrial/Heavy Machinery and Finished BusinessInputs; Communications and Information Technology; Medical and Healthcare; Raw Materials andScience; Sporting Goods, Travel and Entertainment; and Transportation. ⊳About CEIRCEIR serves to advance the growth, awarenessand value of exhibitions and other face-to-facemarketing events by producing and deliveringknowledge-based research tools that enablestakeholder organizations to enhance theirability to meet current and emerging customerneeds, improve their business performanceand strengthen their competitive position. Foradditional information, visit www.ceir.org.30IELAREPORT71