Exhibitions are critical to trade and investment promotion of both business and economy. Successful exhibitions stem from various factors including planning, design, financing, and operations. The later is perceived to be a black box in exhibition management as operations managers may say their jobs are at the site and they will just work according to the plan from the show team.

However, operations management (OM) in the exhibition industry shall start from understanding objectives. Based on generic OM objective and industry insight, there are four vital objectives OM managers in the exhibition industry shall be considered as follow:

1. Service Level: Similar to OM practices in other business, service level is arguably one of the most important and the first factor in the consideration of the OM managers. In the exhibition, service level could include several services such as the quality of the booth construction or utility services.
2. Cost Control: In contrary to service level, the exhibition operations shall be at the minimum cost to enhance return on investment of both show organizers as well as exhibitors. Cost control then is the key to the profitability of the show.
3. Health & Safety: Since there are many people in the shows since the construction until tearing down. Health and Safety of staff, exhibitors and visitors are compulsory to the OM manager.
4. Time Management: In exhibitions, time is precious as venue costs are counted as the time running. Moreover, the timeline in the schedule for the show production and business matter s during the show is planned precisely. Poor time management could lead to failure in exhibition operations management.

In order to achieve such objectives, OM managers shall understand key stakeholders in exhibition operations including venue, exhibitors, visitors, and service providers.

How to cite this page:

Piboonrungroj, P. (2020) Operations Management in Exhibitions. MICE Excellence Centre, Faculty of Economics, Chiang Mai University. [Online]<URL= https://chiangmice.com/om_in_exhibitions-2/