Q & A with Gaston Isoldi, General Director of La Cumbre and Chief of Development and Business at Reed Travel Exhibitions for Latin America

Q & A with Gaston Isoldi
General Director of La Cumbre and Chief of Development and Business at Reed Travel Exhibitions for Latin America
By Jose Carlos de Santiago

La Cumbre 2011 ended up in Las Vegas last September with over 220 exhibitors and 203 buyers. For 2012, when the event returns to Orlando after eight years, organizers are looking forward to seeing these numbers increase by 15 to 20 percent. Such uptick must be mainly based on larger presence of Latin America at the exhibition hall and the stepped-up attendance of buyers from North America, Latin America and Europe.

This year’s La Cumbre in Las Vegas has retaken the event’s history in that city… It had been held there five years ago.
Exactly, the last edition held in Las Vegas took place back in 2006.

How has the growth been since that year to date?
In 2006 we had a larger event; however, we’re presently more satisfied with the quality of the event in terms of buyers and exhibitors. We’ve only heard positive comments from both sides, and high-quality meetings have been held.

La Cumbre has gone through different moments… How are you going to set it out after this return to Las Vegas?
We took full control of the event in 2007. The shared event was last held in 2006. We added many changes, it was a transitional time. Significant changes occurred in 2007 and 2009. We included exhibitors from the Americas (it was just the US before); we included buyers from North America in 2007, and in 2009 we started inviting buyers from Europe and Asia, and also launched the Guest Buyer program. There was a lot of transition in three years as well as confusion between buyers and exhibitors. Nowadays, delegates know pretty well how La Cumbre works, and as you said this is ground zero.

We’ll do the same in Orlando, growing even more. We must make sure to get more attendance of destinations from Latin America, the Caribbean, and more buyers looking for those destinations.

Nowadays, there are many countries holding fairs, but there isn’t a global one in the zone… Would this fair represent for Latin America what CATM does for Central America?
La Cumbre must reinforce its positioning as a continental event by including destinations from the Americas, from Canada to Argentina, and attracting more buyers not only interested in the US or the region, but significant buyers interested in the continent, coming from the US and Europe.

There are important groups attending the event, but there are no small hotels or lesser groups interested in Latin American customers to visit them…
Actually there are some, not many, and that’s owed to the lack of information or budget. In other cases, they don’t understand the Latin American market. But there are small and luxury hotel, such as Cotelco and Thompson Hotels, and there are independent hotels. Furthermore, there are hotels that belong to chains exhibiting here in pavilions and prefer being alone within the region they belong to. This element will gain momentum in upcoming editions.

How about the states?
They are present: Florida, represented by Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach; Nevada, with Las Vegas; New York; Boston (Massachusetts); Atlanta (Georgia); Texas, Alaska, Louisiana, ….There are different states, perhaps with smaller presence.

What arguments could you yield so buyers who currently get important offers in fairs come to La Cumbre and consider their presence in national fairs held in different countries is not enough?
I think that buyers should take into account the quality of meetings, offers… When we expanded on the groups segment in La Cumbre, back in 2007, it represented 11 percent of buyers, but today it’s 28 percent, because many of those buyers are trying to find in La Cumbre destinations for nontraditional groups which they can’t find in MICE events.

La Cumbre is a highly efficient event, 2 days, 30 prescheduled meetings, plus 1 day for conferences. It includes social functions that promote networking and relations strengthening.

There’s a lot of international press and there’s something that we should thank the organizers for: this fair counts on simultaneous translation, which isn’t usually provided in the US and other international events. But we also saw lectures in English, for Spanish-speaking audience, and there was no simultaneous translation. Are you going to improve this element?
In this case, perhaps you’re talking about the opening press conference, which wasn’t organized by us. Unfortunately, there was no simultaneous translation and it was a mistake.

La Cumbre isn’t organizing fam trips for press members, it isn’t usual and there’s no coordination on this issue between Las Vegas and La Cumbre. Why?
As for fams, basically, when we go to any city, we believe that it’s up to the state and host cities. In this case, different activities were held for press members. There were post fam tours for everybody, buyers and press, limited capacity.

What do you have in mind for your upcoming gathering in Orlando?
We’re going to hold La Cumbre on September 5-7, 2012, at hotels Waldorf Astoria Orlando and Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek, which are connected by a convention space. There won’t be categorical changes regarding to the 2011 event, but the presence of more products in the exhibition site and more buyers.

Are you considering a luxury segment in the fair?
There are luxury and high-end properties, but there’s no pavilion for that segment and is spread all over the exhibition site. It also happens with other segments. For instance, the sport segment, you can’t have all Golf Tourism together, as they want to be sited in their different regions.

Does Reed plan to grow with any other events even though they don’t belong to the tourism scene in Latin America?
You’ll be hearing from us very soon.