Continued success

“Over the past several years hosting this show in Orlando, our numbers have consistently grown at an impressive rate,” said Andrew Darmohraj, APPA executive vice president and COO, expressing his satisfaction with the outcome of this year’s fair. The positive result is no accident: the Global Pet Expo achieved record-breaking numbers in terms of exhibitors, buyer and media attendance and total booths sold. The 10th annual show featured 5 597 buyers in attendance, equivalent to a five percent increase over last year, it was reported by the show organisers APPA and PIDA. More than 3 000 new pet product launches were unveiled in Orlando, and the number of exhibitors was huge at 985 companies and 2 896 booths sold.
The total show attendance amounted to nearly 14 000 people, with 289 600 square feet (over 26 000 m²) of exhibit space. To put those numbers in perspective, the Global Pet Expo ranks at number 72 in size out of the 10 000 shows that take place annually in the USA.

The Global Pet Expo was recently named one of the 50 fastest growing trade shows in total attendance in the Trade Show Executive (TSE) Fastest 50 rankings, and has been recognised for the past five years with the Trade Show Executive Annual Gold 100 Award. Given these excellent figures, it came as no surprise when Darmohraj declared that “Orlando and the Orange County Convention Center will be the official home to our show through 2019”.
On a truly global front, 16 per cent of exhibitors were international, making up 156 of the 985 exhibitors. An impressive 27 per cent of buyers were from outside of the USA, coming from 76 countries – another clear indication that the Global Pet Expo has once again proved itself as a key trading opportunity for companies from around the world.
The 2014 show also saw a record-setting media attendance ranging from pet-industry-specific magazines and bloggers to major national media outlets like the Today Show, Hallmark, The New York Times and USA Today; this coverage further demonstrates the widespread interest in pets. Once again, social media played a large role in communicating all the latest news emerging at the show. Attendees sent more than 4 100 tweets about the Global Pet Expo during the week of the show, generating more than 18.8 mio impressions. The Global Pet Expo’s Twitter following has grown 44 per cent since the 2013 show and its Facebook page has grown a staggering 207 per cent over the same period of time. The show’s YouTube…