Bowl Expo is a yearly happening that doesn't happen by accident By Dick Evans

International Bowl Expo is not just an event, it's a happening that has global implications and is a hot summer ticket.

But make no mistake, International Bowl Expo doesn't just happen, it is a basketball-style full court press for 50 weeks by the entire staff at the Bowling Proprietors Association of America headquarters in Arlington, Texas.

"The annual International Bowl Expo is where all the integers of the industry come together and make it the true showcase of bowling," said John Berglund, the BPAA's executive director who deserves a lot of the credit for Bowl Expo's expansion to almost every facet of bowling internationally.

Last year the Canadian proprietors met during International Bowl Expo in Las Vegas, this year the European proprietors will meet during Bowl Expo in Orlando June 21-26.

Also on hand as usual will be:

• America's military bowling leaders.
• Members of the International Bowling Pro Shop & Instructors Association (IBPSIA).
• The United States Bowling Congress' Board of Directors plus leaders from the USBC high school, collegiate and coaching divisions:
• All manufactures from every facet of bowling center operations featuring tomorrow's trend leaders.
  
• The nation's leading bowling writers (BWAA).
• Strike Ten's goal tenders.
• Many of the nation's elite pro and amateur stars and a fistful of seminar speakers.

"Our goal from a marketing prospective for the next Bowl Expo starts the day our staff returns home from the previous Bowl Expo," explains Berglund. "We start by establishing the agenda and policy, plus the graphics and the theme must be completed before our Bowling Summit, which is in January."

Believe it or not, virtually every speaker is lined up before the BWAA staff breaks for Thanksgiving.

To run this full-court Bowl Expo press, Berglund must be considered the head coach with Bill Supper, his Deputy Executive Director, backup.

Berglund key assistant coaches, who diagram the plays, coordinate all the shots and work on Bowl Expo continuously all year long are:

• LeeAnn Norton who is in charge of overall management and operation of Bowl Expo. She secures hotel property, negotiates hotel-entertainment-keynote venues and oversees all aspects of Bowl Expo marketing, design plus program.
• Cary Richmond who is in charge of all media related activities, i.e. magazine ads, newsletters, press releases and all AV and production needs of Bowl Expo awards.
• Rich Caims handles all tech support prior to and on-site at Bowl Expo, registration set-up, web support, registration reports, signage, etc.

Under them are their key aides:

• Greg Taylor handles exhibit, sponsorship sales and all on-site operational aspects of trade show and exhibitors.
• Marie Shatto handles housing, transportation and food and beverage seminars.
• Wendy Jones handles all registrations (both pre-show and on site) and all trade show activities that keep people on the trade-show floor.

And those are only the assistant coaches and their key aides. Under them are the about 20 more of the BPAA's home office staff of 32. Then there are about 13 spouses and family members who join the team at Bowl Expo.

"Bowl Expo is a complete staff/committee event," said LeeAnn. "It takes the entire staff and committee to make certain that Bowl Expo runs smoothly and efficiently. John Berglund is our fearless leader and we all work together as a great team throughout the year to make sure everything happens when it is supposed to happen. We have numerous meetings throughout the year to make sure everything runs smoothly.

"We also hold brainstorming meetings on creative/production ideas, trade show activities plus promotional and entertainment concepts."

The full-court press picks up a full head of steam in early August.

"That's when we get together with the designer and let them know we are going to do Bowl Expo and discuss what is going on in the industry to come up with a timely theme," LeeAnn said. " We will work August through September with the designer to get the graphics and everything done. We also are looking for seminar speakers, doing surveys on the board members and committees as to entertainment and keynote ideas.

"Our goal is to have everything nailed down by Thanksgiving so we can give it to the graphics designer at that time and that will give them two to four weeks to put the brochure together before Christmas. We may look at four or five different versions, making corrections and changes until right after the first of the year when we do the printing in order to have everything ready by the Summit.

Pressed to give a ballpark financial figure on all the costs (including salaries), the estimates ranged from a million to a million and quarter.

Remember, all the meetings in the world do not get all the material from Arlington to Las Vegas or Orlando or whatever host city has been selected.

They pack a 53-foot 18-wheeler to the very top. It leaves Arlington the Friday before the Friday that the staff needs to be at the Bowl Expo site to unload it and set up the trade show and exhibits.

"The IBPSIA material is shipped even earlier because they start even before the truck gets there," said Cary Richmond.

"A small group of us need to be out there about a week and half before the actual trade show starts," LeeAnn added. "This year we will leave for Orlando on Friday the 13th."

Then there are slightly more than 200 exhibitors who need time to set up 900 exhibit booths in order to entertain and hopefully entice more than 5,000 attendees to buy their products for their bowling centers and pro shops across the globe.

The Bowl Expo concept was introduced in 1995 and became an international attraction two years later when it was taken out of a ball room and moved to a convention center. It has thrived in convention centers, steadily growing and gaining international popularity.

. If you don't believe it, contact the host hotel each year and ask them about the 10 thousand rooms nights created by Bowl Expo, International Bowl Expo has become a major player even in Las Vegas, which survives on conventions.

But although attendance is growing, profit is shrinking at Bowl Expos and John Berglund explained why.

"We make money on Bowl Expo and we think the exhibitors and sponsors also make money," Berglund said. "But none of us would make money if the attendees weren't there. So Bowl Expo is about being the gathering point of the industry and that is why four or five years ago we decided to spend more money on drawing better speakers and creating a real world industry focal point. It seems to be working because we had a record attendance of 5,500 last year in Las Vegas."

Seminar speakers from various backgrounds will cover different areas of such diverse subjects as: customer service, marketing and management, food and beverage, lanes and equipment, small centers, FECs, parties and promotion, youth plus training and service.

If you attend Bowl Expo June 21-25 in Orlando, don't take the smooth running week for granted. A ton of planning went into the six days of activities and the BPAA workers will be functioning on less than six hours of sleep each night...they meet each morning at 7 a.m. and toil sometimes to midnight.

International Bowl Expo has become a well-oil machine that works like a Rolex watch with every moving part knowing its role every minute of the day.

Email address: Evans121@aol