PERFORMING TRADE SHOWS: THE CASE OF THE TAIPEI INTERNATIONAL CYCLE SHOW

MICHAEL ANDREAE

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••I Canada ABSTRACT

Why do businesses and attendees organize and attend a trade show? Traditionally the approach has been to consider resource advantages and abstract price competition when describing business decision making. The cultural turn, in contrast, attempts to answer these types of questions by exploring the wider influence of limits on knowledge such as imperfect communication and cultural nuances. This thesis draws specifically from literature on performance to describe the unfolding of trade shows, specifically Taipei Cycle.

As a space of trade, shows facilitate the need of businesses and governments, especially as supply chains become longer and increasingly complicated. Nations have always been interested in directing their economies, businesses need to communicate with each other, and customers need to know what to buy. By creating a controlled space the information that needs to flow to allow all of this to happen can be enacted out in a series of performances.

To understand the event, the performance of the Taipei Cycle Show is broken down into the staging, actors, audience, props/costumes, and scripts. The and show booths act as stages liberally sprinkled with bicycle parts and other props. Actors and audiences then fill this space, dressed mostly conservatively and following an informal script of handshakes, pleasantries and catching up on past friendships. This split between formal and informal creates the perfect space for business trust and communication. iv DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this thesis to my grandmothers, Frances Kelsey and Shirley

Andreae, for inspiring me to keep studying.

v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank SSHRC for their generous support for this research. In addition I would like to thank Glen Norcliffe for supervising and providing some guiding pushes in the right direction and Philip Kelly for being my reader, Professor Jinn-yuh

Hsu of National Taiwan University for his valuable assistance in orienting this research in Taiwan, Yvonne Yim for always watching out for the little details and keeping me going, Christine Kelsey, Christopher Andreae, and Tom Duffield for helping look over the chapters and giving encouraging words.

vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT iv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH 5 CHAPTER 2 THE BICYCLE 7 THE ORIGINS OF TRADE SHOWS 10 THE ORIGINS OF THE BICYCLE TRADE SHOW 17 ORIGINS OF TAIPEI CYCLE 19 THE MODERN BICYCLE TRADE SHOW 23 CONCLUSION 26 CHAPTER 3 TRADE SHOWS AND PERFORMANCE 27 THE CULTURAL TURN 27 CULTURAL CONCEPTS AND OF MODERN TRADE SHOWS ....34 The business perspective 34 The social science perspective 38 Clusters 39 Formation of culture 40 AGENCY OF ACTORS AT TRADE SHOWS 49 PERFORMANCE 51 CONCLUSION 62 CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY 64 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH 65 INTERVIEWS AND LIMITATIONS 69 ANALYSIS 75 ADDRESSING MY POSITIONALITY 75 CONCLUSION 76 CHAPTER 5 PERFORMING THE TAIPEI CYCLE SHOW 78 Observations of performance 78 THE STAGE 84 Front stage 94 Backstage 97 THE ACTORS 98 THE AUDIENCE 101 PROPS AND COSTUMES 104 SCRIPTS 110

vii PROMOTING INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 114 CONCLUSION 120 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION 122 PART ONE: PERFORMANCE OF CULTURE 123 PART TWO: INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 125 BIBLIOGRAPHY 127 INTERVIEWS 132 132

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1, Taipei Cycle Trade Floor 84 Figure 2, Map of Tour de Taiwan bicycle route ending at Taipei Cycle 85 Figure 3, Map of Taipei Cycle Show Second Floor 88 Figure 4, Enlargement of the 2nd floor 89 Figure 5, The front and backstage areas of SRAM 93 Figure 6, A very open booth layout (left) juxtaposed with a closed one (right) 94 Figure 7, A two story booth 97 Figure 8, The bicycle competition 100 Figure 9, The show floor before (left) and after (right) the public is allowed in 102 Figure 10, Displaying bicycle parts in the TAITRA trade lounge 106 Figure 11, Two people talking about an electric bicycle. Note also the flowers in the left of the photo, these are a traditional gift from 107 Figure 12, Ostentatious dress at Taipei Cycle 109 Figure 13, Booth (left) and close-up of attendant (right) 110 Figure 14, The president of Taiwan outside and inside the A-Team booth Ill Figure 15, Taiwan showcased through the A-Team 116

viii CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

By promoting and supporting communication between buyers, sellers, manufacturers and end users, and by entertaining a wider interested public, trade shows provide an important both to producers and consumers, while at the same time publicising particular expressions of modernity (and in a few instances post-modernity) to an engaged community. Trade shows facilitate knowledge transfer, demonstrate brands, encourage trade, develop business relationships, facilitate fun, and build trust. In contemporary times, as communication and outlets become accessible, inexpensive and ubiquitous, it is easy to forget that historically the transmission and exchange of ideas and the of was a costly, slow, and difficult process. Surprisingly, in this era of affordable and fast communication, businesses still find tremendous value in trade events, as evidenced by their continued existence and strong growth. This thesis explores how, in their modern setting, trade shows continue to offer value.

Trade shows revolve around access to goods, knowledge, and oftentimes both.

Historically the driving force was predominantly the former, goods, whereas in modern times distribution networks have decreased the physical need for the co-presence of goods. Three main changes between about 1850 and 1900 - the glorification of nations and not just goods, the use of samples to represent goods, and thematic specialization-

1 motivated the transformation of trade shows from points of physical distribution to conceptual distribution. Modern trade shows can be categorized as one of three types; retail for the public (usually selling last year's model discounted); distribution; and . The latter two types of show provided access to sample goods for manufacturers, assemblers and retailers to inspect.

This thesis examines manufacturer trade shows in contemporary times, looking at how the participants create an environment conducive to business in a world of low cost communication and global supply networks. They create a space, mostly free of consumers and with only minimal focus on closing deals, where manufacturers and buyers can negotiate business relationships and further advance issues which relate to their industry. This exploratory space, uncluttered by prices and pressure for deal making, is the essence of a manufacturers' show, as an educational rather than a driven event.

The bicycle industry provides an excellent context for observing the three types of trade shows. Most major cities have annual retail bicycle or broader sports shows.

Because of the large number of brands and manufacturing firms, the way are assembled from several thousand components, and the international nature of the supply networks, there are some very large distributor and manufacturer shows. Taipei Cycle, the world's largest bicycle manufacturers' show, is important for the industry because of the opportunity it provides to learn about the feasibility of bicycle rental programs, see innovation and awards shows, see new trends including folding and electric bicycles, and generally become engrossed in industry news. Additionally, the relatively low barrier to 2 entry in the market means it is affordable to reverse engineer a bicycle and start assembling with a low capital investment. This arrangement results in many competing companies, quite a number of which need to negotiate with each other.

Because the modular elements of a bicycle allows entry at any point in the design, manufacture, fabrication, assembly, and distribution stages, the capital requirements are even lower as a manufacturer can start by focusing on one part. Additionally, the large range in bicycle firm sizes and the diverse range of specialized companies focusing on products as specific and varied as aluminum frames, front forks, and assembly result in numerous strategic alliances with complicated social requirements to maintain them.

While taxes and legal government trade barriers are often low, international trade is complicated and difficulties often arise, issues which are readily mediated at a trade show. These features make the industry's production networks quite open to competition. Trade shows in the bicycle industry are therefore both practical networking sessions to help slot the industrialist into the production chain and create a culture of the industry, and performances to show off their goods creating a culture around the product.

Chapter two describes how these three types of trade shows fit into the modern industrialized sales process.

All of these reasons for a trade show revolve around the creation of the bicycle industry culture and formulating the cultural concept of a bicycle. By exploring the performance of this cultural formulation the processes and activities which create Taipei

Cycle can be described and understood. This is similar to how Philip Crang (1994) describes the performed creation of a environment. Performance has also been 3 used in the past to look at the motivations for specific actions such as the creation of gender norms (Gregson & Rose, 2000) or to understand how customers make purchasing decision when in a retail store (Moisio, 2005).

Using performance theory to explore actor interaction allows the of a framework for the qualitative analysis of a trade show, specifically Taipei Cycle 2008.

By peeling back the performance layers many activities are revealed, including attracting interest to a given product or process, getting visitors to think about alternative and products, passing on bits of tacit knowledge, finding employees to hire, socializing, meeting like minded people, and much more. The framework is developed by observing and assessing the activities and actions of the organizers, presenters, and audience. Chapter three further explores the literature on trade shows and suggests performance as a way to understand the trade process that is unfolding at Taipei Cycle.

Chapter four continues by explaining the methodology used interviewing and observing the event. This approach lies firmly in the cultural turn within economic geography.

One example of the value of a performative analysis is that it explains why signing sales contracts is such a low concern for participants. This is because deal making requires a long exchange and ongoing communication of requirements, design elements, delivery dates, and hashing out other specific obligations. Modern communication such as Skype provides a much better medium for the tedium of this communication. Instead of being a place of contract signing, trade shows increasingly provide the perfect medium for performing because they offer a stage, draw a keen and willing audience, are affordable for actors to attend, regulate the script, and facilitate the 4 use of props. Chapter five goes into detail about these observations on the trade shows value by describing the theatrical elements which make up the event: the stage, actors, audience, props/costumes, and script.

Results of the research

Research on the bicycle show is relevant to many different industries, especially to contemporary industries that are becoming more flexible and disintegrated. Dynamic networking events such as Taipei Cycle perfectly illustrate how traditional industries, rather than becoming obsolete in a post industrial economy, are joining the post industrial world in their own way. For example, by providing almost infinitely customizable orders through non-integrated networked production, the bicycle industry's use of trade shows demonstrates one component in a successful industrial chain.

Manufacturers' trade shows provide a valuable location for interaction between the members of an industrial sector. This communication is especially important in a dynamic sector such as bicycles because it creates a space not only for business transactions to be negotiated, but also for trust and relationships to be fostered. These relationships allow for easier, faster, and safer deals to be brokered down the line. In this specially designed discursive space, interaction may be staged and controlled by various government and industrial trade groups.

Giant, the Taiwanese firm claiming to be the world's largest bicycle company, was founded as recently as 1972. The first breakthrough came in 1977 when Giant landed a contract to manufacture OEM bicycles for the famous American brand,

5 Schwinn. By 1980 it was Taiwan's largest bicycle maker. The next breakthrough was launching its own product line in 1986 which soon become a world leader. Taiwan became the world's largest exporter of bicycles during this period. Since then,

Taiwanese firms have moved most of their low- and middle-end bicycle manufacturing offshore to China, with Giant locating a major plant in Kunshan, in the Yangtze Delta region. By 2002 Giant manufactured 4.7 million bicycles. Meanwhile other Taiwanese mass bicycle manufacturers, notably Merida, had also grown rapidly. Taipei Cycle has been a key part of this industrial strategy: the program to produce bicycles - first in

Taiwan and more recently in branch plants in China - has been complemented by a program to perform those bicycles to the world at an annual show.

Taipei Cycle has also helped retain the knowledge and culture of bicycle making, international crowds of buyers to Taiwan which helps to make the island a node for bicycle transactions and not just their manufacture. The relationship developed between businesses and government in Taiwan has nurtured successful and growing industries including the bicycle and much larger , and electronics industries. Additionally, Taiwan enjoys a number of positive spin-offs from its successful manufacturing industry with a countrywide reputation for quality and an entrepreneurial and skilled workforce. This is why, measured solely in direct sales, the

Taipei Cycle show would never justify itself, but including the performance of trade, consisting of all the social, trust, and networking elements required to formulate relationships, the payoff more than justifies the expense of running the show.

6 CHAPTER 2

THE BICYCLE INDUSTRY

The bicycle industry began as an artisanal activity nearly two hundred years ago, with carriage makers and other craftsmen fashioning "draisines" and other wheeled contraptions used by the aristocracy to ride around their gardens and estates. These creations were too expensive for the common worker to buy and held no practical use.

From this elitist beginning, the modern bicycle industry began in France in the 1860s with workshops producing significant numbers of machines, and took off in Coventry and other cities in the U.K. in the 1870s through a series of inventions (Norcliffe 2005,

2009). The latter half of the 19th century was filled with innovation and small producers who, through various and misdesigns, eventually settled on the bicycle's general configuration - its highly recognizable standardized Double Diamond shape. This standardized design was the end product of a period of intense development, and contributed to the agglomeration of this industry around a few major bicycle makers. In rapid succession, by the 1890s, the bicycle had gone through phases of the velocipede, highwheel bicycle, highwheel safety, and finally the safety bicycle, a which in its general outline remains very familiar to a contemporary rider 110 years later.

Being a regional and national affair, in its infancy bicycle manufacture and industrial policy varied greatly among countries. The British bicycle industry was more

7 and less protective of patents and trade secrets, while the leading American firm of the 1880s and 1890s -the Pope Manufacturing Company- protected new inventions and pursued litigation over intellectual property on many occasions. During the bicycle industry's infancy there were many cross industry jumps from industries using the same machining technologies including gun and machine makers who also made bicycles; in turn several American bicycle makers made munitions during periods of war, and then returned to bicycle manufacture. Overall these companies generally acted in a national setting, hemmed in by tariffs and protectionism, although there was some international trade of high quality models, and of surplus stock that was effectively dumped in overseas markets.

When the bicycle industry faced a harsh downturn in the last years of the 19th century, many of the major American firms, with their high debt load and overproduction, formed a (the American Bicycle Company - ABC) designed to keep prices high; the cartel failed to capture the market and collapsed (Epperson, 2004).

The collapse in consumer demand coincided with a major shift towards protectionism and the slow ending of nineteenth century free-trade policies. During much of the twentieth century countries tended to favour national producers such as CCM in Canada, Schwinn and Huffy in the US, Peugeot and Manufrance in France, and Raleigh in the U.K.

Instead of bankruptcy, the more entrepreneurial and flexible bicycle manufacturers were able to transfer their competencies in wheels, gears, frame assembly, and other skills common to bicycles, motor cycles and automobiles. The car also provided many of the social opportunities and clubs which had previously made the 8 bicycle popular. Bicycle lobby groups, having demanded better and various facilities, easily transitioned into car advocacy groups.

Another spike in bicycle demand resulted from the health, energy, and cultural shifts of the 1970s that led people to rediscover the bicycle. But by this time the main domestic manufacturers had generally become inflexible both in their product line and their manufacturing methods, and most had failed to recognize the significance of the mountain bike. Faced with mounting losses, the dominant firms were forced to seek out cheaper and more flexible foreign contractors, transforming the entire industry structure from a homogeneous centralized one into a disintegrated arrangement with global supply lines. This meant that many of the newly improved and popular multi-geared bicycles were manufactured abroad, notably in Taiwan, where there were willing subcontractors and assemblers. Indeed several firms, such as Giant and Merida who created their own brands, were founded in response to this new opportunity. Production capacity, flexibility, and cooperation became important and constantly changing factors in this globalizing production of bicycles.

The owner of Pacific Cycles, a man considered the "father of the Taiwan bicycle industry" (Interview: A), describes how Taiwanese export firms began. He entered the bicycle fabrication business because of the huge demand for 10 speed bicycles in 1972, seeing a business opportunity when demand for bicycles in America spiked to 8 million units from 200 000 in the preceding year. This boom in bicycle sales is attributable to rising concerns about health and fitness, oil price shocks after 1974, and the technological advancement of the lightweight 10 speed bicycle (Interview: B). Schwinn, the major American manufacture, subcontracted to foreign firms in an effort to match this new demand. Unfortunately for Schwinn, this rise in demand which led Schwinn and other domestic firms to seek foreign manufacturers ended up destroying the mass produced

North American industry. Part of Taiwan's success was caused by irrational tariff policies in most industrialized countries placing a lower tariff on light bicycles, encouraging foreign competitors to build lighter, better, and more competitive bicycles

(Interview: A). in lightweight bicycle design, coupled with the implementation of successful government policies by Taiwan (Wade, 1990), resulted in

Schwinn and other American manufacturers experiencing significant decline and Taiwan becoming one of the world leaders in bicycle manufacture (Chu, 1997; Interview B).

The origins of trade shows

There appears to be broad agreement in the literature that the annual trade fair is

"a relatively neglected kind of event" (Walden, 1997, pg XV). For her on shows, Lisa Skov (2006, pg 771) finds "there is so little research on trade fairs" that she returned to the 1922 work of Andre Allix to "establish a dialogue with existing knowledge". The literature on world exhibitions is much richer, having "been looked at in relation to such themes as nationalism, international peace, trade, women's participation, popular culture, art, architecture, and " (Walden, 1997, pg XII).

In 1922 Andre Allix postulates that the product trade show may have been overlooked because "general fairs on a large scale are an institution of the past, while the surviving fairs are too restricted in their sphere of interest as regards place or products to have

10 attracted attention"(Allix, 1922, pg 532). In contemporary times the surviving fairs, which Allix refers to, are the major product trade shows. It appears, however, that they are still too restricted in scope to attract much scholarly attention. The large-scale expositions of the past have attracted more interest as a setting to explore imperialism, nationalism, racism, the spread of capitalism, and other social developments.

Allix's work, being one of the few comprehensive reviews of the fair and its history, serves as a good starting point to review the history of the trade show. Andre

Allix broadly divided trade shows into two categories, the sample fair and the town market. The sample fair, derived from the fair, became the standard in trade fairs. The other type of fair, the town market, is a retail event for consumers and is not considered in this research. Commodity fairs "arose from the combination of... two factors, frontier commerce and caravan transportation" (Allix, pg 535). By coming together at a regular place and time with their products, merchants and consumers were able to either conduct business or acquire needed goods. This is precisely the argument made in the literature on periodic markets (Smith, 1978; de Ligt, 1993): by moving around a number of markets on a regular schedule, traders accessed a larger number of buyers and as a result could offer higher order goods in lower order commercial centres

(Smith, 1978). There were additional benefits to attending these larger periodic markets, which included the proliferation of food, drink, and music, providing to the artisans, traders and their clients.

These commodity fairs, which in turn led to sample fairs, were the precursors to the modern day specialized manufacturer and distributor shows. Three shifts were needed 11 to create the modern trade show: the great industrial fairs of the nineteenth century; the introduction of the sample; and the shift to specialized shows. Additionally larger established markets, the expansion of retailing (and especially the large department store), improved communication, and increased travel safety eliminated the need for gathering goods and sellers at trade grounds, and also eliminated the need for large-scale mixed-product fairs. This entire process of transforming the trade show away from a direct sales event happened contemporary to the industrialization of the distribution process and the (re)invention of the retail industry (Mumford, 1961).

The first shift was ushered in by London's Great Exhibition of 1851 which represented a new and slightly different reason for large scale fairs. It was the first show which was designed to market not just the individual stall owners, but the glory of the

British Empire and its industries, arts and culture (Rinallo & Golfetto, 2006). By glorifying Industry and Empire, a new and very successful dimension was added to a regional sales event. Not to be outdone by the British the 1851 Great Exhibition was followed in 1855 with the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where France responded with its own display of nation and Empire.

Up to the twentieth century the trade show's "fate [was] in no wise related to that of the fixed organism, the town" (Allix, pg 541). The fairs were independent events organized by businesses and designed for the distribution and sale of goods. In contemporary times there has been a shift to the Great Exhibition style where the region, city or country, is also showcased alongside the goods. Consider the Taipei Bicycle show which reminds visitors with its slogan to "think bicycles think Taiwan". China now has a 12 permanent trade show in Yiwu which likewise puts emphasis on China's manufacturing capabilities. Historically some port cities also acted like indefinite trade shows.

The second shift came about from improved standardization of production and better transportation and storage facilities. This had the effect of eliminating the need to inspect a batch of goods before purchase because a small sample would accurately reflect the contents of a delivery.

The role of trade fairs changed with the age of industrialization and the associated dramatic improvements in commodity standardization. As it became possible to produce batches of goods of identical quality much of the raison d'etre of traditional trade fairs became obsolete. (Maskell, Bathelt, Malmberg, 2006, pg 1000)

Improved transportation meant that goods could be transported directly from manufacturer to seller without stopping first at the trade show . This reduced the need for traditional trade shows while at the same time creating an opportunity for a new kind of sample trade show.

By the nineteenth century, improved "means of exchange and communications"

(Allix, 545) eliminated most of the and spatial restrictions on trade. Permanent clearing houses and railroads could more effectively ship goods to consumers direct from

1 Yiwu's Permanent Fair. Known as " City", the world's largest permanent fair for consumer goods is located in Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, China, 300 kilometres south-west of Shanghai. It covers 2.6m. square meters, with 58,000 booths, and 200,000 business operators. 100,000 manufacturers including 6,000 famous brands from all parts of China exhibit 400,000 kinds of products of 1,900 categories from 43 industries. The Yiwu fair is open all the year round, and attracts up to 200,000 buyers daily. More than 30% of the ornaments, toys, craftworks, daily-used hardware, zippers and socks in China's domestic market, and 80% of Christmas decorations in the world are sourced from Yiwu's permanent fair. In practice this could be described as an entrepot instead of a fair. (Source: http://www.chinatradefair.org/chinesecities/yiwu-city/)

13 wholesalers. This necessitated a reinvention of the trade fair because international goods no longer needed to physically flow through them. The 1897 Leipzig sample fair was this invention . The regional industrialists of the Leipzig hinterland gathered together and started offering samples of their goods at their trade fair. Subsequently, orders could be placed at anytime and shipped directly to the buyer, bypassing warehouses at the fair ground.

The third shift was a transition to specialty fairs, again motivated by the communication and transportation technologies introduced in the nineteenth century

(Allix, 1922). The business of generalized trade shows began to fade quickly as established distributors, linked by more effective communication, increasingly captured their trade. The international shows which do carry on - such as Canada's Expo'67 and this year's Expo 2010 in Shanghai - do carry on the tradition of international gatherings, but more as cultural events than as places of trade. Some of these shows were, however, able to reinvent themselves as specialty events that catered to the needs of specific industrial sectors, sectors which had grown large enough to warrant specialty trade fairs.

This was a very new phenomenon when Andre Allex was writing in 1922; subsequently, countless examples of these specialty fairs have been created. There are shows for bicycle, computer games, electronics, textiles, fashion, the list goes on. However the

2 Ships were represented as models at trade shows earlier than this and a large collection of these ships is present at the Art Gallery of Ontario. However these models were rare and should probably not be considered samples so much as mock ups of one offs. The solidification and mass use of samples began at the Leipzig fair.

14 great industrial fairs such as the Canadian National Exhibition which featured a wide range of agricultural and industrial products have become marginalized and now almost exclusively serve an entertainment and cultural role.

Referring to the modern trade fair as a sample fair we can draw some conclusions from the literature.

Historic Commodity Modern Sample Primary reason for To transfer goods To makes sales but also to the show influence regions and opinions (esp. great exhibitions) Layout of ground Warehouses, temporary Meeting halls, very transient Time Periodic or in special cases Periodic or in special cases one one off/continuous off/continuous Location Beside towns Integrated into town Regional impact Not specifically part of the Sometimes very involved in town promoting region/country Size Large and small Large and small

The shifts which led to modern conceptual events where ideas about a product, rather than the physical item itself, are traded resulted in the formation of three separate types of trade show; the traditional retail event which caters to end users, distribution specific events, and manufacturer specific events where respectively finished goods are ordered for retail and manufacturers meet to conduct business to business (B2B) trade.

The first type of trade show, of little interest to this thesis, is the retail trade show.

The modern retail trade show, currently best epitomized by events such as the Toronto

Ski Show, Bike Show, Outdoors Show, and Boat Show, acts in many ways like the medieval trade fairs did, offering a wide range of goods for a short period, thereby

15 creating a spectacle to attract an audience interested in specific consumer goods. Here unique and rarely purchased items like large boats and high-end skis can be matched with customers attracted from a large region. This is really a glorified point of sales and often simply a dumping ground for excess inventory and does not, in many instances, significantly influence industry.

The second type of show, for distributors, is a private event where resellers of goods and general industry members are present. These shows allow retailers to examine many distributors' goods so they can make decisions on what to offer their customers.

This thesis uses Eurobike (Europe's largest bicycle distributor show held every

September in Friedrichshafen, Germany) to show the differences between performance at a distributors and a manufacturers show. For example at Eurobike many bicycles had their retail price listed on them but individual units were not actually for sale; rather, the prices were just there so buyers would know their expected mark-ups. Additionally, some stalls sold water bottles, bike lights, and other accessories. These shows are often commercially run and designed to help industry insiders navigate their purchasing options.

Third, manufacturing shows facilitate the globalization of production by connecting disintegrated specialized businesses, such a bicycle frame makers, tire makers, and gear makers with assemblers and distributors. There are numerous industry shows for almost every sector imaginable: games, , bicycles, meat processing machinery, the list goes on. Their common elements include not being designed for the general public and often not selling directly -or in some cases even 16 indirectly-to participants. For example, in contrast to Eurobike, there were no prices listed anywhere at Taipei Cycle nor were any product available for attendees to purchase.

The origins of the bicycle trade show

The history of the bicycle has long been intertwined with trade shows. It was first introduced to many of the world's markets through early trade shows as a technological innovation. Indeed the vehicle that appears to be the world's first cranked tricycle - known as Mehew's tricycle - was first displayed at the International Exhibition held in

London in 1862 (this exhibition being the less successful successor to the Great

Exhibition of 1851). This tricycle was shown as a small part of a comprehensive display of technology and the arts. Some years later, at the 1876 Centennial Exposition held in

Philadelphia, British bicycles were seen by the pioneer American entrepreneur Colonel

Albert Pope who, by copying the unprotected (in the U.S.) British Duplex Excelsior bicycle, launched the American bicycle industry (Herlihy, 2004). These early shows were not just about bicycles, rather they displayed a wide range of objects and curiosities representative of national ingenuity. In Britain, however, it did not take long for a dedicated bicycle show - known as the Stanley Show, to be launched in 1878. In the case of bicycles, this was enough for enthusiasts -often carriage makers and machinists- to become inspired to copy and improve or, in some cases, worsen bicycle designs

(Norcliffe 2001). From the very beginning the bicycle, both physically and via its image as a device of modernity, was discursively constructed and physically disseminated through trade fairs.

17 While these early bicycle shows showcased an exciting new technology and many people had never seen a bicycle, contemporary bicycle trade shows focus more on networking and promoting meetings between people, as well as seeing and allowing physical touching of the bicycle. The bicycle fell a bit to the wayside during the first half of the 20* century, when bicycles did not play a major role in trade shows. These modern, networking-focused shows have been a reaction to the industrial transition, during the 1970s and 1980s, towards specialized brands and subcontracted supply chains.

With the bicycle trade transformed in the latter part of the twentieth century from a national structure into an international one, the trade show has become responsible for facilitating the diffusion and of new technology, new products, and for identifying new industrial demands for communication and common meeting places.

They do far more than just presenting the wares of vendors: they now form a part of global transaction systems.

The phases of bicycle production and the stimuli which initiate them, as outlined above, are very important for understanding the current position of bicycle makers. As previously stated, the basic design of a bicycle is set around a highly efficient standard. Additionally, bicycle construction has a low barrier to entry relative to other industries such as electronics or chemicals. Firms which are leaders in major bicycle innovations, such as the 1890s safety bicycle, the 1970s 10 speed, the BMX, mountain bike, folding bicycle, and the e-bike, have therefore been able to create new opportunities and destroy the laggards (according to interviews and observations at Taipei Cycle). For

18 this reason, members of the bicycle industry are very interested in events such as the major trade shows which help them predict and understand the status of the bicycle trade.

In response to demands for tacit knowledge about the industry, a significant portion of participants at Taipei Cycle focus on innovative ideas and trying to talk through what the latest trend may be as much as they do on traditional, and higher volume, bicycles. Reflecting this interest in finding the latest bicycle craze, many of the bicycles on the Taipei Cycle trade floor are folding, bamboo, electric or other niche products and not the basic road and mountain bikes which dominate the market by volume.

Origins of Taipei Cycle

Taipei Cycle grew out of the Taiwanese government's goal to brand itself as an exporting country and to help their immature bicycle industry focus on export markets.

To the first point, trade shows brand and new countries need a brand if they are to succeed as exporters. To the second point, trade shows help support fledgling industries by giving them global visibility and encouraging foreign buyers to visit. In addition the country's brand, assuming a positive brand image, is beneficially extended to each company at the trade show. The Taiwan Bicycle Export Agency (TBEA) and Taiwan governmental bicycle support infrastructure was set up to support both these branding and trade development goals.

Trade shows make a great branding site, and partly for this reason governments and businesses are tempted to organize them. This is especially important for cultural

19 commodities because their value is so strongly linked to the perceptions of consumers.

That is why strongly branded products such as cars and cigarettes prominently promote their brand at events. One of the primary goals in participating in these events is to diffuse an image of quality as widely as possible. By carefully managing its reputation and brand, a country seeks to become well known, even revered, for the quality of its products and services.

Wally Olins (2003) describes the challenges of creating and managing brands, showing how, since the 1970s, the service brand has developed out of the product brand.

Originally branding was limited to physical products, starting with , which could have emotions, imagery, and other aspects applied to it. By the 1970s marketers realized that services, sports stars, really anything could be infused with various meanings including the branding of nations. To manage this takes an active effort and skill, which not every country has:

There are nations, some quite big and well known, which have no clear brand associations at all, like Canada, Turkey or Brazil, but which may be significant manufacturers and exporters of products and services. So if a nation wants to cut through distorting and damaging stereotyping, or wants to be seen to be a force in a field in which it is traditionally little known, it has to use all the techniques of promotion - advertising, exhibitions, trade fairs, national weeks and so on - and re-brand itself. (Olins, 2003, pg 160)

Countries' reputations or brands can have a huge influence on trade and business. One example of a country influenced brand is Schwinn, still commonly considered an

American bicycle, despite having been built abroad since the 1980s. Schwinn is an example of a product latching on to a country's brand. The opposite also happens, for

20 instance, when comparing a "Taiwan" and "Chinese" bicycle: the Chinese bicycle is often considered to be of lower quality, even though they may have been made in the same mainland factory. The Chinese reputation for lowering brand quality (a reputation much advertised by rival overseas manufacturers) is just one example of countries helping/hurting their industries (Economist, 2008).

After the Maoist revolution, Taiwan's leaders set about building up a reputation which differentiated them from mainland China. For Taiwan, branding played a huge role in developing their industries and their cultural brand, the "independence" of the

Republic of China from the mainland. Additionally because of Taiwan's fear of mainland China, the government has been significantly more willing to intervene in business than governments of many other countries which shifted with the rise of neoliberalism in the 1980s towards a free market and non-interventionist policy framework (Wade, 1990; Anderson, 2004).

During the 1960s and 1970s the Taiwanese government focused on the development of a reputation for quality. They took an active role in creating and maintaining a national image of quality and dictated export criteria and standards for firms in various industries, one of which was bicycles (Chu, 1997). This program of trade promotion, coupled with an effort to nurture innovative manufacturers, proved highly successful in creating a positive international reputation and Taiwan's membership as one of the four Asian Tigers. Through a mixture of luck, providence, and a fear of

Chinese competition and/or invasion, the Taiwanese government proceeded to promote the image of the island for the high quality of its products. 21 Wan-Wen Chu (1997) describes this process of government support as it applied to the Taiwan bicycle industry. The industry was protected from Japanese competition as early as 1952 which gave four main manufacturers and numerous smaller producers a chance to develop. In 1969 a significant spike in American bicycle demand meant

American buyers had to look abroad for additional capacity. The Taiwanese government, realizing the massive increase in export demand and the danger of a poor quality reputation, began to impose export quality standards on all bicycle manufacturers and started promoting Taiwanese products to the world through trade shows and publications.

This turned out to be a very successful balance of protection and international competitiveness (Chu, 1997).

Complementing market protection, the government began to develop trade councils and events to support industry. The Taipei International Sporting Goods Show

(1973) was an early initiative of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council

(TAITRA). Together with TAITRA the Taiwan Bicycle Exporters Association (TBEA), of which every exporting bicycle firm is a member, operates the trade show. The TBEA also litigates tariff concerns and provides numerous other forms of general assistance to all Taiwan bicycle exporting companies. Significantly these organizations were set up by the government to promote and control the image of Taiwan as an exporter in general and bicycles in particular.

By 1988 the bicycle component of then Sporting Goods Show had became so large that Taipei Cycle was split off as an independent show. At this point the NT dollar was rising in value against the US dollar and the industry was facing the challenge of 22 moving up market. It also saw the rise of Mountain Bike (MTB) demand and more recently has helped nurture the development of folding and electric bicycles. Current government intervention in the Taiwanese bicycle industry is, to a large extent, based on managing the performance of Taiwan and the Taiwanese brand. This includes export quality regulations to ensure a reputation for quality, the promotion of technological innovation, and the creation of trade promotion offices and shows.

The modern bicycle trade show

Bicycle trade shows are designed to connect buyers and sellers. These are often private or semi private affairs with specific targets and goals. Taipei Cycle, Taichung

Bicycle week, and Eurobike are different types of trade shows, each with different goals.

The first two, Taipei Cycle and Taichung Bicycle week are manufacturers' shows.

Taipei Cycle focuses more on the performance of brands, on the development of social networks, and being an event where you want to be seen. Conversely Taichung Bicycle

Week is scheduled right in the Christmas buying cycle and is a much more private event where apparently large numbers of deals are actually negotiated. Eurobike, designed more for finished goods ready to be distributed has many bicycle dealers and, unlike

Taipei Cycle, displays prices on many of the bicycles. Taipei Cycle stands out as an event concentrated on creating a bicycle image for Taiwan rather than on deal making, this being partially a carryover of its government mandated founding as a site to promote

Taiwan as a bicycle production destination.

23 The best summary of this subtle difference was made by an employee at the

Maxxis bicycle tire booth at Taipei Cycle when describing the difference between his

Eurobike and Taipei Cycle booth. He described how at Taipei Cycle there was no couch in his booth because he is not interested in people hanging around for a long time because it was just an event where manufacturers could browse around and see what is out there.

Conversely at Eurobike the stall had couches and candy and anything else which he thought would lure people in to stay for a while, in the hopes of making some sales.

Because purchases for next spring are booked in the late summer/fall the September show time of Eurobike means buyers and distributors are there to find their next summer line­ up. Taipei Cycle is more of a look around event where general interests are met.

In the late 1980s and 1990s mountain biking was quickly becoming popular and there was an explosion of high end brands. Eurobike was founded in 1991 as a profit making business in response to this and provided a venue to market the hot new commodity. This is a market driven and responsive distributors' show where finished bicycles and their brands are displayed. Because the demand existed for an international bicycle marketing event it ballooned into a distribution show for all styles of bicycles.

Taichung Bike Week, which grew from an agglomeration of small private sales events held every Christmas, is a purely industry driven event; it is a response to a demand for deal making. Because Taipei Cycle falls outside the distributing or manufacturing cycle it was not a particularly useful venue for deal making; additionally it is held in Taipei, the country's capital but not in the centre of bicycle manufacturing in

Taiwan. Therefore Taichung Bike Week developed organically out of an agglomeration 24 of little shows, which industry insiders had independently founded, as a response to these failings of Taipei Cycle. As it grows Taichung Bike Week will become more standardized at a venue and less of a random sort of clumping of and meetings over a week.

Contrasting government support of these events is illustrated by the presence of the President of Taiwan who opened the Taipei Cycle show as compared to the Mayor of

Taichung who was unaware of the Taichung bicycle week until a year ago.

Truthfully, I only learned about the existence of the self-organized, naturally formed December bicycle mini-shows late last year through one of the key organizers, also a very successful brand developer in Taichung city, Steve Fenton. Steve is not only a Taichung citizen but a great friend of the City Government and has worked tirelessly and free of charge to bring this important event in the calendar together under one roof supported by Taichung City Government. It seems that the well-known brands within the bicycle industry helped trigger this event, answering the need of some local OEM suppliers for assistance in organizing a small, informal trade show that let product managers see their newest products and make their earliest and best specification choices. This was a classic case of the industry working together to meet ever changing deadlines from the global market. Jason C. Hu, Mayor of Taichung (http://www.taichung-bike-week.com/ Splash page Aug 18th 2009)

This trade show is, as the mayor's remarks point out, an industrial response to a global demand for bicycle information at Christmas time. This event facilitates local OEM suppliers and meets their needs as opposed to Taipei Cycle which meets the needs of branding.

The origins of each of these three trade shows are partially reflected in their contemporary performance. Taipei, with its presidential appearances and location in the capital, is about more than just bicycles; it is strongly politically and regionally infused.

25 Eurobike has become the catch all for the international bicycle trade. Founded in response to a practical need, it has become the bicycle clearing house for finished sales.

Unfortunately the Taichung cycle week is a private affair so I could not attend the event; it appears to be almost exclusively a practical and private deal making affair where the next product cycle orders can be placed. This broad background contextualizes performance at the Taipei Cycle Show.

Conclusion

Starting with the general origins of bicycles and the background of trade shows this chapter showed the development to the present day Taipei Cycle. First, it outlines how the bicycle industry developed and required trade events. Second, it described the progression of the trade show from its origins as an event where the co-presence of goods presents choice and convenience to the modern event and provides manufacturers and distributors with a venue for cultural interaction. Finally, comparing and contrasting

Taipei Cycle to two other contemporary bicycle trade shows reveals the unique features of Taipei Cycle. While this chapter has shown reasons for and the progressions though time which culminated in the Taipei Cycle show, the next chapter explores how the performance creates the business culture -networking, communication, and presentation of cultural goods- by looking at contemporary analysis of trade shows and performance.

26 CHAPTER 3

TRADE SHOWS AND PERFORMANCE

"There is no strong performance without a little fanaticism in the performer" Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"An ounce of performance is worth more than a pound of preachment." Elbert Hubbard.

The previous chapter, explaining the structure and origins of trade shows, has set the context for this exploration of the social and business construction of the event.

Following the path of the cultural turn in geography, and moving away from purely econometric understandings of the economy towards cultural interpretations of the action of people, this thesis considers the wider cultural implications of performance at trade shows. After reviewing the cultural turn this chapter explores different contemporary views of trade shows and performance. This will hopefully help bring a more performance-based understanding of trade shows into the vernacular.

The cultural turn

Roughly twenty years ago Peter Jackson wrote of geographers' inability, or unwillingness, to address cultural issues. Geographic thought was dominated by the

Berkley school which argued for the importance of artefacts and quantitative study leaving "cultural geography ... untouched by the theoretical ferment that has been taking

27 place elsewhere in cultural studies" (Jackson, 1994, pg 25). The cultural turn, which

Jackson argued for, was a reaction to this empirical focus on trying to study and classify socio-cultural phenomenon across space which proposed taking a more culturally inflected approach to understanding.

More recently Peter Jackson (2002) wrote specifically about the advantages of combining cultural and economic views to understand demand. The combination reveals the culturally inflected circuits of interconnectedness in economic patterns whereby buyers and sellers are constantly in a relationship shaping each other's habits.

My argument involves a move from linear commodity chains to more complex circuits and networks as a way of subverting dualistic thinking and unsettling the kind of linear logic that sees consumption at one end of a chain that begins with an equally abstracted notion of production. (Jackson, 2002, pg 5)

To show how culture drives development in industries he presents examples from the food and fashion industries. From these examples he determines two forces shaping consumption, the cultural purchasing decisions of the consumer putting demands on industry and industry creating images of beneficial consumption which influence consumers. Thus simply looking at a vertical supply chain, one where industry supplies the obliging consumer no longer makes sense, partly because supply chains have become so decoupled and secondly because it is not clear that the reality of the supply chain really influences consumption choices. Therefore the horizontal cultural creation of a commodity chain, argues Jackson, reveals more about who is doing the creating, what culture is being appropriated, and who gets the benefit.

28 Economics, argues Nigel Thrift (2003), ignores the cultural realm at its detriment because culture explains the foundations of economic decision making. He uses the examples of knowledge which travels face to face over regions in specific ways and that consumers are real entities, too often framed as slaves of commodities or perfect and rational buying units. On the other side Thrift also warns about cultural geographers ignoring economics because it seems like a dirty dry topic. He therefore recommends cultural geographers to take an approach which the work of economists while recognizing that "consumers are remarkably rarely superficial or passive" (Thrift, 2003,

697). Such an economically inflected cultural geography gives cultural geographers the ability to take the best parts of economic thought and apply it to the questions of how we produce, consume, and distribute goods and services.

Meric Gertler (2003) wrote that the cultural turn in economic geography is a continuously transforming project that, it is hoped, will eventually provide a more holistic and accurate picture of firms and economies. It was not possible to assess the following fundamental issues pertaining to economic change by implementing traditional quantitative and abstract models.

What are the social dimension of technological change in production systems, and how are these situated in localities and regions? How do local production practices interact and intersect with the global economy, and must the process of globalization obliterate all difference and distinctive characteristics of regional and national production systems? How are economic processes structured and shaped by social institutions, and at what geographical scale do these intuitions exert their influence. (Gertler, 2003, pg. 131).

29 The problem is that classical quantitative models assumed away all of these important social and cultural factors, leaving an analysis which fails to account for the real world, so they are a moderately useful tool at best. Meric Gertler proposes the cultural turn is a reaction to the inability to understand cultured events, such as the failed mergers of mega companies, and as a response to the recognition of modern service and production techniques. Gertler sees corporations often driven by institutional or cultural common sense, a level which is mostly outside the firm itself.

For economic geographers the cultural turn has meant shifting the focus from narrowly defined economic factors towards a realization that culture and legacy matter.

Regions which develop expertise in certain industries and fields are able to maintain a comparative advantage . Allen Scott argues this reduces the cost of inter-industrial exchange, accelerates the rate that capital and ideas flow through the industry and finally reinforces trust in transactions which helps to build strong relationships between producers, in other words "regional development is ... based on competitive advantages that are socially and politically created" (Scott, 2000, pg 18). A cultural focus does not preclude the advantages of natural resources as a source of competitive advantage, rather it aims to place significant emphasis on the many cultural forces which help create and maintain comparative economic advantages in certain regions. Therefore to understand the origins and mechanisms which reinforce these social advantages

The bicycle trade show completely hides the manufacturing process, and the transformation of industrial patterns spurred on by the globalization of capitalism. This obfuscation of the manufacture process is by design, with certain sanitized elements, both 30 tool and die equipment and machined parts, on display. Feminist literature is a very useful base for understanding this motivation.

Linda McDowell et al (2002) write a very succinct review of feminist literature and the potential intersection with economic geography. The field is coming about and they propose additional valuable angles of analysis. Their concerns include the marginalization of women workers as temporary and "feminized", low pay and subservient service industry, jobs become the norm. Additionally they suggest the value in addressing the affect of globalization on a whole host of spaces from the transnational corporation right down to the individual body. The power structures which create and maintain globalization are also of deep concern. An important issue this raises is danger that "processes of trade and investment appear to have agency" when in fact it is various actors surrounded by multiple influences and directions who create the economic framework that runs society.(McDowell et al, 2002, pg 268).

To complete the idea of a cultural turn in geography something should be mentioned of the critiques and dangers of the word. It's vagueness and popularity amongst publishers have weakened and cheapened the word, argue Catherine Nash and

Jane Jacobs (2003). However they defend the use of culture both as a way to understand social constructions of identities and as a method to follow the implementation of these constructions, vis-a-vis performance. The gender categories of men and women are created in the cultural realm, not the biological one. Culturally constructed gender

"converges with much of the work that has proceeded under the name of 'cultural geography' which concerns itself variously with questions of identity, social construction, 31 representation, positionality and difference "(Nash and Jacobs, 2003, pg 269). At a bicycle trade show elements of all of these forms of cultural creation can be seen in the events presentation and performance: consider, as one example, the masculinity performed by a mountain bike.

The second part of their article addresses non representational theory, the enactment of these cultural constructions both overtly, sometimes to challenge the stereotypes, and innocuously in everyday life. The non representational theory addresses these subtleties of life.

While the bicycle industry is not built of the sort of large transnational firms that

McDowell and others write about (2002), similar issues still arise with the gendered workforce. First, as noted in chapter two, the Taiwanese bicycle industry has grown out of the wreckage of the more unionized North American market. In fact the last mass manufacturer of bicycles in Canada, Raleigh, has a unionized workforce. Along with the transition to more flexible labour the bicycle show hides the safety standards, such as the manufacture of carbon fibre bicycles in mainland China so as to avoid stricter safety standards for worker exposure. By creating a "Taiwanese" bicycle show the issue of the location of actual manufacture is blocked from view.

Geography was far from the only discipline to embark on a cultural turn; in the

1990s many fields became concerned with the role of culture in what is being examined, the researchers perspective, and other critical approaches. In his From Ritual to

Theatre (1982) Victor Turner recognizes that his strict empirical study of African tribes, an approach which was rooted in his 1950's , failed to catch the meaning behind 32 the observed phenomenon. For him this is one reason why ethnographies have turned to performance.

For many of the same reasons this paper is following in the path of the cultural turn in geographer. It is concerned with the geographic question of trade shows and the development of transnational business development. However the approach being taken is looking beyond simply the trade numbers or the Weberian cost benefit to clustering.

Instead it explores the social value that participants are able to extract from the event.

The literature on trade shows looks at contemporary shows, their procedures and purpose. It can be broadly split into two subgroups, the first of which follows a neo­ classical business approach to quantify and justify trade shows in economic terms while the second set of literature interprets the event as a cultural or social phenomenon not restricted to economic metrics. The second set of literature this chapter examines is on the concept of performance, observing the world as an interaction of various actors and settings.

These two literatures, on interpreting trade shows and performance, intersect in numerous places. Business marketing scholars use performance to explain the influence of branding and other pressures on purchasing decisions (Moisio & Arnould, 2005,

Rinallo & Golfetto, 2006). Additionally, social scientists use performance to explore how cultural norms and meaning are embedded in objects and behaviours at the trade show (Gregson & Rose, 2000; Penaloza, 2000).

33 Cultural concepts and constructions of modern trade shows

The current literature raises many arguments over the value and economic advantage of holding trade shows. By bringing people together for intensive meetings over a short period, travel costs become lower than when the traditional "travelling salesman" approach, visiting each client individually, is used to promote a product. This literature also addresses family roles, normalizing behaviour, the temporal limits, and other social aspects; how trade shows add value to the participants and actors who create the event.

The business perspective

The business perspective, econometric in nature, is written by academics exploring different ways to account for the costs and benefits of the event. These often explore numbers and costs at general fairs (Penaloza, 2000; Blythe, 2002; Ling-yee,

2008), cutting edge businesses such as fashion (Rinallo & Golfetto, 2006; Skov, 2006) or very large capital industries (Bathelt & Nina, 2008B). These industries are popular topics for research because cutting edge industries, especially culturally or brand driven products, and industries requiring major rare purchases (such as industrial meat grinders) are traditionally considered well served by trade shows. This is because people want to see the latest product or difficult to display and rarely purchased large goods (Herbig,

1997).

Businesses are supposedly driven by neoclassical economic principles of reducing costs, increasing efficiency and maximizing profits. Reflecting this, most business

34 literature on trade shows explore the role trade shows play as a "cost-effective mechanism for eliciting new customers" (Evers & Knight, 549). Size and regularity increase the efficiency of interaction because large trade shows connect people in a certain business sector and regularity helps match the business cycle and the trade show

(Ling-yee, 2008). The consistency and inclusivity of industry members also allows the formation of relations and therefore helps facilitate international business. Various metrics have been proposed in the literature to measure the decrease in costs per client/customer interaction and the increase in sales that trade show networking facilitates.

Business literature finds the effectiveness of trade shows comes from their ability to reduce transaction cost and use this as a key justification for trade shows. Ronald

Coase (1998) fathered the concept of new institutional economics in 1938, a branch of economics concerned with transactions. This school of thought considers institutions as facilitators of transactions and when the players are operating with accurate and timely knowledge these costs are reduced. Institutions are also instrumental in presenting markets with information and thus determine market availability. Overall this theory sees the people who make economic decisions not as perfectly rational actors but rather acting based on whatever information they have gathered from various sources.

Trade show literature often focuses on the reduction of transaction costs either by reducing the buyer's costs because he/she can go to one location to see many products

(Borghini, Golfetto, Rinallo, 2006), or reducing the seller's costs because there are many interested buyers (Herbig, O'Hare, Palumbo, 1998), or both. While slightly out of date, a 35 report that "in 1988, average total costs per visitor (including space rental, construction costs, freight, booth personal travel, living expenses, and salaries) were $133, still less than half the cost of a personal sales call" (Herbig, O'Hare & Palumbo, 1998, 425) is one example of the transaction cost reduction achieved at a trade show. This cost reduction occurs because the clustering of everything in one search area (Boggs, 2005) allows people who are comparing purchasing options to get a feel for the market (Borghini,

Golfetto & Rinallo, 2006). Trade shows also communicate more subtle things such as an understanding of the industry marketplace by "[making] the relative position of exhibiting companies directly visible to the trained eye" (Skov, 2006, 768). The ability to meet and interact with multiple clients while reading and understanding the marketplace gives businesses attending a show a cost effective knowledge of their market.

To be effective at reducing transaction costs, trade shows need to reach a critical mass. This requires both a large industry presence and a regularity of show. Size is a very big factor for trade shows to be effective because the larger an event the more self reinforcing it is; shows need big players to be successful (Ling-yee, 2008). There is some concern that by growing very big an event will become too unwieldy to be successful

(Boggs, 2005), although the success of ever bigger shows seems to point to mega shows being more effective, especially considering that "for exhibitors and show interested in attracting repeat attendees, the most critical concern would be participation in and development of the shows where major industry trend setters are in attendance"(Ling-yee, 2008, pg 44). Even if large shows become unwieldy for business,

36 the simple need to attend the biggest show just to be seen increases the shows clout and popularity.

Along with size comes regularity. There is also a ritualistic component which justifies both attending and the times at which the show is held. By repeatedly attending, and being seen, one's position and value in the marketplace and trustworthiness of services can be judged. Having a set and recurring time for a show is valuable both because it allows people to plan for the next show and because it usually coincides with some industry schedule, such as the release of new fashion lines (Borghini, 2006; Skov,

2006). By lining up the timing of events to industry cycles (one thinks of the spring

"boat show", the early winter "ski show", and the late winter "agricultural fair") practical deal-making is reinforced by seasonal cultural and economic needs.

Business literature proposes various metrics for analysing the value of corporate trade show attendance. Li Ling-yee (2008, 38) proposes that "the effects of resources on achievement of selling [and non selling] objectives of trade shows" are based on pre- show promotion, presentation at the show, and post-show follow-up. After extensive survey it appears that pre-show promotion is most important for non-sales activities and post-show follow-up maximises return on sales goals. Herbig, O'Hare, and Palumbo

(1998) sent a quantitative questionnaire about trade show efficiency to businesses asking how they used trade shows to maximise business leads. Jim Blythe measures the efficiency of using trade shows for key account management -"a customer in a business- to-business market identified by a selling company as being of strategic importance"

(Blyth, 2002). 37 Business literature is not blind to the non-sales values of a trade show. In fact one paper notes that "although trade show marketing involves a multistage selling process, few managers promote and reward achievements in important intermediary processes and attain the kind of important intermediate outcomes they need to attain ultimate trade show performance goals"(Ling-yee, 2008, 44).

The following social science literature focuses on the trade show as a place where cultural ideas are created, social norms are enacted and challenged, and other non­ business activities occur and are valued.

The social science perspective

The second set of literature on contemporary trade shows, social science theorizing, is much more focused on the creation of imagery, space, and the social normalization trade shows create. These tend to do this by exploring the socially constructed nature of businesses such as fashion culture and the family friendly "real

American farmer" image of county fairs (Penaloza, 2000). This reasoning tends to view trade shows as cultural events. Their interests are not confined to business practices and the efficiency of transactions.

The one area where questions of business practice play a leading role for social scientists is in cluster theory, a theory often used to understand trade shows. Trade shows provide soft transmission which is not directly, or sometimes even indirectly, related to sales. This has been captured by Harold Bathelt's theory of Buzz (Bathelt & Nina

2008A). Social scientists also explore how, beyond just communication of business,

38 cultures of consumption are developed and related to trade shows. There are also a few research articles coming out which are beginning to combine performance with trade shows, as this paper does. Most of these appear in marketing journals and act almost as a between neoclassical economic and modernist performance theorizing.

Clusters

Cluster literature focuses on why co-locating is such a good idea for firms, despite there being a risk of competitors cannibalizing sales and stealing employees. Trade shows have a similar problem. Presenters are in effect bringing all their secrets to one convenient location for their competitors to snoop around. However the benefits of both permanent clustering by locating next to another competing firm, and temporary clustering by attending a trade show must outweigh the disadvantages as the evidence indicates that many industries do cluster. For economic geographers trade shows and industrial clusters go hand in hand, "temporary and permanent clusters are a bit like

"close cousins"(Maskell, Bathelt & Malmberg, 2006, pg 1008).

Cluster research has come up with a few reasons for co-locating including the sharing of capital goods and common suppliers, the development of pools of skilled labour, and access to cities. While these could be seen to indirectly apply to trade shows, the social network model provides a much closer description of the advantages offered by clusters and trade shows by arguing that the trust generated by close proximity reduces transaction costs (McCann & Sheppard, 2003). Harold Hotelling (1929) in early cluster research proposed that companies want to be both near customers and competition

39 because by locating close to competitors they could steal some of their customers. In a similar fashion, by not attending a trade show a company risks letting their competitors monopolise a sales region, albeit a temporary one.

Geographers writing about trade shows note many similarities between clusters and trade shows (Maskell, Bathelt & Malmberg, 2006). Trade shows facilitate access to distant knowledge, the ability to build interfirm relationships and they even help bring multiple clusters together (Maskell, Bathelt & Malmberg, 2004 & 2006). Jeffrey Boggs

(2005) looks at the Frankfurt book fair and how the co-location of so many and authors allows buyers a much broader search area. Glen Norcliffe and Olivero Rendace

(2003) found that comic book writers and artists were able to live and work quite far apart but still gain the advantages of clustering by attending various trade shows and comic book events throughout the year. All of these advantages are the result of agglomerating around an event and space temporarily instead of clustering permanently.

Formation of culture

The concept of spectacle, as developed by the French theorist Guy Debord (1983), refers to a society organized around the production and consumption of images and staged events. (Rinallo & Golfetto, 2006, 858)

Bicycles do not come together naturally to create a bicycle themed space.

Performances are specially constructed and regulated to create desired images of bicycles and of their use. The trade show helps to construct/shape these images by creating a performance space where a certain culture can be manifested and promoted. Social

40 scientists often see the formation of culture at trade shows as a tool to affect people's reactions to a product, place, service, action, or thing.

The competitive pressures of a global economy and a growing segmentation of mass markets have made aesthetic innovation the new mantra of late capitalism and, consequently, a new focus in the fields of management, business and economic geography... These new studies are centred on the increasing convergence between culture and the economy, as the "symbolic" attributes of goods and services are now deemed key elements of productive strategy. The competitive nature of such goods and services (or "cultural products"), it is argued, flows from their ability to entertain, provide a form of social identity, or confer status, over and above their utilitarian value. (Rantisi, 2004, pg 91)

The definition of objects is becoming detached from their actual utility and increasingly influenced by exogenous forces, including trade shows. Pine and Gilmore (1999) argue this is the newest kind of business, the experience business. The bicycle trade show helps to shape the overall understanding of the bicycle industry. As well, the culture of the region, Taiwan in this case, and global bicycle culture is affected. This assumed influence of the trade show raises an interesting question: to what extent does society shape understandings of the bicycle, or does the bicycle's inherent technology define how it is interpreted?

Pine and Gilmore (1999) describe the experience of businesses at the latest stage of development, following the eras of agrarian, industrial and service industries.

Performance has become the actual value because companies are selling the feeling of the experience. This is a business where value is created from branding, as with a trade show. Buzz, the excitement and interaction, is one manifestation of an experience

41 economy. The buzz, or the memory of the buzz, is what remains in the participant's mind.

The term "buzz", proposed by Harold Bathelt, encapsulates a large portion of the value of trade shows. This is the sort of experience which trade shows implant in the minds of attendees.

Trade shows transmit buzz - that nascent hard to pin down excitement that is generated by a combination of the senses, tacit exploration, and combined group observation - to generate around your product or service (Bathelt, 2008A)

This idea of buzz explains a whole range of motivations for participating in an event.

Buzz is generated not just around the product on display or the company but also the industry, region, and any other activities linked to the show. This makes it a very useful concept for understanding the show as a performed entity.

This sense of excitement comes from several sources. For sellers and their staff it is a break from routine work, a time to show off new designs and technologies developed over what may have been a long period, a chance to meet colleagues and friends, and an opportunity to observe what rival makers are doing. For buyers, there is, once again, the excitement of working temporarily in an exotic setting, the chance to re-unite with friends and associates, and the possibility of encountering a useful innovation with the potential to raise corporate profits. Of course, buzz is also generated by the opportunity for many types of meetings. Meetings are not just points of contact they also produce buzz such that every event is enhanced and reinforced by it.

42 As a cultural commodity, bicycles carry a certain status for the user, a status which is constructed via popular and shared conceptions created at, among other places, trade shows (Skov, 2006; Penaloza, 2000). This construction is not homogeneous across space or time. In America the bicycle is largely a recreational vehicle, whereas the Dutch consider bicycles a personal transit system and, although being replaced by the motorcycle and car, it is an essential transportation tool in countries such as India and

China. Interestingly, in rich countries the bicycle is normally considered to be a source of recreation or entertainment, and much more rarely as a transportation mode. The negative stigma towards using a bicycle for daily transportation, as opposed to recreation, appears to be culturally ubiquitous as industrializing countries, such as China, are finding cyclists changing to E-bikes, scooters and cars as soon as they can afford to. This understanding of the bicycle for recreation not transportation has deep ramifications on the trade shows organization and execution.

The idea of a bicycle as a or leisure device comes from a combination of social and practical forces (few people ride a bicycle in snowy winters). The trade show is one location where the social forces come together to conceptualize a commodity.

Everything we interact with in society is at some level influenced and conceptualized through our cultural understanding of it. Lisa Penaloze discusses how American Farm exhibitions are a venue where cultural understandings about beef are created. According to Penaloze "the trade show ... is a marketplace characterized by marketers' and consumers' joint cultural production." (Penaloze, 2000, pg 84). By creating images of family values around meat production and consumption (an imagery which many 43 consumers are very willing to accept and propagate), the beef industry trade show promotes the acceptance of beef. This is one way that a cultural reading of a product- brand is created and reinforced via the show.

In addition to cultural norms being created about products, such as beef as a traditional family food, norms are also generated around social interactions. For example, Gregson and Rose (2000) describe the processes and social performances at a car boot sale. There they saw the performed roles of men and women where, for fun, people took on the roles of shopkeeper, mechanic, and so on. This was an opportunity for the participants to act out roles that were not traditionally open to them, such as salesman, as well as reinforce traditional gender and macho male mechanical ideals.

Most trade shows are also trying to create authenticity (Jones et al, 2005), either by fitting the product into accepted social norms, or by parodying them to create a new cultural object. This process is different from the manufacturing process but equally important in creating a sellable good which is accepted by society.

The marketing literature is currently one of the areas closest to bringing together perspectives on trade shows and performance by often situating research on trade shows at the crossroads between performance, business and social science research. Of particular interest are research projects which examine fashion trade shows and their performance, a setting which has provided most of the context for theorizing the combination of performance and trade show.

Fashion trade shows, which receive significant attention from marketers (Rinallo,

Golfetto, 2006; Skov 2006) are often studied using elements of performance (Swedberg, 44 2006; Entwistle, 2006). This is not surprising because fashion is a very susceptible to cultural interpretation and performance, unlike say ice cream making machines. While fashion trade shows go against the thinking of Herbig, O'Hare and Palumbo (1997) who argue that large capital goods are the best products to display at trade shows, because it is hard to bring large machinery on a sales call, wholesale fashion is often displayed in large line-ups and with models which makes it hard to transport to buyers. Therefore difficult to transport items, or those which require large amounts of display to back up their cultural credentials, which need to be observed while being performed, also benefit from the display opportunity of trade shows.

The region is very important for trade shows. While the trade shows that Andre

Allix drew from in the 1920s may well have been separate from the region in which they were located, today many trade shows draw upon the region both purposefully and by their very existence. Both the event and the location may embed culture into the product

Place, community and the cultural economy are thus often closely interconnected. For this reason, many kinds of outputs are indelibly associated in the mind of the discriminating consumer with particular locales. Theater in London, Parisian haute couture or furniture from Italy all illustrate this reputation effect. As Molotch (1996) has argued, place endows products with a guarantee, somewhat akin to the accumulated symbolic value of the fashion designer's label (Bourdieu and Delsaut, 1975), and thus is the source of location- specific rents. (Scott, 1999, 810)

This obviously applies much more to products like theatre and high culture where the reputation of the location is quite strong. However there is ample evidence that Taiwan is creating name recognition as a region for bicycle production.

45 As well as affecting the trade show, the trade show affects the location it inhabits.

As localized events, trade shows play an intricate part in the definition of a place. This effect is amplified when a small city, such as Friedrichshafen - the town which hosts

Eurobike - has a major international trade show complex. Quite often trade shows provide some interesting and fun side activities or spin-offs, including product testing days, concerts, entertainment and other events which both trade show participants and local residents may attend. For instance, more than a century ago we find the following observation on an early bicycle show which combines a business event with a separate musical event:

We think the club have done wisely in, this year, abandoning the mixing of a concert with what has now become a very successful, but at the same time very business affair. The visitors, however, will not be without enlivenment, for the band of the Hertfordshire Yeomanry have been engaged to play each evening (The Cyclist Vol 1 (16), 4 Feb 1880, p. 163. This quote refers to the Stanley Show, the main bicycle show in the UK in the late Victorian era).

After-hours parties are where a lot of the interacting and cultural creation takes place at trade shows. The Eurobike after party was considered, by Friedrichshafen residents, as about the only party that you could go to at night.

The idea of a trade show as a place to elicit a cultural response to an object or process raises an interesting question. Does culture influence trade shows, or do trade shows create culture? This duality between the construction and the reflection of culture has been recognized by many authors writing about the creation and consumption of culture (Walden, 1997; Rinallo & Golfetto, 2006; Dittrich, Van der Valk & Wynstra,

2006). 46 The relationship between market representations and actual markets in a postmodern world is reversed: it is the market that adjusts to representations and not vice versa (Rinallo & Golfetto, 2006, 857)

This would seem to imply that the existence of a trade show is actually influencing people and creating a reality that would not exist without it. Even in 1922 Allix notes the artificiality of the trade show, pointing out how "the sample fair is a creation of today and in some measure artificial" (Allix, 1922, 532). This raises a broader question about the creation of perception. While there are numerous ways to influence perception, for example with branding, and many different perspectives this paper will briefly review two opinions on the overall production and perception of modern reality.

The interpretation of the world around us, argue John Berger and Jean

Baudrillard, is shaped by our own position and cultural identity. In 1972 John Berger produced, with the BBC, the series "Ways of Seeing". It was a response to the classical interpretation of Western culture and encouraged viewers to explore both the images and objects that shape their perception of reality, and the way their positionality influences how they see objects. About a decade later the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard wrote Simulacra and Simulation (English edition, 1994; French edition 1981) which takes an extreme view of society and the simulation of reality we have created around ourselves. The disconnection of humanity from reality is complete. The Simulacra, the signs and media that have become prevalent since the industrial revolution, and ubiquitous in the information age, have created a completely simulated reality.

According to Baudrillard the industrialization of images and objects has driven our

47 society into a simulation of reality. For Baudrillard the simulacra, representation of reality, present at trade shows create reality instead of reflecting it.

Both writers describe society's contemporary approach to perceptions and reality which use modern beliefs to shape our interpretations, and examine, especially in the case of Baudrillard, how these images and ideas may supersede or re-define reality. John

Berger talks about the way that society interacts with stimuli, notably art and advertising, which drives perceptions of reality. First and foremost, we are now endlessly exposed to images of reality that render the original opaque, or re-present it in dramatically different ways. Our senses are being bombarded with so much imagery that we begin to perceive the images as reality. From this comes the argument that there is not a fixed reality -just one perception replaced by another.

Visualizing reality shapes the approach used to understand the performance of a trade show. It is probably no accident that the introduction of samples in 1897 almost perfectly coincides with Baudrillard's proposition that by the dawn of the twentieth century the industrial revolution was creating mass production of simulacra. A sample meant that a product no longer had to be real; at the trade show the simulacra of it were traded.

These two writers are asking how technology, via the mechanical reproduction of reality using tools like the camera and photocopier, has sped up the cultural re-creation of reality. Other writers, such as Naomi Klein (2000), look at how branding shapes perception. By seeing branding as one type of performance a whole world of performance which communicates a reality to consumers becomes apparent. Then as a 48 process for shaping reality a trade show can be best understood as a performance that re­ presents reality in order to pursue the goals of its organizers, promoting the reality most favourable to themselves.

By producing and distributing ideas, the trade show plays a dual role in shaping society. Events such as county fairs teach people about farming life and influence their perception and understanding of life (Penaloze, 2000). The same can be said for fashion trade shows (Swedberg, 2006; Entwistle, 2006; Rantisi, 2002) and bicycle shows. The performance of the BMX bike at trade shows, for example, encourages young enthusiasts to take it off the street and into hardcore freestyle riding on ramps. Of course, the demands and whims of society also influence the way a trade show is presented and the way it is represented to society.

By co-locating, even temporarily at a trade show, industries can gain efficiencies of scale, faster knowledge transfer, skill development, and other tacit as well as tangible benefits. The modern trade show provides an invaluable communication and filtering service to industry. As these events grow larger they become more encompassing and become ends in themselves, almost forcing people to attend just for the sake of being seen in attendance.

Agency of actors at trade shows

Probably the most important role of the modern manufacturer trade show is the creation of culture. The show is inexorably linked with both the culture of business - including networking, developing clusters, reducing transaction cost through trust, the

49 issues raised in the business subsection- and the culture of the products being sold -as for example Penaloze (2000) argues for with the beef industry. Along with creating meaning trade shows also act as gatekeepers by holding, and regulating access to a product.

Whoever controls the management and location of the show can generally dictate booth location, rental costs, and the credentials required for attendance. Of course trade shows also have to respond and to a certain extent reflect exogenous demands; this creation and response to the culture of the commodity is the duality of cultural creation.

The limit to this understanding of a trade show is that it fails to grant agency to the people at the trade show. Nigel Thrift (2003) describes the neo-classical/neo-Marxist divide between business and the social sciences. These two fields consider the consumer to be a specific and bounded entity driven either by perfect rationalization in the neo­ classical model or shackled by mindless commodity fetishization in the neo-Marxist model. In other words

In neo-classical economics, the consumer is assumed to be a rational actor choosing between preferences with a known information structure. In social and cultural theory, the consumer is a cipher lost in the abstract imaginings of sociological categorizations and oppressed by commodity fetishism (Thrift, 2003, pg 696)

Either of these approaches externalizes the motivation and actions of the event participants, removing their agency, their independent control over their actions when in fact "consumers are remarkably rarely superficial or passive" (Thrift, 2003, 697). Thrift argues that using a performative framework will help researchers move away from the representational form that these studies take and allow a more holistic exploration of an issue by recognizing that actors have agency over their actions. 50 Denying agents control over their actions removes a large amount of the texture and depth of the trade show. Any analysis without agency describes a mechanical and predictable process, reducing the event to its applied aspects such as management techniques. This clashes with the reality of the myriad of performances which the various actors put on, and results in an imperfect understanding. The actors attending the event are often quite aware of their position, cognisant and active creators of the various performances they are undertaking. The goal of bringing performance into the analysis is not to easily categorize elements of the trade show, but to explore the entire process and reveal vignettes of the different actors' motivations.

The next section adds the concepts of performance to the toolkit used to unpack the Taipei Cycle trade show. It should be noted that some of the preceding work does indeed use parts of performance and is even quoted in the next section. I am not trying to undervalue these author's contributions, rather I feel that none used exclusively or even overtly a performative framework to examine trade shows.

Performance

Global industries, of their very nature, need to communicate and make contacts internationally. One way to accommodate this need is by participating in trade shows which help strengthen the managerial decision making process and build personal relationships which help establish and support global supply chains. Presenting the trade show as a performance with practical relationships and interactions amongst products, people, and ideas is understandable. In the words of Nigel Thrift:

51 The metaphor of performance takes interest away from studying the symbolic aspects of social practices, and shifts attention to the meaning of the processes of practice Thrift 2003, pg 226

What follows is an introduction to the multifaceted approach to performance, one which will draw strongly on Nigel Thrift's work (Thrift, 1999, 2000, 2003; Thrift, Dewsbury,

2000).

Nigel Thrift uses the concepts of performance in his "non-representational" theory

(Thrift, 1999, Dewsbury, 2000, Thrift & Dewsbury, 2000). He explores practices which are enacted and performed; restricting research to examining empirical social relationships, he argues, limits social science understandings. His approach goes beyond merely representation by exploring the practices which create reality. These ideas on perception and the creation of reality are similar to the work of Jean Baudrillard

(Baudrillard, 1994; Smith, 2003) and John Berger (Berger,1972). Using performance to explore the bicycle trade show will help to elucidate the practices undertaken and the process by which they support/create the bicycle industry and its popular conceptualization.

Nigel Thrift (Thrift, 2003) outlines the key elements of performance theorizing.

His key concept is that information travels via paths, face to face, or other communication methods; it is not ubiquitous. The second element is that consumers are real entities and not driven purely by commodity fetishization or perfectly rational buying as post-modernist and neo-classicalists often frame them. Thrift proposes performance as a way to bring the best of all worlds together. By seeing the numerous individual

52 performances at an event the elements of fetishization, aspects of rational purchasing decisions, and other things can be described.

Nigel Thrift describes four branches or types of performance and how these came about and can be used (1999). The first is symbolic inter actionism, theorized by Erving

Goffman in the 1960s. It examines how people interact in a close, interactive environment. The second is a broader sociological definition which argues that performances are part of all modern societies. The third, contemporary cultural theory, examines the agency and control that repeat performances create on the mind and body.

Fourth is the dramaturgical framework, imported directly from theatrical critique, which frames and explores dance, theatre, and other performance arts. This final framework can be used with great effect to explore activities beyond just the arts.

The theoretical study of performance and social interaction, though not the complete methodology, was initiated by Erving Goffman (Sharrock, 1999). Goffman argued that performance, which had previously been treated as something outside normal life and confined to the stage, was in fact woven into daily life in an on-going way: as humans we are performing much of the time. It should be noted, however, that even

Goffman used the concept of "all the world's a stage" in a metaphorical and not in a literal sense. His theorizing began with a study of small town social interactions and exclusion politics and then continued into groundbreaking work on patients' responses to social interaction in asylums. In his work Goffman was most concerned with identifying different social interaction patterns and not with formulating concrete methodologies

(Smith, 1999; Sharrock, 1999). This allowed his contemporaries to develop different 53 methodological frameworks to use with their material research developing such fields as ethnomethodology (Sharrock, 1999). Goffman's work, such as his research on interaction between psychiatric patients, focused on close proximity interactions and one- on-one communication.

Contemporary critics of Goffman argue that he lacked a solid developed theoretical for ethnomethodology which led to a romanticized interpretation about interaction rather than an objective and critical review (Smith, 1999). This has resulted in an expansion of the theory of performance to include elements of performativity. This is understood as the constraints and controls on performance which are enacted on the body to regulate the performance and include, for example, gender roles. Do women wear a mask by conforming to social norms or does the performance of their gender become who they are (Gregson & Rose, 2000)? In this case Gregson and Rose are extending

Goffman's research and asking questions about the normalization of traditional social constructions. Goffman was not interested in challenging the way social constructions are formed and only wanted to explore an understanding of how interactions are performed (Sharrock, 1999).

Nigel Thrift (1999) describes these four branches of performance, Goffman's symbolic interactionism, a broader sociological definition, contemporary cultural theory, and dramaturgical framework, and provides a very good starting point for geographers.

However no study of performance would be complete without an examination of theatrical performance, where the study of performance began.

54 Victor Turner, an anthropologist-ethnographer who studied African tribesmen for years turned to theatrical performance because it provided a more complete way to understand tribal communities. Measuring the size of the houses, the cost of brides, and other discrete information did tell useful things about the basic structure of society but it missed the deeper reason d'etre. Therefore "through the performance process itself, what is normally sealed up, inaccessible to everyday observation and reasoning ... is drawn forth"(Turner, 1983, pg 13). Performance is the completion of the action. "To perform is

... to complete a more or less involved process rather than to do a single deed or act. To perform ethnography, then, is to bring the data home to us in their fullness, in the plenitude of their action-meaning"(Turner, 1982, pg 91). This type of performance was applied by Turner to transformative cultural events such as weddings or coming of age ceremonies which are all specially staged theatrical events. Richard Schechner provides some perspective on a broader reading of the theatrical perspective on performance.

Richard Schechner, one of the founders of the Performance Studies Department at NYU, identifies eight kinds of performance: in everyday life, in the arts, in sports and other popular , in business, in technology, in sex, in ritual, and in play

(Schechner, 2006, pg 31). These have the following seven purposes: to entertain, to make something beautiful, creating and shaping identity, creating community, healing, teaching or persuading, to deal with the sacred or demonic (Schechner, 2006, pg 46). For this study everyday life and business/technology aspects of performance are the most relevant. The goal is creating identity, a community, and teaching about bicycles.

55 Richard Scheduler also describes the types of people who study performance. He writes that

Performance takes actions very seriously in four ways. First, behaviour is the object of study ... Second, artistic practice is a big part of [performance studies] ... Third, fieldwork as 'participant observation' is a much prized method adapted from anthropology ... Fourth, it follows that performance studies is actively involved in social practices and advocacies Schechner, 2006, pg 1

These four points of theatrical performance study also apply to a range of ethnographic and other performance studies.

First, performance research extensively uses observation and critiquing of behaviour and actions. This does not preclude photographic, archival, textual, and other evidence but the key gaze is people and their actions. This means constantly placing oneself, as the researcher, into the action and describing the personal perception and feelings. While describing retail environments Maurya Wickstrom is constantly reiterating how the sound, lights, even desire to taste, drives her reaction to the various environments she encounters (Wickstrom, 2006).

Second, performance studies scholars are also usually active artistically in their own ways, and for Scheduler this is an integral part of performance studies. Being actively involved in the performance of the object of study is almost essential so the researcher can understand the environment they are placed in. This allows the access and the insightful gaze provided by a participant. Philip Crang describes the creation and experience of a service staffs environment which would have been impossible had he not actually participation in its creation (Crang 1994).

56 Third, for performance studies participant observation is not that of the other, an abstracted and distanced figure. By recognizing the performative nature of all of society it is possible to look within the culture of the researcher or even at the performance of oneself. This recognizes that the social situation, which reflects our understanding of knowledge, is not fixed but rather a rehearsed process to create a specific goal.

Scheduler's final point about practitioners of performance studies is really a subset of this third one; he suggests that exploring the creation of performance around oneself tends to result in social advocacy tendencies. This is because the involvement raises awareness of the social situation the researcher lives in.

The following books by Marvin Carlson(1989) and Maurya Wickstrom (2006) describe the physical spaces of theatre and the theatrical construction of experience shopping. These theatrical examinations of performance are then followed by a few contemporary examples of performance being applied to trade exhibitions and similar social interactions.

Marvin Carlson describes the physical construction of theatres and performance spaces over time. The study of performance spaces has to begin with the broadest understanding of space, the regional setting of the theatre. In other words the event space exists in a surrounding cultural region. Turner argues that physical limitations in early times and then historical legacy about the location of performance spaces shaped their development. The Greeks built amphitheatres into the side of hills. In fact this did not prove to be a huge hindrance because usually the acropolis sat atop a large hill meaning that most Greek cities were centred around a fairly suitable spot for a theatre. The 57 Romans had the technology to build theatres anywhere but they still tended to agglomerate around an entertainment district near the central nexus of the city. In the medieval times parades, festivals and grand marches slowly moved into dedicated theatres, spaces which incorporated the feel and style of the village square.

The meaning of the plays and productions performed inside these various space derive their meaning from a combination of historical precedents and the content of the actual performance. A French aristocrat entering the theatre at the Louvre in the 18th century would understand the space very different than a modern interloper.

Maurya Wickstrom(2006) is also addressing performance in spaces but these are not traditional theatrical spaces but rather retail environments. She describes the branded superstores of large American fashion and entertainment companies as locations of willing creation of mimetic performances - mimetic in the sense that the consumer wishes to place themselves into the world created by the brand, be it a millionaire living in the

Ralph Loren mansion or a mermaid frolicking in the fantasy world of Disney. This follows in the theme of Carlson's work, describing the production of meaning through the spaces and the actions which go on inside those spaces.

What makes Wickstrom's work especially relevant to the performance of bicycle trade is the recognition that the participants are willingly interested in creating a performed space. Everyone follows a mutually agreed upon script both by their own choice and because there are staff there ready to eject anyone who does not respect the unwritten rules of the environment. At the bicycle trade show there are many different performances playing out, such as business formalities, which are guided by very similar 58 interests, the creation of a performed space helps everyone get the value out they want.

Be it thinking they have magical powers, are fabulously wealthy, or wish to get across information on bicycles. The performance is value adding.

Lisa Skov (2006), writing on the fashion show, explores how the trade show deconstructs the outside world by creating a neutral international trade space, and then reconstructs a world of fashion. Philip Crang (1994) describes the experience of performing the role of "server" at a family restaurant. He juxtaposes the rigidly prescribed performance and scripted customer interaction, with the reality which appears to be free spirited and script free. Norcliffe and Rendace (2003) describe the world's largest comic book convention, Comic-Con, held since 1970 in San Diego, where many of the participants arrive dressed to perform the role of their favourite comic book hero or anti-hero. Gregson and Rose's interpret a car boot sale through performance (Gregson and Rose, 2000). At these events they see performance constructing certain types of interaction and also stereotypical gender roles enacted. Finally, as mentioned before,

Lisa Penaloze (2000) writes about the performance of family values at the farm fair.

One of the more technical examples of performance being used to describe a business interaction comes from Risto Moisio (2005) who uses the dramaturgical framework to determine how best to sell products. By framing interaction around product selling and customer interaction he explores the setting, the role of the actor- consumer, and how the dramatic performance customers experience can be maximised to entice them to buy. He breaks the shopping experience down, to facilitate it being researched, into dramatic structure, interaction and content. 59 To push the dramaturgical framework further [there are] conceptual distinctions between drama structure, drama interaction and drama content. These conceptual distinctions enable marketing researchers to distinguish between the formal components of drama (drama structure), the narrative resources that organize performances in shopping contexts (drama content) and the active role that consumers can take in drama performances (drama interaction) (Moisio, 2005, pg 247)

Moisio has taken one approach to sketching out the components of performance so they can be applied to market research. This allows marketers to describe the dramatic interaction between customers and shopping experiences and therefore respond accordingly to maximise sales.

This paper draws upon three of the categories of performance that Richard

Scheduler describes: in everyday life, in business, and in technology (Schechner, 2006, pg 31). This is not the performance of sensational and life changing transformations that tribal societies use to welcome new members or punish miscreants (Turner, 1982) but rather the creation of mimetic performances, the willingness to create the simulation of the world which is most useful for all the participants involved in its creation

(Wickstrom, 2006).

This type of performance involves looking at the meaning of social practices and why they are executed as they are. This reduces the tendency to presuppose that agents have exogenous forces, such as perfect knowledge or blind demand for consumption, influencing their actions. Rather the performed environment they exist in is created and creates their decisions, but it does so with the agents' knowledge that to some extent they are creating their own perspective. 60 There are many more levels of performance at a trade show than in one shopping experience. For example customers are not oblivious to performance and the way that the performance is interpreted by participant observers creates meaning about the product. Therefore, as Lisa Skov argues, the manner in which fashion, and the performance of the fashion, is interpreted at an event is paramount for its success (Skov,

2006). Bicycle trade shows are no different. To understand a broader spectrum of performances a less targeted approach to performance is used in this paper.

This study will draw on many elements of the dramaturgical frameworks of

Goffman, Thrift, Moisio, and others to explore the interactions and engagements between the actors of the trade show. It is concerned with the performed gender roles, such as the use of the body in attracting clients to the booth, but it is also equally interested in the layout and design of the stage and the reflection of the purpose which it serves.

Additionally, how do people interact with the performances? Many of the questions that previous writers on performance have come up, including the gender of employees and its relation to the product or service being offered, the degree of employee participation in the activity which they are performing, the way a product, brand, or style is showcased and the scripting of the presentation will all be examined.

This paper also takes a broader approach by recognizing, as Marvin Carlson does, that the staging outside the theatre itself is also very relevant to the construction of the performance. There are additional performances outside the bicycle industry proper, such as the appearance made by the president of Taiwan, and the conspicuous absence of the word "China" which also play an important role in the trade show. These 61 performances raise questions about how they influence the trading of bicycles, and how they are they related to the show.

Conclusion

Several different approaches have been used to understand the trade show. Some work tries to identify ways to maximize sales conversions; others are interested in the gender identities and the embedding of meaning into commodities. There are also, especially in the marketing literature, studies which consider the performance of sales and branding at trade shows. Overall however these events have proved to be difficult to categorize or quantify. There is certainly no doubt that trade shows play some role in creating cultural commodities and dictating how people interact with them. By operating these events, trade promoters can have a significant say in the direction of development in an industry.

The second part of this section argues for the insertion of agency and a broader understanding of people's motivations. Performance, studying the meaning of the process, acknowledges the self-direction of the actors and sees their actions as a combination of many motivations. How, for example, a server creates a setting by the way he serves the food or as a future example will show the meaning that a set of flowers confers when placed beside a booth.

Overall the importance of this research is the understanding that performance creates value for the participants. The mimetic performance at retail shops allows

62 consumers to engage in escapism while at trade shows the beef industry can elicit the emotional reaction of wholesome family values around their product.

The performance of Taipei Cycle has both regional development and local firm goals. The Taiwanese government constructs a performance as a regional development event designed to develop a national brand and reputation in the international marketplace. It also provides a business-marketing platform where the cultural creation of a bicycle can be formed and the dissemination of bicycle information undertaken.

63 CHAPTER 4

METHODOLOGY

Methodologically, viewing the trade show as a performance presents some challenges. As an under-theorized topic there are no shoulders of giants to stand on.

This challenge is also a result of the large number of things including branding, sales, networking, meetings, entertainment, and research that are being performed at a trade show. In addition, the most common forms of field work based on questionnaires or formal structured interviews are not possible because respondents have neither the inclination, nor are many willing to participate due to the importance they attach to proprietary knowledge and trading relations. Very few had time available, and if they were willing to start a formal interview, it would be interrupted very quickly by the arrival of one customer - and then another. Focus groups were out of the question since our time was brief- as was the time available to trade show participants. In this research, information gathering at Taipei Cycle required a more resourceful approach, known as the investigative genre. This involves, among other things, short very focussed interviews at whatever times work for the interviewee, observation of people and places, collection of brochures and other technical information, photography and other visual evidence, casual conversations, and even overheard conversations in which the researcher does not participate. These all provide fragments that need to be woven together. By

64 seeing the trade show as a performed cultural activity, the investigative approach is useful because rigidly scheduled interviews are not possible in such a dynamic space as a trade show.

The methodology section begins with an explanation of the investigative approach and thick description, which guided and shaped the information gathering stage of this research. The approach to performance research that drives this thesis is then described.

Following this theoretical-methodological conceptualizing, the practical realities of interviewing and observing the Taipei Cycle trade show are addressed.

Methodological approach

The bicycle trade show is more than back office activities and dirty factories being hidden, more than dollars and cents being traded, and more than the sum of the contracts signed. The many levels and layers of the bicycle trade show include political, business, social and other forces combining to create a myriad of experiences. Bicycles may be tested not necessarily with an intent to buy but rather to understand trends.

Traveling to a trade show allows new cities to be explored and new ways to use bicycles observed. This is an intensely complicated event making it quite challenging to unpack.

Researching a bicycle trade show is also a challenge for two academic reasons.

First, both the bicycle industry and the trade fair are under-theorized by academia. And second, there are few precedents for an approach using performance. This makes research more difficult because there is no rigid formula to follow, meaning research tactics have to be made up on the fly.

65 Bordessa and Cameron (1980) proposed importing what they termed an investigative approach into academia as a method for social scientists in settings where formal approaches will not work, and only fleeting opportunities are available to talk with participants. This involves short interviews with key people, chasing leads from one contact to another, collecting relevant printed information, using photos and videos, overhearing conversations in public spaces, and casual conversations both at the show and in other locations all help build up a picture of the trade show and its performance.

Notes are often made after an interview rather than during it, either because there is no time, or because the interviewee prefers it be done that way. Due to the previously outlined difficulties of collecting data at a trade show, instead of a detailed quantitative analysis of secondary data, or lengthy questionnaires or interviews, eclectic data and experiences from the trade show are gathered and analysed.

This approach, which draws conclusions from scattered and small data sets and diverse nuggets of information, is exactly what the human mind is very good at doing and, not coincidently, how investigative journalists undertake their research.

Investigative journalists are very effective at getting to the bottom of issues because they use a wide variety of sources as well as following up on leads and digging up information anywhere they can. The ephemeral nature of the trade show, and its traditional penchant for journalistic style interviews, fits very well with the flexible investigative approach.

Certain situations, such as trade shows, are not well suited to the slower and more meticulous methods of conventional social science.

66 The investigative approach meshes very well with thick description (Geertz,

1973). Thick description involves not only repetitively observing and recording a phenomenon but also exploring the meaning behind it: what kind of phenomenon was it, and did it transmit a message? Clifford Geertz (1973) uses the example of a little boy winking. A wink can transmit any number of subtle messages or simply be the result of clearing debris from the eye. Without the context and analysis provided by the researcher, the collection of facts and data alone says nothing (Thrift & Dewsbury, 2000).

The more diverse and extensive the evidence collected, the thicker the description of the event, and more likely that a reliable understanding of that event can be assembled.

Clifford Geertz (1973) introduced the idea of thick description to describe the ethnographic research of anthropologists. "In anthropology ... what the practitioners do is ethnography" writes Geertz (Martin, Mclntyre, 1994, pg 214). For him what is important is not the "techniques and relative procedures" but rather the intellectual effort which defines the enterprise (Martin, Mclntyre, 1994, pg 214). This intellectual effort involves the "detailed description of the complex web of social relations that constitute a culture"

(Martin, Mclntyre, 1994, pg 161). Interviews and observations by themselves are not the value of the undertaking. Rather the role in ethnography is to make sense of social and cultural actions by adding context and evaluation to the observations (Dewsbury, 2000).

This context and evaluation creates a thick description, where the objective is not simply to describe human actions but, by also describing the context in which those actions take place, to explain the broader meaning of them such that an outside observer can grasp their purpose. 67 The investigative approach of Bordessa and Cameron (1980) will therefore be implemented to develop a thick description of the activities of a trade show. This provides a broad reach to various aspects of the trade show without being hemmed in by specific metrics and provides a method to explore and contextualize the happenings.

Thick description proved successful at the Taipei International Cycle Show because people could be met at their convenience and were comfortable with casual interviews.

Broadly similar questions were put to diverse interviewees until the responses presented little new information, but were simply confirming responses previously heard. These contacts developed into informal and ongoing relationship which revealed interesting facts. For example one vendor was surprised to see me at Eurobike after seeing me at

Taipei Cycle because of how expensive he perceived Eurobike to be. That tells a lot about the local economy in Taiwan, and that the Taipei Cycle show is a significantly cheaper alternative for Taiwanese companies. This provided a much more complete picture of reality than had my contact simply said, as in a traditional interview, that

Eurobike is more expensive so Taiwanese makers do not usually go. People were also approached casually on the show floor to ask how their day was going and what they had seen. Observing people who were known to the researcher interacting with other attendees at the cycle show proved another valuable way to see participation in context.

In short, rather than attempting a standard interview questionnaire, which in any case proved to be infeasible, this experiential investigative approach provided the freedom to better understand the constructed reality.

68 Interviews and limitations

The field work for this project was undertaken at the 2008 Taipei Cycle show at the Taipei World Trade Centre Nangang Exhibition Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. Dozens of interviews were conducted with booth operators and during a visit to the bicycle manufacturing city of Taichung. Pre/follow-up interviews were conducted in Canada and elsewhere. From these experiences the following motivators for a bicycle trade show have been categorized.

Two long exploratory interviews conducted before the trade show helped frame expectations for the show. These interviews were taped and conducted on the interviewee's schedule so it was possible to talk for more than an hour. In Taiwan, before the trade show, there were also pre-show interviews. The Canadian trade consulate helped build contacts at TAITRA and TBEA and a chance meeting at the Taipei World

Trade Center's trade library with a gentleman in the bicycle industry for 27 years proved very informative. Traveling speculatively to Taichung, the industrial city where bicycle manufacture is centered, it was possible to tour the Cycle & Health Tech Industry R&D

Center (CHC) and talk with a few people at the city hall (this city hall trip proved almost useless as industrial development in Taiwan is a federal, not local, undertaking so they knew nothing of the bicycle industry).

To study the performance of Taipei Cycle 2008 a highly flexible observational and interview based approach had to be adopted. Each interview lasted from between a couple of minutes to about ten minutes, with 7 or 8 pages of notes being the most. While

69 in the interview scratch notes were written down and if there was time key questions were raised based on what the interviewee was discussing. After each interview additional notes were written down about the aesthetics and layout of the booth and the actions of people visiting it. Because very little was known about bicycle trade shows before going answers from the interviews helped shape the conversation for the next booth. For example one person at a high end carbon fibre firm noted that carbon fibre health and safety laws are significantly weaker in China meaning that almost all carbon fibre parts and bicycles are made there. Follow-up questions at other booths confirmed this fact and it was noted that firms presented themselves as Taiwanese though manufactured their carbon parts in China to get around regulation. This flexible approach to interviews meant that as interesting new topics of discussion came up they could be addressed in the very next interview, as opposed to having a strict scripted interview format to follow. There were also post interview meetings each evening between myself and fellow researcher Glen Norcliffe so that interesting topics of discussion that one of us came across could be brought to the attention of the other.

At the trade show, nineteen booths were interviewed and eight people attending were formally interviewed. These eight were there to present talks, receive awards, check out current trends, or find manufacturers to build their design. About half the interviews were one page of notes with the two longest being 5 pages (these two interviews were pre planned meetings at the booths where the owners were willing to talk for a while).

70 After the trade show all of the interviews were examined and, based on the five aspects of dramatic performance -stage, actors, audience, props, and script- relevant quotes and experiences were compiled. This field data was combined with the secondary literature review and from this, several conclusions were drawn.

Data collection at the show involved making observations, attending all the associated public events such as the technology competition mounted annually by

TAITRA, the Tour of Taiwan, the official opening by the then President of Taiwan, the display of trick riding, the cycle race held outside the Trade Centre, interviewing, photographing, watching, listening, and gathering promotional materials. These interviews and observations had two goals. The first was to determine the type of performances and the theatrical staging used to enact them. This part of the research was largely observational, supported with extensive photographic evidence. The second goal was to explore the goals of the participants by asking them questions about their performance at the trade show.

To explore the enactment of performance, numerous events were observed and recorded. Because the trade show was already full of observers including the press, , radio, and visitors who had many different goals, a researcher's presence was barely noticed and did not interrupt or change behaviour. Photography was permitted everywhere at the Taipei International Cycle Show, conversely at Eurobike at least three booths were noted to have "do not photograph" signs up. Overall there were no problems or issues while making passive observations.

71 At first, formal interviews were attempted with show staff to ascertain their goals and motives for attending the show. It quickly became apparent that a formal questionnaire could not be used because respondents were unwilling to spend the time answering a formal survey, and would abandon it if a customer came to the booth. It was also discovered early on that if they were presented with a multi-page questionnaire, potential interviewees would at once turn down requests for an interview fearing it would take too long. Conversely, if approached verbally they were excited to talk, and if distracted by a visitor would return to continue the interview. In fact many vendors seemed overjoyed to chat informally about the industry. In consequence, my questionnaire was quickly replaced with broad informal interviews following the same line of questions. These discussions lead into specific questions about how their company operates and presents itself. Because the formal questionnaire was not used notes were written down while the participants talked, and added to after the interview was completed. This turned out to be a very successful approach because people attending a trade show are often by nature chatty; a formal questionnaire proved to discourage this inclination to chat.

If the interviewee was enthusiastic the three broad questions were enlarged as follows:

1. Why are you here? - to sell / interest potential customers / monitor technical developments / see what competitors are doing?

2. What are you getting from the experience?

3. Where/ what/ how do you do business? 72 Such qualitative research is pursued until almost no new information is gained, and answers largely repeat points that have been discovered in previous conversations. When combined the interviews, observations, photos, and materials from a booth provided a thick description of the entire purpose and motivations of their actions and intentions. At the end of each night I and my supervisor, Glen Norcliffe, went over our notes with each other to compare impressions and help guide the next day's interviews.

Photography was a very important part of this process because so much information about the booths was contained in the images. These photographs of booths were taken after interviews so that a visual record of the things interviewees may have mentioned existed. These photos proved especially useful in the analysis of date because

I could review photos and see trends that I learned about or noticed later on. One example of this was that once I got back to Canada I noticed that many of the booths had flowers in front of them, the meaning of which I only learned on the last day.

These interviews were conducted with a few strategies designed to help focus the research. First, to ensure that my supervisor and myself did not accidentally approach the same vendor, the trade show was divided into two halves and interviews were conducted in each researcher's respective area. Second, by focusing on the organization of the bicycle fabrication industry, clothing and accessory makers (bells, lights, helmets, etc) were not approached for interviews. Third, the sampling method involved randomly approached booths which did not look busy at that moment. After introductions the vendors were asked to briefly discuss their firm's involvement in the bicycle industry.

Only rarely would attendees turn down this request for a conversational interview. 73 In addition to interviewing people at their booths, the social nature of a trade show provided many unique opportunities to conduct research. Many of the visitors and observers were more than willing to talk with us, and each other, about the bicycle industry and why they attended. Additional interviews and observations of actors at

Taipei Cycle were possible at the Taipei opening night party, the Beitou hot springs in

Taipei where several participants had gone to relax, in airport boarding areas, and even at

Eurobike where follow-up interviews were possible with attendees of both events.

As with all endeavours there were a few practical limits to the research programme, though these were not significant or debilitating to the overall project. The biggest hurdle was that many of the manufacturer shows were private "invite only" affairs and I was not one of the inner circle of invitees. The language of the bicycle trade is English and while communication at a few stalls was difficult due to language barriers, this was only a minor issue. Due to time constraints and lacking invitations, factory visits were not possible. These visits were held with potential buyers so that they could see the production process, and were thus limited to people who were seriously interested in purchasing a product. This lack of access to other events was unfortunate but as a bicycle outsider unavoidable.

A limitation of my research methodology and execution was the lack of participant interviews. By focusing on the seller's staff, their purpose in attending the trade show and the way they performed their products, the research did not address what motivations buyers have for attending Taipei Cycle Show. A more comprehensive study

74 would focus on asking attendees of the show what they hope to gain from the event, and how they reacted to the performance.

Analysis

The analysis of interviews began before departing for the trade show. Two interviews had been conducted with bicycle manufacturers, one large and one small, who had in the past attended Cycle Taipei and could share their thoughts on what to expect.

This answered basic questions about the layout of the event and more general industry questions about the actual structure and organization of the bicycle trade. What the pre- trade show analysis could not describe was the actual staging, spatial, and visual layout of the event. This was possible only by photographing the space and discussing observations of the space with the participants of the trade show.

Two books of interview notes were assembled by the end of the four day show.

As already mentioned an important part of the research process was reviewing these notes every night to make sure all the experiences of the day were recorded correctly.

Upon returning the notes drawn up from the discussions and observations were then read over to extract the key themes. The photographs were then sorted based on these themes to find examples and confirm that the written record of the event coincided with the photographic evidence.

Addressing my positionality

My frame of reference to trade shows and trade events certainly influenced my interpretation of the events. First because it is primarily a business and trade event to 75 which people have invested a significant amount of time and money I felt that imposing too much on people's time was unfair and impractical. As part of this I tried to present myself verbally, if not physically as I was often mistaken as a journalist, as a researcher interested in why they were at the trade show and not specifically interested in product or purchasing decisions. My gaze, as the previous paragraph implies, encompasses a business-minded approach and an interest in seeing the value of the event.

Schechner (2006) postulates that most researchers interested in performance engage in a performative field outside their academic pursuits, this is certainly true of myself. I work in technical theatre and work on the occasional TV show or film. This background allows me to understand the technical side of the show. I have also been shaped by my past experiences traveling through Mexico on a trade mission promoting

Canadian businesses. This gave me a reference point for what to expect in the conversations and how businesspeople present themselves when networking.

Conclusion

Photographing, listening, gathering trade literature and samples, and interviewing at the 2008 Taipei Cycle show helps develop an understanding of the ideologies and values that guide the show's performance. By exploring how communication was performed, and the way that it is used to communicate trust, one can search for an understanding of the value of the trade show that goes beyond direct sales figures. The thick description of the performance that was distilled from the event allows various

76 ways of seeing the bicycle that provides a framework for understanding the deeper meaning of the Taipei International Cycle Show.

The combination of pre-show interviews and opportune meetings with bicycle industry insiders in Taiwan provided a good base for the research. This helped guide the questions at the show. The interviews and observations at the show revealed a complicated process of trade and information exchange. In future research a stronger focus on why visitors attend could help explore the audience's performance.

77 CHAPTER 5

PERFORMING THE TAIPEI CYCLE SHOW

This chapter focuses on observed performance at the Taipei International Cycle

Show (Taipei Cycle). This show is an amalgamation of cultural and social elements which combine with business practices to create the event. This culture and experience is created by the performance, the performance is how participants understand their reality

(Scheduler, 2006). Therefore by looking at dramatological elements which create a performance, the stage, actors, audience, props/costumes, and scripts it is possible to see what sort of experience is created and why. The first half of this chapter traces out the experience and observations that were made at Taipei Cycle about the constructed space.

The second section is an exploration of the process of industrial development and how it presents and is presented at the trade show. One of the performances' key goals and a founding reason for the Taipei Cycle Show is promoting Taiwan and the bicycle industry as a whole unit. The initial success of the policy decision to run a trade show is still visible in the way the show is run today. Taipei Cycle is a visible and tangible enactment of industrial policy, and a very successful one.

Observations of performance

Taipei Cycle offers an event that: (1) focuses people's attention on bicycles; (2) builds trust in business relationships; (3) promotes comprehension of local markets; and

78 (4) provides a comprehensive overview of the industry. I will explore how the staging, actors, audience, props, costume and script reflect these four motivations for holding a trade show.

Of these four goals, the first and potentially the most important is the focusing of attention. Everyone at a bicycle trade show is "interested in bicycles". Expending the time and effort to attend the event is itself a form of filtering. There are, however, various subgroups of people who are interested in bicycles such as importers, wholesalers, distributors, spies, and others who all have their own agenda. The presenters and the visitors are, therefore, constantly trying to match their needs with the appropriate suppliers of information and to generate the most valuable relationships. For example, a buyer normally prefers to meet a seller, rather than another buyer. Therefore the presence of the stage or the booth, quickly identifies someone as a seller and allows a buyer to maximize the valuable interaction time. At one point a booth attendant approached me to talk about his firm's bicycles. She observed my camera and notebook and assumed that I was a reporter; (these are also standard tools of a scholar but a scholar is unexpected at a bicycle event). When she realized I was not a journalist she excused herself at the first available moment to return to trolling for her target audience. Here the performance had been unclear and therefore the attendant accidentally approached someone who was not of value. A large section of the bicycle trade show performance is based around quickly matching agents interested in interacting.

The second motivator for performance at the trade show is to increase trust in new and established relationships. Holding a bicycle frame in your hands reinforces the 79 validity of claims made by the manufacturer. Shaking hands and physical contact also creates an increased sense of trust. Drinks and snacks, which are amply available from numerous booths, also reinforce nurturing sentiments and formulate trust. These trust building interactions increase the likelihood of international deals being made, where the buyers and sellers have to rely on personal intuition to gauge the reliability of the vendor, because international law rarely works to solve smaller scale trading disputes, and misunderstandings about design and specifications are best resolved by good communication in the first place.

Third, in addition to trust building between participants of the industry, these events help industrialists and distributors to understand local markets and build cultural understandings. While large multinational companies, such as the bicycle company

SRAM, have design and fabrication offices around the globe, smaller companies find it more difficult to gauge foreign markets. Trade events like this are invaluable for finding and sharing knowledge about local customs. One significant example of this was witnessed at the Eurobike show where a local German was hired to staff the booth of a

Chinese electric bicycle maker. She provided French and German language skills but even more importantly could explain German customs about approaching people and the

European customs for conducting business to her foreign boss. In the end her business skill and personability resulted in her being offered a job to market the bicycles in

Germany. The trade show allows various different local cultures to come together and understand each other's cultural customs and performances.

80 The fourth goal of a trade show is to provide a comprehensive cross section of the industry which add substance to, and confirms ideas about products one may have only vaguely heard of. By creating a clearing house of items and ideas, a quick sweep of the presentations allows one fully to understand what Taiwan offers the bicycle industry.

The combination of quirky little stands which show the huge range of innovations

Taiwan offers plus the really high end presentations allow people to see the full range of products available. One example is the A-Team booth: their booth showcases high end bicycles made completely by Taiwan firms though these bicycles are not for sale. This sort of display helps prove that Taiwan can source an entire bicycle in any quality range.

Even a cursory walk around the show will give you a rough idea of some of the directions and opportunities in the bicycle industry.

The trade show is therefore addressed as a performance which is a targeted response to these four goals. These goals are explored here through a study of the dramatic elements of performance: the stage, actor, audience, props/costume, and script.

These dramatic elements have been picked based on the discussion in chapter 3 on performance. Overall the process follows a similar approach to the descriptions of experiences that Maurya Wickstrom (2006) and Philip Crang (1994) provide when describing shopping and waitering.

The stage is the largest and perhaps most visible element of a trade show performance. It consists of the surround area, the front stage, and the backstage. The importance of the setting where the event space exists also cannot be forgotten when analysing a performance and these places are very critical. All places have a meaning 81 and we cannot imagine some events outside of them. Consider where Joan of Arc would be if not the town square when she is burned (Carlson, 1989).

The line between actors and audience, as will be shown, is often blurred or nonexistent, however some differences do exist. The actors have control over the content and presentation of the dramatic elements (Goffman, 1959) while the audience reacts and acknowledges these overtures. This paper assumes the key difference to be the driver of the performance and the observer. This interpretation therefore does not preclude a visitor to a booth from being the actor and the booth attendant being the audience for the performance or for members of the crowd to be performing to each other, missing completely the intended staging cues.

Property, the origin of the term props in production, often refers to the objects actors hold and interact with. More generally "props" covers the maintaining and cleaning of all property and space involved in the production. For the purposes of this paper an interpretation similar to Andrew Sofer's (2003) is being adopted. This recognized props as the objects that are brought to life on the stage by the actors, specifically for Sofer this involves the actors moving them physically.

Props bring to the stage a whole litany of meanings. Sofer (2003) describes how various religious and sexual objects can bring meaning to a stage. As well the actors, when motivating them, also imbue meaning onto the props. Receiving a flower usually means something very special to people and when a red rose appears on stage that meaning is brought with it. However the actions of the actor can work with, and

82 transform, that meaning as a rose given to a love elicits quite a different response than the rose placed on a grave site, even though it is the same rose.

Costumes are included in props, and not split into their own category, because they act in many ways similar to props. The Simpsons costume which will be shown later is a fine example of this. Props and costumes, especially in the form of bicycles, are strongly present and perhaps one of the most important reasons, at least the most visible reason, for holding the event.

Finally the script, written by many different groups, communicates the skill of

Taiwan, the ingenuity of bicycle design, individual manufacturer's messages, and many other things. These scripts are not subdivided into act's or written out with character names and staging directions, rather they are the social scripts which every culture and setting has (Schechner, 2006,pg 209). For example the unwritten rules that shoppers are not supposed to try and eat the plastic food in shop displays (Wickstrom, 2006).

The following section explores how these five elements, stage, actors, audience, props and costumes, and scripts, were present at the 2008 Taipei Cycle show.

83 The stage

Figure 1, Taipei Cycle Trade Floor

An effective stage, like a picture frame, should provide a guide, directing your eyes towards the picture and away from other distractions. By creating a dedicated exhibition space the Taipei Cycle stage does exactly this: its setting is detached from everyday life as the audience congregates in a space where communication is facilitated.

By encouraging the discussion of bicycles, this staged setting ensures that conversations can be easily started and relationships quickly built. I shall proceed by describing elements of the stage as they would unveil themselves to an attendee.

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Figure 2, Map of Tour de Taiwau bicycle route ending at Taipei Cycle

Figure 2 shows the island of Taiwan, the major cities, and the course of the Tour de Taiwan bicycle race. The 5th stage starts at the industrial city of Taichung where the majority of the bicycle industry is clustered. The 7th stage is in Taipei right beside the trade show hall. The race finished here on the Saturday of the trade show which was the first day that the general public was allowed in.

Taiwan is the first, and broadest, stage for the trade show. The show is performed from one end of the island to the other during the Tour de Taiwan cycle tour which begins in Kaohsiung in the South, and finishes in Taipei, the island's capital, in the 85 North, while the bicycle manufacturing city of Taichung acts as a subsidiary centre of performance before and after the Taipei show. Taipei itself has two major trade halls which hold numerous trade shows throughout the year. Taichung, the main city for bicycle manufacturing, holds a smaller week long bicycle show in the heart of the industrial cluster in early December.

Included in the broad stage of Taiwan are all the city hotspots and nightlife locations. Part of the appeal of attending Taipei Cycle is the chance to experience the city and culture of Taipei (Interviews). It was possible to meet with people in the evenings for dinner but these events for the most part had to be planned, the large size of

Taipei (nearly 3 million in Taipei City) makes random encounters rare. At one point I did come across one vendor at the Beitou hot springs. All of these social gatherings outside the trade hall provide opportunities for reunions and informal discussions that help to build relationships. These stages, set outside the frame of the exhibition hall, tend to be strictly social gatherings. Outside interactions, even though they may only indirectly include bicycle discussions, change the trade show from a 9-5 event held in a box, into a whole experience of the city.

As you get closer to the event hall in Taipei the distribution of people around you changes significantly until you become immersed in the exhibition space, surrounded by likeminded people. Events were also held off site and just outside the venue hall including the finishing line for the Tour de Taiwan bicycle race. These events acted as outdoor "frames" for bicycle conversations.

86 All together the exhibition hall, the surrounding outside spaces, together with the buses to the trade hall are all places where you can comfortably approach anyone and talk about bicycles. These stages act as visual cues as to who someone is, and give you a quick way to assess companies. For example the more expensive brands had elite looking booths. When someone walks around in a giant Bart Simpson costume they present themselves as approachable because their purpose is clear. The person looking at a component in a booth is probably interested in buying and someone dressed in a

Simpsons costume presumably has connections with Simpsons' branded bicycles or allied components. Without the backdrop of the booth, or a costume, it is harder to distinguish between a buyer, a seller, someone from the media or someone from the biking community. The chairman (King Liu) of the Giant Bicycle Company (the world's largest bicycle manufacturer) was pointed out, an elderly gentleman who otherwise was anonymous. This stage therefore lowers the barrier to instigating conversations about bicycles since you know everyone is interested in bicycles and the staged backdrop helps clue you in to their specific interest.

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Figure 3, Map of Taipei Cycle Show Second Floor

These stage backdrops were not randomly located in the space because the most desirable locations were in the centre. These prime locations came with a higher rent, had more ostentatious booths, and were monopolized by larger firms. The map of the second floor, Figure 3, shows the general layout of the trade floor which was divided into rigid rectangular booths all organized in a common pattern. Looking at the trade floor map also illustrates a few other interesting things about the shows physical structure.

88 First the significance of the centre, second the conference areas separate from the show floor, and finally the choke points which focused traffic.

===== President's Route Central Square Conference Rooms

Figure 4, Enlargement of the 2nd floor

The location of the booth was a predicting factor as to what kind of firm it was.

One of our pre-show interviews pointed out that he loves walking around the perimeter of the trade show because those areas have the lowest rent and therefore contain some of the more obscure and potentially interesting firms. These firms also tended to specialize in a component, like a front fork or gear, or were tangential to a bicycle trade show offering products like clothing or various accessories. In the map of the second floor (figure 3) it

89 is possible to see all the small booths on the perimeter, especially those near the top and bottom, surrounding the large central ones.

The large squares in the middle are Giant and Merida, the two largest Taiwanese firms, as well as Campagnolo, a large Italian firm, and , the world's largest component maker. These are centrally located right on the main axis of the entrance door to the floor. They are also the most expensive locations as is evidenced by their size and commercial clout (interviewees also confirmed this).

The lectures were held on the west side (left side of figure 4) of the building in separate conference rooms, cut off from the trade show floor. One person interviewed at the innovation competition, one event held here, argued that this separation was a bad thing because it took attention away from all the amazing cutting edge ideas that were coming out of the conferences and meant that most of the show was just about the standard bicycles that are ubiquitous at any bicycle store. Conversely some of the business people on the trade floor seemed to think the conferences had nothing to do with their purpose for being there and it seemed like they would be happy to see that whole section be simply removed from the show.

The final thing these maps show are the choke points in traffic which formed.

The hall to the bathrooms was probably the worst chokepoint of this whole show but related more to poor design and I doubt many relationships were formed while bumping in there. Much more relevant was the entranceway to the trade floor itself where I saw more than a few people encounter old acquaintances. I was also able to interview people as they came from conferences and went out to explore the show floor. People here 90 seemed excited and optimistic about seeing what Taipei Cycle would provide. A similar chokepoint (though obviously not on this map) was the shuttle bus to the trade show.

The ability to rent a booth at the show was not open to all: demand exceeds supply, and the spaces sell fast, the best spots are reserved for return clients, and even if space is available the rent is expensive. Because of the demand for good locations most of the prime booths are rented to the same companies every year. One extreme example, though from Eurobike instead of Taipei Cycle, was given by SRAM employees who described a company that left Eurobike because they thought Interbike would become a bigger bicycle show. Interbike closed down a few years later and the company could not re-rent their spot at Eurobike the following year because they had "lost" the position by not it every year. The choice of tradeshows, for companies which cannot afford to go to all of them, is a difficult question. Cost is also a barrier. The NuVinci booth at

Taipei Cycle was a large one, perhaps because they are trying to reach assemblers but at

Eurobike they could not afford a booth so instead piggybacked along beside the Raleigh booth, one of their partners. Had they rented a booth it would have cost them upwards of

$30,000 for one show.

The Nangang Exhibition hall frames the bicycle trade show and promotes Taiwan as a country. Constructing such a magnificent building reflects the chosen national identity as a hi-tech manufacturing and trading nation and staging the bicycle trade show there helped to reinforce this identity. Within the building there were both the two large exhibition halls where numerous performances took place and smaller halls with more traditional theatrical stages housing conferences and award shows. These areas had 91 raised floors or podiums, sound systems, and lights; the bicycle design show held in one of these smaller auditoriums was rigged with exploding confetti cannons. Holding these events in traditional performance spaces is not surprising because they have a typical actor-audience relationship, with someone showing or talking about an event, innovation or process while many people quietly watched.

A special stage was built for the Taipei Cycle opening event, marked by the presence of President Chen who simultaneously opened the new trade hall. This location was surrounded by a tight security blanket and the highest density of cameras and recording equipment at the show. Traditional drummers were present along with a revolving set piece designed to reveal the latest Taiwanese bicycles. After the president made his address from this formal location he took his entourage for a stroll through the trade show with each booth he attended becoming the new stage. It is significant that this took place towards the climax of a presidential election pitching President Chen of the

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) against the Kuomintang Party candidate, Ma Ying- jeou (in the event, Chen lost), the implication being that Taipei Cycle provided a suitable stage from which to pursue a tightly fought election contest.

The smallest and most personal area of interactions, excluding the very narrow washroom hallways and crowded buses, were the trade show booths, each of which served as a smaller stage within the larger setting. At these locations a range of interactions took place. By surrounding the performer with numerous props, the topic of conversation could be focused onto the items at hand.

92 Figure 5, The front and backstage areas of SRAM

When considering the booth as a stage the concept of front and back stage becomes of interest. Theatrical performances have the virtue, and limitation, of being presented on a stage where the audience is divided physically and symbolically by the proscenium arch. Film production creates a similar concept, "the line": action is only filmed from one side of the line. These "invisible" walls aid the staging of a performance and focus the experience. The front and backstage are visible in this photo of the SRAM booth, figure 5. The backstage is cluttered with printers, computers, and and is light with florescent lighting, giving that blue green hue. The front stage has a clear wooden table top well lit and full of people talking.

In general the backstage provides a refuge and staging ground for the performance

-interaction- which takes place between the actors and audience. Philip Crang describes 93 the seating area in a restaurant where he served patrons as the stage where he created a sense of uniqueness through his stylized performance as the server, while the backstage was the kitchen, serving, and staff area where the public was not allowed (Crang, 1994).

The trade show booth also employs this tactic by creating layers to the stage, with varying degrees of access.

Front stage

A front stage is designed to be visible to the audience and present the performance. In this space the performers know they are performing and the area is designed to help maintain the performance. At Taipei Cycle there were predominantly two types of front stage, those where multi-branded companies built closed-concept booths with solid exterior walls and others more open concept booths with many access points.

Figure 6, A very open booth layout (left) juxtaposed with a closed one (right)

94 Figure 6 illustrates two extreme examples of the open and closed booth. Most of the booths were a balance between open and closed with a few solid walls and a few open ones or a wall of bicycles around an open concept area. The most enclosed booths were traditionally multi part suppliers and industrial groups. These stages were designed to bring people in and then hold their attention, blocking out other foreign products from sight, so that the full range of product could be understood. The open booths consisted often of finished bicycle assemblers. In the case of Figure 6, Merida -the photograph on the left- is a finished bicycle maker, whereas the Taiwan Johnson Industries Co Ltd on the right is a manufacturer of various components and parts under many brand names.

The parallels with theatre are evident. Street performers constantly face the distraction of the world around them, noisy cars, the sound of music from a storefront, or the screaming of children can steal away the audience's attention. Conversely the experience of a closed booth, like the theatrical stage, is more intimate and personal, and more easily tailored to the interests of the specific audience who are to a degree captive since once they are inside the performance space it is harder to leave: it is much easier to casually glance at an open space. The closed concept booth also captivates the audience who can no longer see the large expanse of the trade show around them but rather is focused on the trappings of the individual supplier. The private spaces behind and above both open and closed concept booths are spaces for private performances, where interaction between the actor and audience is made more intimate by the restricted access

(and often ample supply of snacks).

95 In addition to open and closed concept, and based on the type of product a company sells, each booth is designed around a brand image - staging its products in a way that reflects favourably on them. Open and closed booths seem to correlate with the range of products while style and decoration are reflective of the brand.

In his book "On Brand" Wally Olins (2003), a brand manager, describes the importance of creating the brand image in exhibition booths. He cites "V W land" as an example of how different brands - Audi, VW, and others - each have their own pavilion which represents their respective image. While under the same umbrella company the pavilions take on design traits which produce the intended emotions and reflect the message of the car. Bicycle booths at Taipei Cycle likewise generally use design concepts that complement the brands they house. Interviewees at the trade show agreed that companies which own multiple brands, like Selle Royale and Brooks, keep unique design elements and a certain feel to each section of a booth, thereby preserving the brand image of each product line.

96 Backstage

Figure 7, A two story booth

Booths also varied in the layout of their backstage meeting rooms which were amply stocked with drinks and snacks. Here the stage is more like the drawing room of a stately home, with an invited audience and a performer who varies his or her act according to the preferences of the audience. Very small vendors usually had one table and a few chairs backstage, while the biggest ones, such as Schwalbe, had over twenty table settings available for meetings. Beyond the number of tables, which seemed to correlate most closely with the companies' size, the location of the meeting rooms varied.

Some companies, such as POD (a high end Danish bicycle brand made in Taiwan), had their meeting rooms above the booth. By placing the meeting room upstairs the "brand was not cluttered" (Interview with POD rep), thereby allowing discussions and

97 negotiations over bicycle sales. Figure 7 shows the DT Swiss two story booths where the meetings can take place away from the busy stage floor. Other companies, even quite large ones, had their meeting rooms open to the ground floor while yet others put them behind doors or curtains. Thus the backstage area had two roles, sometimes hiding the materials, drinks, and other props and at other times allowing private intimate meetings to take place.

The actors

Acting at Taipei Cycle was for the most part very low key, and this was by design. The goals of booth attendants was not to catch the attendees attention, instead they provided answers to questions when asked. Taipei Cycle's low key nature is best demonstrated by a comparison with what the booth attendants were doing at Eurobike.

At Eurobike, a distributors show where sales were being conducted, there were painters painting logos on models and demonstrators standing in buckets of cold water with waterproof socks on. The performance at Eurobike seemed much more focused on promoting hard sales (both retail ones at the show and direct distribution deals for the next season), and relatively less on soft trust development and relationship management.

At Taipei Cycle the actors focused on vetting visitors and maintaining the booth and much less on attracting attendees. This is a key difference between a manufacturer show, where sales are not being conducted, and a distributor's show, where getting attention is important because it converts to direct sales.

98 A second level of actors consisted of managers, owners, industry consultants, and other high level people. These people floated around the event, usually grounded with a booth but often away on meetings or explorations. The actors were being watched not only by the visitors to the booth but also by the company managers to ensure the desired message was accurately presented and, if the booth staffer was an effective temporary local employee, to consider hiring them.

Actors at the managerial level are often not tied to running a booth, though they are usually closely affiliated with one. Consider King Liu, the chairman of Taiwan's largest bicycle manufacturer, Giant. He explored the show on his own, gave keynote talks, and distributed awards for the design competition. Likewise Alan Finden-Crofts, majority owner of Raleigh bicycles since the 2001 management buyout (), was observed several times carefully examining the wares of competitors' booths while periodically returning to the Raleigh booth.

99 Figure 8, The bicycle design competition

Another example of the range of acting roles some people took on were the bicycle designers entering the design competition. At the awards show they were paraded around and photographed with their novel bicycles. Figure 8 shows the winning bicycles from the design competition along with the models who showcased them. These actors put on a full blown theatrical show compete with lights, sounds, smoke machine, and backdrop. After the show this provided a terrific opportunity for interested manufacturers to approach them with business propositions. After the awards show the designers returned to wandering the show floor where instead of just exploring other bicycles they also tried to build contacts to design and promote their own ideas,

100 becoming one of several visitors promoting themselves but not associated with a booth - itinerant actors without a stage. Finally, after the event all the design winners were invited to visit various factories and bicycle promoting venues. Therefore beyond the traditional booth visitor relationship there are a plethora of different actors creating events all around the show at ad hoc locations.

The audience

The audience of a trade show is made up of various groups: buyers, distributors, media, the general public, and of course manufacturers assessing their competition. The audience was not a target of my interviews at Taipei so with somewhat fragmentary information it is more difficult to assess their role and goals. Generally, audiences are interested in meeting people, learning about local and global opportunities, and getting an overview of the industry.

There were many different buyers observing the show, including the traditional branders and distributors. Joe Breeze, the owner of Breezer Bikes informed me he was at the event solely to check out what the latest bicycles were and ponder what his next line­ up would be. A marketing executive was there exploring the potential for distributing a bicycle brand: he was interested in the presentation of the marketing materials and how brands were developed and portrayed. At the design show I met many designers who were hoping to land competitive contracts, such as supplying the city of London with bicycles for its new rental programme. These designers attended Taipei Cycle to find

101 inspiration and more pragmatically and perhaps optimistically to find manufacturers who looked reliable and affordable.

Both the Taiwanese and the cycle trade media attended the trade show in full force. In addition to daily reports on the show they were also networking amongst themselves and getting story ideas for the future. Local Taipei media reported popular events in their respective media channels. The media were not just a part of the audience, they were also actors because they presented the wares offered at booths in printed form and on television, while often interacting with other players. If performed well, their actions reinforced their importance in communicating with the public, and attracted advertisers. Trade media tended to focus more on technical than on popular news but the manner of their reporting made them influential actors, as well as being part of the audience.

Figure 9, The show floor before (left) and after (right) the public is allowed in

102 The general public was also present for the final two days of the show. Since

2008, public access to Taipei Cycle has been reduced to the last half day. While access for the general public was considered a nuisance by many of the booth representatives, the organizers of the trade show clearly felt it important to invite them. This resulted in some major shifts in the audience on Saturday and Sunday, the final days of the show.

First the crowds really increased and secondly the conference series on bicycles and their utilization around the world came to an end. The opinion of the booth staff interviewed was that days of the show when the public was allowed in all serious business had to come to an end. Figure 9 shows part of the reason for this. On the left is the Merida booth with a few interested people and plenty of free staff members to help out.

However as the photo on the right shows the entire area outside, and inside the booth, became packed with people. This made it impossible to determine who was there with a serious interest in the bicycle industry and who was just browsing, using the event as a large bicycle store to see what model interested them. This shift to a mass audience forced exhibitors to change their performance in ways they did not wish. Their preference was to perform to a closed audience with a very narrow focus on product and design. The diffuse interests of the general public made performing for this audience very difficult.

Because bicycle design is not the same across all regions, different shows cater to different tastes. While the basic double diamond frame has been around for over a century, specific aspects of the components vary geographically and with gender. For example saddle shape preferences vary with the European market preferring a different 103 shape from the North American market (Ergo Backpack Interview Eurobike). South

Africans prefer a big and heavy mountain bike and often shun road bikes. Because of these regional tastes, technology and sales practices of companies are performed differently according to the audience. In other words, major regional distributor trade shows customize their content to match regional tastes. This broad category of "buyers", people interested in buying or commissioning larger scale orders, appeared to make up the majority of the attendees at Taipei Cycle 2008, at least during the first two days before the public were admitted.

The trade hall venue facilitated the performance of bicycles, components and accessories to a diverse audience: technical specialists formed small audiences that met in very small groups or one-on-one, while general buyers formed a much larger audience that observed the technology competition, and major booths in large numbers. The largest booths such as the Giant stand had twenty or more staff working with the public audience during peak periods.

Props and costumes

The performance of shows is typically enhanced by using costumes and props which serve two purposes. First, to surround an actor with elements of the created scene to help the actor feel part of that scene. Actors often suggest that it is not until they are dressed and made-up that they begin to enter into their theatrical role. The second purpose was to help the audience imagine themselves actually observing the imagined setting, such as a castle with daggers for Macbeth, or a fake mountain for mountain bikes.

104 At Taipei Cycle a racecourse with impressive finishing gates, flags, and various decorations was located outside the exhibition hall. The performance of trade shows is made more immediate and claims for products made more believable when they are performed with diverse props.

As a manufacturers' show, the props at Taipei Cycle were quite limited, while at

Eurobike they were extensively used to engage the dealers and buying public. Props at

Taipei Cycle consisted mostly of static displays. There was also a bicycle testing area, an electric bicycle track, the final circuit of the Tour de Taiwan, and the design awards show where prototype bicycles were wheeled around. The props could be picked up, touched, and examined for quality of workmanship but mostly they were behind cabinets, attached to walls, or generally only mildly interactive. Likewise, most of the booth staff were informally dressed and not clad in bike outfits. This contrasts with the Eurobike experience where daily fashion shows and other events made extensive use of props and costumes. Bicycles and components were used for two main reasons, touching items for proof of craftsmanship, and as talking points. At Taipei Cycle, props are used as generalized pieces to promote the company but in a more subdued way. For example many companies showcased their Olympic bicycles, trophies and other trappings at

Eurobike but these were largely absent at Taipei Cycle.

Touching items, both at individual booths and at the TAITRA trade lounge constituted some of the smallest and most tight knit forms of performance, reaching a level of proximity rarely achieved on the stage. These performances are aimed specifically at the two or three individuals presenting and examining the product. This 105 type of "hands-on" personal performance was one of the predominant ones at Taipei

Cycle. While investigating a product is important and brochures and business cards are traded, it seems that the tactile experience of handling the actual bicycle or accessory linked with personal contact and hand shaking is one of the strongest forces for creating trust and faith in a producer.

Figure 10, Displaying bicycle parts in the TAITRA trade lounge

The use of props to illustrate craftsmanship and proof of concept is best exemplified by Figure 10 where potential buyers and sellers are holding, and discussing about, a bicycle frame. They are using the TAITRA meeting room to enjoy the free coffee and talk about potential business opportunities. By handling a bicycle or component, the audience, or buyer, is assured that the company can produce the part they are holding and can assess the quality of the workmanship. 106 Figure 11, Two people talking about an electric bicycle. Note also the flowers in the left of the photo, these are a traditional gift from banks

Perhaps the best example of props as talking points at Taipei Cycle was a conversation between Joe Breezer of Breezer bicycles and Nico, a British bicycle designer which is show in figure 11. This was taken just after they had both independently stopped to inspect a Taiwan made Ideal Cycle E-bike. They met and began chatting about the industry. Mr. Breeze could talk about the bicycle he wanted to buy and Nico the one he wanted to design. Unfortunately for Ideal neither was interested in buying an Ideal bicycle, but the bicycle was an important prop in instigating the discussion. 107 Props can also reinforce trust and provided for quick assessment of companies. Note the bouquet in the left corner of Figure 11 that has a red tag on it. The tag is from "Bao San LON Machinery (Sun Zhang) Company Limited" wishing for "a successful show (or display)". Banks, financial supporters and other business partners send flowers which adorned many booths at Taipei Cycle. This is a Taiwanese tradition which requires an ability to read the cultural tone of the bouquet to understand their meaning of financial solidity.

In the case of Taipei Cycle bicycle components, frames, gears, hubs, and many other parts all were displayed but focus was not concentrated on specific pieces. While it is true that the items on display are the latest models, frequently they had been shown to major buyers at private shows earlier in the year or at other events which are more aptly timed for the product cycle (SRAM interview at Eurobike). Manufacturers focused on presenting a complete spectrum of products as opposed to highlighting certain items.

When asked to identify the latest models, attendants at the Giant, Merida, and other booths could only generally point to all of their bikes without being able to pick out the most special, newest or greatest bicycle. Products are not displayed at Taipei Cycle as a release party for specific new parts but rather used as props to tangibly reinforce the image of quality manufacturing and demonstrate the whole range and competency of the company.

108 Figure 12, Ostentatious dress at Taipei Cycle

Costumes played a role similar to the props, to garner attention, but were not very ostentatious at Taipei Cycle. The most notable product based costume was Bart Simpson

(figure 12) who was advertising a company which had just acquired the license for

Simpson's themed bicycles. Additionally, yellow skirted girls with signs about events and other related conferences were clearly visible around the hall. These two different types of costumes had very different purposes. Bart was drawing attention to the costume whereas the girls were attempting to draw attention to ancillary performances.

These were two notable uses of costume at Taipei Cycle.

109 Figure 13, Booth (left) and close-up of attendant (right)

Most of the actors and audience at Taipei Cycle were dressed quite conservatively. Take for example the booth represented in figure 13 which is quite a complicated setup, one of the most colourful and elaborate in the show. However the dress of the attendants remains a simplistic and formal collared shirt and slacks. The woman in the more distant background also appears to be conservatively dressed, especially compared to the booth itself. This juxtaposition of variously branded spaces with conservative costume was standard for the show.

Scripts

Scripts are followed very precisely in film and theatrical performances. It is, perhaps, less obvious that many trade show performers also follow a script, usually not as rigorously as a stage performer, but they do, nevertheless, try to stick to their scripted 110 corporate message. Every encounter at Taipei Cycle can be considered scripted because everyone knows they are actors in a grand performance, representing themselves and the company they work for. Everyone has been told what to expect, how to present themselves, and what to say. Outside the various awards and recognition shows there is very little actual tangible script, rather there is "a scripted improvisation" where the rules are set out but the dialogue is open for interpretation.

Scripting was most prevalent on the stages set up as traditional performance spaces. These events were planned, scripted, and made use of theatrical effects. For example, people came up and read proclamations for their support of various bicycle programs and initiatives. The awards show had a script, choreographed dance moves, and an entire process for wheeling the model bicycles up. These planned events, complete with conventional stage and seating area for the audience, were the traditionally scripted events at Taipei Cycle.

Figure 14, The president of Taiwan outside and inside the A-Team booth

111 The more official a presentation or performance was the more it was definitively scripted. The president of Taiwan did an official presentation and then broke off into the trade floor. His path took him to a series of booth locations on the 2nd floor, prominent

Taiwanese bicycle firms. His path, shown in figure 4, began at the purpose built stage for his address in the lobby area on the 2nd floor and went around to the major firms in the centre of the show floor. At each stop a representative from the organization discussed with him for 30 seconds to a minute while camera crews, photographers, and interested onlookers watched. The crowd was directed by a woman carrying a fairly large follow me sign as can be seen in figure 14. There was a real feeling of excitement in the crowd and everyone was interested in just being near to the event it seemed.

The path he took went from the stage where he spoke on the 2nd floor, through to the very middle of the show where the two major Taiwanese firms Giant and Merida are.

He stopped a few times on the way to talk with select Taiwanese parts makers. Every time he stopped it was at a booth where he was framed by the contents and imagery around him, these were not the casual chats on the floor that I had witnessed between so many other participants. If you look at the right hand photo in figure 14 one of the reasons for stopping to chat is visible. All the camera crews around me are capturing terrific photographs of the president of Taiwan and his officials surrounded by successful examples of Taiwanese innovation. This is one of the most overt instances of a scripted performance at the show.

The closest a meeting came to being scripted on the trade floor were the pre- scheduled business meetings where the theme and some of the conversation would be 112 pre-planned. These planned meetings were a fairly important reason for attendees to

show up. Booths usually had 20-30 pre planned meetings, some of the larger companies had upwards of 100. These were the planned and scheduled ones and about the same number seemed to be scheduled ad hoc at the show. These events were scripted in that some sort of formal time and topic was set, but the conversation at them would often flow into other matters. There were also rules about what could and could not be said. For example, a company would not want their sales team to reveal manufacturing costs.

The buyer-seller relation is highly scripted, in the sense of cultural formalities not directly written. The obligation of hospitality remains, as does meeting the snobbery demands of buyers. Thus "interaction is not scripted according to one central scheme.

By contrast, multiple actors endowed with individual intentions trace multiple trajectories that interweave to create a spectacle on top of the exhibitors' displays" (Skov, 2006, 773).

At Taipei Cycle, booth participants are framed and controlled by corporate policy and tact. This means spaces outside the show proper are more informal. For example, one of the employees was riding his boss' wheelchair around at the after party, an activity which would be frowned upon on the show floor. In other words the script and associated conventions are institutionalized within the formal space of the trade show, whereas outside this space there are varying degrees of latitude in script and performance.

Outside the trade floor, such as at the opening night party, the conversation might range far from Taipei Cycle. Pacific Cycle's staff was hanging out together and the news teams talked about life. At the restaurant down the street people were uninterested in talking bicycles. I tried to strike up a few conversations with people in line waiting for a 113 table but beyond saying where they worked the conversations tended towards life and where I was from. This continues to reinforce the idea that attending the Taipei Cycle trade show is mostly about interaction and connection building, not transferring specific knowledge about bicycles.

Promoting industrial development

Because the government played a large role in the founding and organizing of

Taipei Cycle, industrial development was an important goal. This is different at other trade shows which are driven by private businesses wishing to maximize income.

TAITRA - the arms length government trade body - seemed to be involved in almost all the ancillary events. These events included an awards show, R& D centre, A-Team,

TAITRAs various materials and undertakings, a presidential visit, the Tour de Taiwan bicycle race, and the opening night party. All of these events linked into the government's overall goal of creating a performance which reinforced Taiwan's ability to manufacture.

The various conferences and contests held during Taipei Cycle not only encouraged innovative ideas and technologies to flow to Taiwan, they also encouraged innovative people to attend. The conference series included discussion of such issues as bicycle rentals, general shifts in the industry, local Taiwan island trends in biking, and specific results of companies and their concerns. TAITRA pioneered the idea of a cycle innovation design contest almost 10 years ago and has been running it ever since. Their event - which is presented in quite a theatrical way as a show - brings in innovative ideas

114 and designers, as well as intellectual ownership over the contest submissions, with the possibility of turning them into Taiwan made products.

The innovation show at Taipei Cycle provides a venue to nurture new and creative ideas about bicycle design. This event has become the model for bicycle innovation award shows and in various forms is copied at many other bicycle trade events. No other trade show places the same emphasis and glamour as Taipei Cycle on new conceptual designs. Taipei Cycle, and the CHC work together to get innovative new ideas in front of bicycle makers while other shows concentrate on products already in production. Other shows, such as Eurobike highlight the most innovative new product released but does not push the creative boundary for new ideas. For innovation other bicycle shows concentrate on production ready products that can actually be purchased at the show and fashion shows designed to model this year's clothing. This disconnect between theoretical products and ones already for sale comes about because distributor shows are focused on sales while Taipei Cycle's goal is promoting the manufacturing and innovative nature of Taiwan. In fact the bicycle designs are "mocked up" as full size plastic models by the CHC making the designs tangible. By adding lights, dancing, and bicycle mock-ups -performing conceptual designs- the brand of Taiwan is showcased: this does not result in direct sales because the items are not actually manufactured products, but Taiwan is promoted as an innovation hub.

The following section looks at various additional activities and organizations that promote the quality and ingenuity of Taiwanese production. The A-Team proved you could sole source top end bicycles in Taiwan. The CHC, which sets safety and quality 115 standards, illustrates a commitment to safe and healthy development. Facilitating access to all this bicycle knowledge, in addition to Taipei Cycle, is the Taiwan Buyers Guide

(TBG, a telephone book like guide of Taiwanese bicycle makers), TAITRA lounge,

TAITRA Pavilions at other events, and other promotional materials.

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The goal of the A-Team is to help transition the image of Taiwan up market.

Figure 15 shows their booth at the show, a sleek black frame containing a row of perfectly lit show bicycles which would have been the envy of any country. These bicycles were not for sale but rather stood as a physical testament to Taiwanese manufacturing abilities. While this was staged to present Taiwan as a manufacturing epicentre, in reality numerous parts on the bicycles were actually made at Chinese branch plant firms owned by and therefore branded as Taiwanese. This adds to the confusion and uncertainty over what is a Taiwan bicycle. 116 The CHC is another example of industrial cooperation to build a better Taiwanese product. Located in Taichung, the main bicycle manufacturing city, it provides component testing, standards validating, and export licenses for Taiwanese products. The organization itself appears to be a combination of government and business interests and, partially due to the language barrier, it was difficult to understand exactly how the organization was structured. The CHCs two main goals were testing bicycles to ensure they met safety and export standards, and helping to develop innovative bicycle designs.

It was not clear, however, who owned the intellectual property that came out of the centre. This is a fine example of the team work in Taiwan and the manufacturers' willingness to work together. The CHC was present at the trade show with physical displays visualizing their efforts to ensure quality Taiwan parts and by running the bicycle design competition.

The TAITRA trade lounge was a large area setup outside the trade hall where business meetings and negotiations could be held. There was also a service where buyers could provide feedback about what they wanted, allowing feedback to return to the

Taiwan companies telling them what direction to go. Mostly, however, this lounge area was for discussion about parts, contracts, and general negotiation. Of course ample free coffee and drinks were served at this exclusive side-stage.

To access and to understand all of the manufacturing abilities showcased at Taipei

Cycle and around the island requires good sources of information. The various organizations responsible for the trade show, especially TBEA and TAITRA, put together a number of information volumes including the Taiwan Buyers' Guide (TBG) which 117 indexes all the bicycle makers it can, a daily report on the bicycle show, statistics and information on buying patterns, and they run Taiwan pavilions at other trade shows to help promote knowledge of the industry outside the country. The Taiwan Buyers' Guide is an attempt to index all the bicycle parts and manufacturers in Taiwan. Taipei Cycle attendees estimated that about 30 per cent of "what you can get" in Taiwan is documented in the book, making it a good start but no substitute for good investigative skills.

The daily show report highlights events and suggests things not to miss. In addition the Taipei Cycle organizers send out show previews for next year and other types of promotional material. These informational services are not performed in the sense that the trade show itself is, but it creates networks which allows the various actors to connect with each other and - in some instances - negotiate local performances of their various products.

Other governments - such as China, Korea, Vietnam- have government indexes of manufacturers, however only in Taiwan is this information offered free and supported/disseminated through significant trade shows. The pricing structure involved giving free copies of the TBG to bicycle buyers and selling copies to others. In addition to the mostly free TBG the trade and export promotion service TAITRA also offers free parts sourcing services and other complementary assistance to buyers. The importance of these trade knowledge sources demonstrates the effort and money the Taiwanese government puts into facilitating trade. According to TAITRA, what makes Taiwan's programme unique is that other major bicycle exporting countries do not offer these services for free. 118 Beyond Taipei Cycle, TAITRA and TBEA create "Taiwan Pavilions" at other trade shows. These locations, branded proudly as Taiwanese, contrast with the conspicuous absence of any other governmental trade body promoting other countries.

These become mini stages where Taiwanese industry and ingenuity were displayed, thereby increasing confidence in both the manufacturers attending and the island in general. These pavilions and the free literature and sourcing service underscore the significant effort that the Taiwanese government places in branding their country3.

This commitment to trade was reinforced by the presence of famous people and the staging of notable events. Taiwan's president, a key promoter of the new trade hall, was there to celebrate its opening. The Taiwan bicycle race, named Tour de Taiwan in honour of the French one, finished its final circuit there. Presidential appearances are significant events because they "perform" the country, and reflect its political aspirations.

The opening of the trade hall was a media frenzy with camera crews and security surrounding the podium. While the president of Taiwan was the most celebrated celebrity he was far from the only one; the who's who of the Taiwan bicycle industry was present including King Liu, chairman of one of the world's largest bicycle makers, Giant.

The Tour de Taiwan, loosely based on the famous Tour de France, is a race which circumscribes the island of Taiwan. The race which was traditionally held in the fall was rescheduled in 2006 so it would coincide with Taipei Cycle. In 2008 there was a

3 There was an Italian room at Eurobike though it was not organized or sponsored, at least overtly, by the Italian government or trade organization.

119 triumphal 40 lap race around the block neighbouring the convention centre. It is not however the only bicycle race celebrated at the trade show. Giant's elderly owner, King

Liu, and other prominent Taiwanese businessmen, A-Team members, and athletes bicycled from Kiaosiung to Taipei in the days before the show started. These events were heralded as both triumphs of the human form and of Taiwan's manufacturing prowess.

The opening night party, held on the trade hall's rooftop garden, was a free catered dinner event for the visitors and vendors; it was topped off with a lounge singer and show. There was a long row of couches and tables, some reserved for

VIPs and others available for groups. One of these tables was occupied by "Euro Bike" magazine's journalists who chatted amongst themselves and relaxed. Other groups were gathering, though most of the interaction seemed to be within a group such as the magazine editorial staff or members of a trade booth. One inspiration for conversation was the lounge singer, a real professional, who milled in the crowd while singing and getting the crowd to mingle. The fireworks show, probably one of the most impressive events performed on the first night, signalled the opening both of the bicycle show and of the new Nangang Exhibition Center.

Conclusion

Viewing the Taipei International Cycle Show not just as a trading space, but also as a space of performance, better explains the nature of this annual event. Bicycles are performed most commonly on the front stage of exhibitors' booths, but also in the more

120 hidden backstages. The actors represent the industry, and most are experienced in presenting their products to the customers who constitute the audience. A variety of props and costumes are used to valorize the performances, and the presentations are loosely scripted. The aim of such performances is to influence the audience by appealing to their senses, primarily through sight and sound, but to a lesser extent through touch, taste and smell.

This trade show focuses attention, builds trust, helps foster an understanding of local market, and finally provides a comprehensive overview of Taiwan's bicycle industry. It does this by presenting individual bicycle brands and also an overall

Taiwanese reputation for quality. A huge effort is made to demonstrate the ease of sourcing parts from Taiwan. Creating an event like this is possible because of the tremendous amount of teamwork exercised by Taiwanese firms. This teamwork is evident in both the manufacturers' organizations, which have been industry self-founded, and by the way government programs are able to outreach so successfully by creating, for example, Taipei Cycle and having it well attended. If the players themselves - the firms in this industry - did not agree to the programme of performing a Taiwanese bicycle industry, Taipei Cycle would have never succeeded as the world's most important bicycle manufacturers' show.

121 CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

Historically trade shows were distribution hubs of physical goods. Lacking fast transportation infrastructure and facing expensive and unreliable communication, most business had to be conducted face to face. This process also involved the physical inspection and delivery of the goods. The need for in situ transfer of goods combined with person to person communication at trade shows was unnecessary with the advent of nineteenth century industrial production and twentieth century communication innovation. However, while the delivery of goods could be separated from transactions, it quickly became obvious that some intangible element of personal communication could never be replaced by the telegraph, phone, or internet. The 1897 sample fair set the trend in motion for the modern communication and trust-centric trade show.

The modern trade show focuses on the performance of, and cultural conception of the good rather than the physical object itself. Our society, as Baudrillard, Berger, and others would agree, is continuing to head towards the virtual and conceptual and away from the physical. Industrial supply chains, retail stores, and our system of doing business are moving towards this conceptual space. Modern trade shows, and indeed modern research practices, are acknowledging and incorporating this.

122 Bicycle trade, and in fact all trade, has to be culturally performed. For bicycles the small size of the companies involved means that manufacturers and distributors have to get maximum value for their trade and distribution time and money. The ability of a trade show to create a node where cultural performance and business interactions can happen has resulted in the Taipei Bicycle trade show

The Taipei Cycle show and related industrial management strategies that the

Taiwan Government has enforced, encouraged, or promoted to local firms (depending on where you stand) has locked in a high value-added manufacturing sector which other countries gave up on. After entering the global bicycle supply chain in 1969, when

Taiwan enterprises began manufacturing bicycles for American companies, Taiwanese firms maintained their position vis-a-vis solid industrial planning. Now with per capita

GDP close to Canada's they have a strong bicycle industry both on the island and in mainland Chinese factories. They have managed to capture the management, design and distribution of bicycles, and maintained factories abroad to supplement, not replace, their domestic manufacturing. These mainland factories offer somewhat cheaper labour but sometimes, more importantly, looser safety standards as is the case with handling carbon fibre.

Part one: Performance of culture

The findings point to a performance space where people want to be seen and the creation of a temporary location where review but not the purchase or sale of a product can be undertaken. The main reason for having a booth was "to be seen": "if you're here

123 people take you seriously", and "everyone who is serious comes here" (pre show interview). People attended for similar reasons - they "wanted to check out the industry" and "get an idea of how others are marketing themselves". In fact one German pneumatics company "had no plans on making any deals at the show". Maxxis was hoping to "have about 125 scheduled meetings and 125 non scheduled ones" to meet people and see how things were going. No companies interviewed had a plan to actually sign a concrete deal at Taipei Cycle.4

The associated conferences, innovation awards show, and booths like the A-Team

(an industry alliance which only promotes its member firms ability to innovate but sells nothing) were all ancillary activities designed to be of interest and spark ideas. These activities and presentations provided information on where policy was going via presentations on bicycle rental programs and the presidential speech, and on the future direction of technology through the awards show and product presentations. Additionally

TAITRA, TBEA, and the various government promoters and participants at the show were there to help facilitate wherever possible. The free coffee lounge was used by many companies for meetings and numerous contacts were developed.

This research project has focused on why companies attend trade shows and what they are performing. Now that the performance of a bicycle trade show has been described it would be very interesting to see what performance people came to see. Was

4 Because the interviewees were reluctant to be recorded or have detailed notes taken, the quotes are paraphrases, rather than direct quotes

124 the show successful in providing value to participants? This would require investigating and interviewing the participants which is difficult for exactly the reason that trade show attendees stage themselves with booths. A booth immediately identifies who you are and if you are an interesting subject (for both a bicycle deal or scholarly research) so because participants are mostly anonymous it is difficult to determine who would be of interest.

Additionally, following up with participants would help determine the resulting value of the performance and if over the long term Taipei Cycle buzz stayed with them.

Another venue where the performance of bicycles is important but very inaccessible, the Taichung Bicycle Week, would be a very interesting event to compare to Taipei Cycle. This event, significantly more closed to outsiders than Taipei Cycle, was founded as a reaction to the failings of Taipei Cycle to support business needs.

Taipei Cycle's spring timing is inopportune so Taichung Bicycle week is in December.

Public participation is also disliked by the businesses so there is no public access to the show. Perhaps the only, best way, to explore the event would be to partner with a bicycle manufacturer or buyer who preferably already attends the three shows, Taichung Bicycle week, Taipei Cycle, and Eurobike. It would be fascinating to see if the construction of bicycle culture is much reduced in favour of deal making compared to Cycle Taipei, the only other major Taiwanese bicycle show.

Part two: Industrial development

When discussing regional development, modern theorists tend to view creative and knowledge sectors as innovative and communal, and traditional manufacturers as

125 static. But traditional manufacturing can also be creative and innovative in many ways quite similar to stereotypical "". For example, the has to innovate according to trends in the broad fashion industry to stay relevant to their buyers. Therefore the classical textile industry shares with high tech industry many requirements about networking (Rinallo & Golfetto, 2006). The success of Taipei Cycle at merging a traditional manufacturing activity (bicycles have been manufactured in volume since the 1870s) with innovative technology has created a strong and enduring industry part of Taiwan's creative economy. By ignoring traditional sectors which many consider boring, countries stand to lose a skilled workforce, often in possession of unusual innovative skills.

Taiwan became, and has maintained its position as, a world-renowned manufacturing powerhouse. The island's industries have managed to retain production value levels by moving products upmarket and hiving off volume production to mainland

China. Along with bicycle manufacture, the small island's industries account for 30 per cent of the world's fasteners (by volume), a large portion of integrated circuit boards, and hold dominant roles in many other sectors. A commitment to industrial development policy has been judiciously and responsibly implemented to assist and promote industrial activity. Trade shows, Taipei Cycle is considered in this case, are one small but not insignificant component of this.

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Interviews

Various anonymous interviews were conducted at Taipei Cycle, Eurobike, at a few Toronto bicycle stores, and with one Canadian manufacturer.

Websites http://www.taichung-bike-week.com/ Splash page Aug 18th 2009 http://www.chinatradefair.org/chinesecities/yiwu-city/ Nov 22nd 2010 132