Is IACC Cargo Show Kaput?

The Strange Disappearance Of Terry Heekin

     On May 23-25 there was an air cargo conference at the Brown Convention Center-Houston, Texas.
     Put up by International Air Cargo Conference (IACC), the 2006 event marked the fifteenth time that the show had been held.
     Now according to some folks, the 15th IACC, may have been the last.
     Sources say, Terry Heekin, the IACC organizer has disappeared.
     The IACC web site cannot be accessed.
     The IACC phone is disconnected and even Terry’s email address is either blocked or closed.
     IACC that was started by Lou Smith before he retired and sold the show to Terry was one of the few air cargo events in the world that in our view, made an honest and sincere attempt to include everyone.
     Most other air cargo industry events are either owned by a publication or in the case of say that upcoming TIACA event in Calgary this September, top heavy with air cargo publishers who have put up $10,000 apiece and wield extraordinary influence over the every other year event.
     We always liked the balance struck by IACC.
     Every aspect of air cargo was represented at IACC—every publication, every strata of the business enterprise, and all kinds of characters were in regular attendance.
     IACC during 15 years has held shows in places like Atlantic City, Nashville, Fort Wayne and Houston, places that the higher profile shows might sniff their noses at, and IACC did it year after year.
     Worthwhile, and for an industry changing and challenged, always somewhere annually, this was one air cargo trade show that we felt was for everybody else, that included people otherwise out of the big mega-show mainstream.
     In many ways IACC was as dependable and easy as some comfortable slippers.
     But apparently all is not well with IACC.
     Despite an enviable performance track record of events, IACC was coming unraveled as early as last year.
     “In looking at your listing of the top trade shows of 2006,” writes Houston aviation consultant Ed Emmett, “I was amused to see IACC
listed.
     “This year's event in Houston was a disaster and quite a number of the exhibitors have been trying to locate Mr. Heekin.
     “But it seems he has disconnected his phone and e-mail.
     “Evidently, the attendance was virtually non-existent, the program never materialized, and even the promised meal functions were cancelled.
     “Both years that IACC held the event in Houston, speakers were listed who had never even been asked to participate.”
     The apparent loss of IACC follows the debacle in Miami last year when the World Trade Center’s Air Cargo Americas (ACA) thought it could stay open even as furious Category Four Hurricane Wilma slammed into Miami, cutting power, closing the airport, and even spurring some looting in the City of Miami.
     But World Trade Center is a big rich organization that reportedly rebuffed exhibitor requests for refunds, while offering a no-win option to the industry with a hurry up, ill-timed, and sparsely attended show, in March 2006 just before the solidly booked Superstar, regularly planned CNS event was held in Las Vegas in May.
     Come to think of it the rescheduled ACA helped create a glut of too many shows in North America around the same time, surely impacting IACC and other events.
     But speaking of CNS the “Annual Partnership Conference,” that will be held next year in San Bernardino, California is now taking on even greater importance with the apparent demise of IACC and reduction in importance of Air Cargo Americas.
     CNS Partnership may have good timing on its side having been infused with new leadership as reported here exclusively last week, as  Jens Tubbesing (left) steps up as new President and Aleks Popovich (right) has firmly taken hold of the reigns as director of cargo for IATA.
     Aleks has made it quite clear that his mandate includes reshaping CNS into a balanced, aggressive and proactive organization for the 21st century.
     But for a moment, we like to think that the more boats in the water the bigger the wake.
     So we like other publications in air cargo and lots of airlines and forwarders and trade shows too.
     We will miss IACC if indeed it’s curtains for that show.
     Maybe like Mark Twain once quipped, Terry Heekin will surface somewhere and put on another show saying, “reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
     Of the whole bunch of event organizers, Terry is/was a bonafide trade showman.
     For air cargo, the show must go on.
(Geoffrey)