The Munce Group's first CPE Regionals had a good turnout from vendors, exceeding the attendance of last year' Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) tradeshows in Hershey, Pa., and Riverside, Calif., company officials said.

Seventy-seven exhibitors, representing book, music and gift publishers, attended CPE Regionals East in Hershey, Jan. 7-10. In comparison, ECPA drew 48 exhibitors in 2006. There were 70 exhibitors at CPE Regionals West, held Jan. 14-17 in Riverside. ECPA's show attracted 48 exhibitors last year.

“Both CPE Regionals East and CPE Regionals West were a success,” Brad Poel, Munce Group's media and events manager, said. “We were very happy with how both shows went. There was good attendance from traditional independent Christian retailers as well as church bookstores.

Poel added that church bookstore attendance was strong particularly due to the participation of the Church Bookstore Network, represented by Dave Condiff (associate publisher of The Church Bookstore magazine) and Geni Hulsey, network president and manager of The Garden Bookstore at Houston's First Baptist Church in Houston.

Besides exceeding the attendance of last year's ECPA shows at Hershey and Riverside, Munce Group's CPE Regionals' order volume was up dramatically compared to ECPA events in 2006 “thanks to higher reimbursement requirements,” Poel added.

“We want CPE Regionals to be about order writing, and we motivate retailers to participate to this end,” Poel explained. “We want our shows to be financially worthwhile for participating exhibitors.”

Poel noted that Munce Group was still calculating retailer attendance data. Exhibitor booths were sold out at both CPE Regionals. Munce Group took over the former ECPA events in Hershey and Riverside when the publishers group decided to end its five annual tradeshows last year because of falling attendance.

Read the full report on the merger in the Feb. 12 issue of Christian Retailing.

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