November 27, 2006 -- (WhatTheyThink.com Exclusive) -- GASC, the owner of Graph Expo, has made a fundamental and revolutionary shift on how they promote post show numbers. Ralph Nappi, President of GASC, shared some of the information and reasoning in his interview during the Frank Romano Show on WhatTheyThink.com last week. (Click on the Webinars link to access the audio archive of this webinar.) Most show organizers report the total number of bodies that "registered" for the show. The problem with this practice is obvious - it does not provide the true picture of actual attendance as no-shows can range from 15% up to 30%. GASC executives believe that industry participants deserve to know more. GASC is now reporting the true verified attendance at their shows. These are the people who were actually in McCormick Place and attended Graph Expo. In a letter sent to industry executives, Ralph Nappi further explained that real attendance is an important metric. "Earlier this year, GASC made a commitment to improve the registration process to capture better data on true attendee participation. In the past, many attendees were incorrectly registered as exhibitors, which prevented us from providing accurate data. But, with the help of many exhibitors this year, we have made great progress in acquiring accurate visitor information from the beginning, which now allows us to provide better attendee data. We have also determined that, from here forward, providing actual verified attendees at the show is the fairest, most accurate way to report attendance." Summary of the Data from Graph Expo 2006: Total ACTUAL Attendees - 30,981 (exhibitors, buyers/printers, educators, etc.) Actual Verified Attendees - 20,079 (Total attendees excluding exhibitors)