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Correction, 10/3/17: The exhibits in this article were revised due to incomplete data.
Like some of you, we’re gearing up for NASS, the 32nd Annual Meeting of the North American Spine Society. And, like you, our goals for NASS have changed over the years as our business has evolved. Five years ago, we were spending more time with entrepreneurially-minded surgeons and connecting device company executives with spine market data. We’re still doing that. But in recent years, we’ve found ourselves meeting more of our supplier customers at NASS. Each year we felt like the supplier presence was growing, but more pressing priorities prevented us from taking a head count. Well, we just couldn’t ignore it anymore.
Who is exhibiting at NASS this year? Using the NASS 2013 Final Program and the 2017 online list, we did a quick analysis. The results of the exercise are going to help us set our priorities for the conference—and we thought they might do the same for you, at least insofar as setting your exhibit floor priorities. Our sense of the supplier growth proved accurate, as shown in Exhibit 1 below. In five events over five years, the number of supplier exhibitors has increased by 51%. It’s true that the number of OEMs has grown, but far more slowly. One could assert that the slower pace of OEM growth is partially attributable to M&A, and they’d likely be correct (we didn’t dive into deep detail), but let’s not forget the robust M&A activity on the supplier side, as well.
Exhibit 1: NASS Exhibitors 2017 vs. 2013
|  Exhibitor Type |  NASS 2017 |  NASS 2013 |  # Change |  % Change |
| Â OEM (device, biologic) | Â 194 | 181 | Â 13 | Â 7% |
| Â Supplier/Service Provider to OEM | Â 98Â | Â 65Â | Â 33Â | Â 51%Â |
| Â Braces, pharma, misc. non-device | Â 41 | Â 51 | Â -10 | Â -20% |
| Â Society, Publisher | Â 13 | Â 17 | Â -4 | Â -24% |
| Â Total Exhibitors | Â 346 | Â 314 | Â 32 | Â 10% |
We’re curious about WHY suppliers exhibit at NASS. Are they educating surgeons on materials, processes, new developments and the exciting work of actually making the products that they implant? Suppliers have plenty of perspective to share on current and future spine innovation. Or are they seeking out new business from the OEMs manning booths? Are they doing business with each other? Are they considering providing a portion of their offerings direct to surgeons, hospitals and ASCs? The latter wouldn’t surprise us, given the intense level of regulatory and quality mandates they’re operating under. At the end of the day, we suspect it’s all of the above, but we aim to get some direct voice of customer during our time at the meeting.
We’ll be making our way around and spending some time in our booth (ORTHOWORLD Booth 1433). Stop by and share your view. Or, just have a seat and take a load off. We’ll supply the reading material!
You can reach us beforehand, too.
