Is this the death of Tradeshow Exhibitions?
I have taken the day off today to visit The Outdoor Show at the NEC. My wife sent me a text asking me if I was enjoying my (rare) day off, to which I replied: “I am enjoying myself – but the show is pants.”
I go to a few trade shows a year (less-and-less if I am honest) – and they are getting worse. I decided a few years ago not to do any more for my company. People just aren’t going anymore, so you don’t get the leads and sales that you once did. At today’s show – none of the “big boys” were there. I was hoping to that Suunto would be there to demo their new GPS Watch
The best thing about the show as Mobile Massage UK and talking to the owner about her rather unique business model. The massage was great.
The trade show is dying – so what is replacing it?
For me, if I want something, I’ll order it online usually. I’ll search for reviews about the product (especially YouTube) and then make a decision. In today’s society it is all about speed and on-demand information. It’s about engaging with customers through Social Networks and having your product referred by Amazonians or Twitterites.
Of course, the internet can’t replace the tactile nature of products. People often ask if we have showroom (for the sauna business). Yet I have found that just because people ask about the showroom doesn’t mean that they want to come. They just want to know if I have a showroom. It has credibility and people feel satisfied after I have said “yes”. It is better than saying no that is for sure, but it is still frustrating as people don’t come.
I will have traveled over 4 hours today to visit the show, and maybe this is the problem too – it is getting harder to convince people to travel (as I am finding out with our showroom). There now has to be more than just the promise of touching and trying the product. People can do a lot more with their time these days. So it is becoming more and more precious. Why would people want to go to a showroom or trade show to find out about saunas? That takes a lot of time. Google takes less than a second, and you get a massive amount of information back.
There is, in all of this, a catch 22. The people want more reasons to go to the show, which they aren’t getting. Numbers are dropping year by year and so people pull of our exhibiting. Those that do exhibit are so exasperated about being their that they can turn people off. Because the exhibitors aren’t turning up, there is even less of a compelling reason for punters to go and quickly you are in a downward spiral. No people. No content. No Compelling reason to be there.
Sounds like the death of the trade show to me. What about you? What’s your experience?
About Matt Edmundson:
Matt Edmundson is an entrepreneur (of some great businesses), husband (of a beautiful wife) and father (of 3 incredible kids) who lives in Liverpool (a brilliant city), England (God's own country). He is also one of the founding team members of en-thuse (a brilliant ministry and venture to be involved in).
Find all posts by Matt Edmundson | Visit Website
Agree Matt, I went as well and was massively dissapointed. You had to pay for the keynote speakers on top of the entrance fee and a lovely £8 car park charge as well, if I was an ordinary punter, rather than someone in the trade, I would be pretty unhappy.
I have heard rumours that the NEC were being pretty inflexible about costs and it was definitely a lot smaller than previous years as a result. The recession has also had an impact as increasingly business is looking for ROI on anything it spends, and those stands are expensive. I was expecting a lot more gear there and was suprised at how many destinations were there instead.
For me it needs to return to it’s roots and get more of the brands there, you want all the activities to be there, but you also want a chance to buy some gear and for the speakers to be free rather than have to pay again to listen to Joe Simpso, Simon King et al. Saying that, I loved the bushcraft zone, there were some awesome speakers I caught there and it had a real seperate community vibe about it within the whole event.
Hey Gareth – true, the bushcraft speakers were great…I heard the one on natural navigation, which was fascinating. I agree – they did that very well…they must have paid a fortune for that stand though.
A few weeks on, and my opinion is exactly the same as when I wrote this. I have just been to the Gadget Show at the NEC. It was OK. And that is about all you can say about it – it was OK. I went last year, and this one was definitely bigger. There were a lot of people there (so much so it was hard to move around). There were maybe 3 or 4 stands that I was interested in, but I didn’t learn anything that I wouldn’t have found out by looking on the net. If there would have been one show to change my mind – it should have been this one. It hasn’t though. it has just firmed up what I believe. Trade shows are well and truly dead.
RIP.