Trade Shows Still Necessary in Digital Age

In the wake of Customer Contact Expo, Chris Dealy explains why there is still a lot to be gained from attending a trade show.

Nobody goes to trade shows or exhibitions any more, right? You can do so much research about potential purchases online nowadays that it’s hard to justify taking a day out of the office to schlepp round the NEC, Cobo Center or Olympia.

Numerous studies have revealed that business people are at least 70% of the way towards making a purchase decision before engaging with vendors. And let’s face it, trade shows are murder on your feet and the catering is terrible!

But maybe we should think again. Trade shows do offer a few advantages:

Scalability

They are scalable for both attendees and exhibitors. Instead of dedicating a day to a 1:1 meeting with a vendor, you can browse all the vendors in a single day and spend as much or as little time as you like with each.

The ability to do many meetings with customers is welcomed by today’s low-cost/high-functionality cloud vendors, for whom scalability and efficiency are imperatives.

Networking opportunities

They enable networking. As well as visiting the expo stands, you can attend seminars and presentations.

Of course, many of these have a marketing angle, but it is rare that there are no ‘take-aways’ that you can apply in your operation. And of course you can catch up with old friends and new industry peers in the bar or restaurant.

There’s no substitute for meeting the people behind the company logo

You can meet the people from the different vendors. The old saying that ‘people buy people’ is still true even in today’s world of social media. A web demo is great, especially when delivered by a subject-matter expert with first-hand experience as a user of the product.

But there’s no substitute for meeting the people behind the company logo. Are they really as passionate about the product as the website claims? Do they know what they are talking about? Would you trust them to help you get up to speed with the product? Face-to-face meetings with vendors can be surprisingly revealing.

Distance from the office gives you time to think about strategy

You get time to reflect, away from the distractions of the office. When you block a day out to visit a trade show, you cancel your meetings, pass the baton to a colleague and get some time to focus on the big picture.

You can think about strategy rather than tactics, temporarily freed from on-the-day fire-fighting and the need to take care of today’s details.

So don’t dismiss the trade show as being completely outdated. To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumours of its demise have been greatly exaggerated!

With thanks to Chris Dealy from injixo