So, I’m just back from two weeks at the Jersey Shore (thankfully no Snookie or Situation sightings!).  It’s great to unplug and decompress and think about nothing, and then when your mind wanders, think about what you’re doing with your life, the nature of your work and the state of your business and industry.  In my case, it’s trade show and event marketing.

On that last issue, let me ask a few questions.  If you were starting a business today, what role would trade shows and events play in your business plan?

Face-to-Face Marketing – Both attendance and number of trade show exhibitors is again trending upwards.  The CES show had its best year ever on both fronts, with an increasing number of international exhibitors coming from Europe and the Far East.

Measurement – As budgets continue to come under scrutiny, the CFOs of companies are asking for

SkyGEM (Skyline Genesis Event Marketing) recently exhibited at the Business Council of Westchester’s annual “Mega-Mixer” trade show.  With nearly 150 exhibitors and 2,000+ attendees this is by far the biggest local trade show in the Westchester market each year.  As a local B-to-B show, the profile of exhibitors ranged from law firms, banks and insurance brokers to lawn care and limo companies.  Quite a mix.  The profile of attendees was even more diverse.  “Solo-prenuers”, sales people, small business owners (those who didn’t want to exhibit) and a few students filled the room.  I was staffing the exhibit for awhile and I like to ask “Why

At the 2011 Exhibit Designers and Producers Association (EDPA) annual meeting everyone in attendance was there for at least one reason…to hear about how others in the trade show exhibit industry are doing.  Call it what you want but everyone wants to hear about everyone else's business as a way to measure the relative health of their own.  When someone tells you “Things are slow, new customers are rare and trade show budgets are tightening” you feel an instant rush of “Oh, so I’m not the only one” followed by “Oh boy.  Another struggling business.”  Occasionally however you’d have someone say things like “Everything’s good.  We had a great 2011 and looking forward to an even better 2012.”  So, after a moment of loathing and envy because they seem to be doing better than you, you’re actually encouraged that someone in the trade show display industry is actually doing better and that means there’s hope!  End result…the room was filled with conflicted people not knowing if they were happy or sad.

 

The Consumer Electronics Show, just concluded in Las Vegas, was the largest in the history of the annual trade show conference.  Great news for those of us in the trade show exhibit and event marketing business.  Attendance was up from last year, and there were more exhibitors taking up more floor space than ever.  Given the trends of the recent past this is truly and encouraging sign, and the hope is it will be evidenced in trade shows and industry events for the rest of 2012.

At the same time, Microsoft Corporation has announced this was its last CES trade show exhibit.  After careful ROI analysis Microsoft has determined that ...

Year end creates the artificially appropriate time to fill out your annual event marketing scorecard, so here goes.  (Please rest assured this will NOT include any New Year’s resolutions!)

Smooshed!  That’s the sound you hear as the face-to-face marketing worlds and the virtual universe collide!  Maybe it’s also akin to the new “Big Bang” as the entire world is re-created into a new form of living, working, loving, communicating.  Anything really.  Very cool!  Very exciting! And full of new opportunities!

Last week I attended Event Marketer Magazine’s Countdown Workshop in New York City.  As always, I left with my head spinning and feeling a bit “dinosauresque.”  But I took comfort in realizing that few people in the room (if any) knew much about what was presented.  Most of us had the “deer-in-the-headlight” look by the end of the first session about entering the digital age for event marketers.  The takeaways for this session, however, were well worth the time spent.

I spent six plus long days recently setting up and then working a trade show exhibit.  Was the show a success?  Depends who you ask.  I survived standing on carpeted cement for 6 days, so by that measure my survival was a success.  But how about the exhibitors?  Did they walk away with results that made the collective $12,000,000 spent by the exhibiting companies worthwhile?  Do they even know?