Posted December 24th, 2008 by richard
With the recent announcement that Apple is not exhibiting or participating in the Macworld Trade show, chills have been felt through the industry. Shortly after that the Paris Macworld show was cancelled outright. Is this an industry trend? A recent Tradeshow Week article featured the thought that show size was down, but new media marketing was up. A survey by trade show week showed that the average size of exhibitions had gone from 250,024 sq. feet to 231,451 sq. feet. That is an interesting figure.... however, anecdotally I can say that this may be a trend towards smaller square footage in booths and not necessarily a turning away from event marketing.
[more after the break]
What do we in the exhibits industry need to do? Its time to double down on what we have always been great at. Providing excellent customer service and maximizing the budgets of our customers. Can we refurbish or recycle a booth and add components that keep it up to date? Can Audio Visual components be added at a low cost to really revitalize an exhibit? Last time I looked you could pick up a 42" LCD screen of $999 online. Seven years ago they cost $10000.
Is the trade show industry in trouble? My answer is NO! As long as there are people, there will be places to gather. People love to travel and they love to interact in person. In the business world there has never been a better place to do that other than the trade show. It is a great place to learn, interact and advertise for our clients.
What do you think? Is the trade show industry in trouble? What can we do to keep our industry viable?
We would love your comments
Trade shows, like every other part of the world-wide economy will have a tough year or two. Yes, some exhibitors will stop exhibiting and some exhibit builders and trade show suppliers will go out of business, but we can also see opportunities in the market.
Recessions are a time when almost all exhibiting companies are looking for ways to save money. Smart and hard working AE's can find new business if they can help their potential customers cut expenses. In financially good times, perhaps 80% of these prospects would be perfectly happy with their current suppliers, but recessions can be an opportunity to find new clients that otherwise would not be looking for new vendors.
Certain industries will also do better than others. Sustainable energy shows like WINDPOWER, RETECH and SOLAR are growing while most, if not all, auto shows are shrinking for obvious reasons. The U.S.A. is also going to print & spend a lot of money on infrastructure in 2009 and that is going increase the need for buyers and sellers in certain industries to go to trade shows.
I see attendance falling off at a lot of shows, even CES the last few years, the foot traffic has been much slower. The interesting thing is........the people that do attend seem to be spending more money. They plan their time better and make the most out of the time with their vendors. As long as people have things to sell there will be people with money to spend.
We have seen many shows, where attendance was going down in 2008, at times where the economies seemd to be positive. That has some structural reasons, most important development of online communication, and also concentration processes in the industries. The severe crisis late 2008 and 2009 will add a cyclical momentum, and I am convinced that the tradeshow industry will be hit badly. However some of the big organizers will report for 2008 record breaking financial results (Messe Frankfurt, Messe Duesseldorf announced that already).
Life communication and trade shows will remain a strong, however cyclical business, because business is done by people, and the function of trade shows will shift more to community building and information. That is an old story....because it is the bottom line.
Cheer up!
Big shows like CES and Macworld are only one small aspect of the trade show industry. There are hundreds and hundreds of great niche B2B shows that are growing year over year and more effective as ever. The mega exhibit and mega trade show will continue to decline, while we will see greater participation in smaller niche shows.
Just wanted to update this article.... it seems that mega shows may not be dead after all. Apple is now going to be exhibiting in CES something that it has not done for the last few years. So go figure. This is the report filed in the Appleinsider:
"That indicates that an Apple appearance at CES 2010 might likely serve primarily a symbolic move by Apple as it cements its increasing importance in the consumer electronics world at the expense of Microsoft, generic PC makers, smartphone vendors, and its other competitors in the consumer electronics industry"
Whatever, the reason while Macworld maybe on the decline, it may just lead to an even bigger CES next year. Long live the trade show. Face to face marketing will not die.