Feature article—
"Future of Trade Show Marketing? You Decide."

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"Virtual trade shows" replace the real thing? Poppycock! If anything, the pervasive juggernaut of such technology will make exhibitions more attractive as the preferred place to get away from chaos, think, and do real work.

Exhibitions are the best marketing environment for buyers, as well. Exhibitors who repeat the mantra, "there are too many shows," often forget that decision makers select the events they will attend based on the degree to which exhibitor profiles match the needs those buyers are seeking to fulfill. Segmentation. Focus. These are good things.

Trade shows organize and consolidate suppliers, resulting in maximum efficiency for buyer education, comparison, and selection. Real time.

Physical products and physical people are available to these decision makers in a way that no other marketing medium can even come close to! Never will. Try it out, try it on, learn how it works. Preview the level of comfort in the buyer/seller "partnership" before the point-of-no-return contract is signed. The dialog begins, continues, and can be closed here for business relationships.

Accountability is also at an all-time high. When I'm making an important purchasing decision, I want to know that the seller is real. Substantial. Invested. Exhibitors show me that. On the other end of a glitzy Web Site, I risk dealing with some fly-by-night Joe in bedroom slippers, operating from his mom's basement. I like the discrimination of the trade show floor, whereon only the serious companies can exhibit well. I see what he's all about and I can watch the reactions of other buyers, customers, competitors, the media, et cetera, as they pass and visit his booth as well. That says a lot.

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