These leverage the many advantages of time-specific, physically-substantiated media that have been quantified over the years. These include maximum decision making team contact per customer, minimum time between customers. Amortized promotion costs; collective interest development. And, of course, an inherent sense of urgency in the “call to action.”

As Mr. Seger of RidgeRun Inc. emphasized in Marketing News, “When you’re talking about a sales relationship, you’re talking about issues that are gut-wrenching. I don’t see getting all those issues resolved in Web conferences.”  Neither do I. Not by a long-shot.

Are hybrid expos between major exhibitions and sales calls perfect? Of course not. But to go from an ideal one-on-one personal sales call dynamic to a none-on-many web presentation is a speculative guess with consequences no one has the data to consider at this point. Marketing News is surely the place for such a debate, and I would welcome it on an even playing field. But let’s hear all the options for addressing the sales needs which have not gone away simply because some of our flexibility has been challenged.

This is a long-term war we are faced with after all.