I get a number of emails asking for sources on industry data. Usually these are fairly straightforward requests for data which can be had (often for a price) from the usual suspects.
Today I got a more interesting request. The email's author was seeking a trade show equivalent of the advertising industry's Red Book. The request was for a resource that would allow tracking of competitors and industry bellwethers by the events where they were exhibitors and/or sponsors along with total spend on these events.
Our industry doesn't have anything like that. Certainly Carat and George P. Johnson have that info for their clients (and probably each other's clients), but there's no single resource out there that offers the breadth and depth of infomation across every industry and product category that the Red Book does.
I believe the reason we don't have our own red book is because ad agencies generally have little to do with trade shows, more than likely because of our historical non-commissionable status.
This would make an interesting project for some data junkie with time on their hands. It might even be a profitable venture.
Anyone up for it?
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