Either You're With Us Or Against Us

Tim Bourquin bares his soul in this intriguing and sure-to-be-controversial post on whether he should continue in offering a tradeshow component to his New Media event.

He lists five areas of dealing with vendors and prospects where he's reached his wit's end:
- wireless internet
- drayage
- "pay for play" (prospect's refusal to exhibit w/o a speaking opportunity)
- attrition
- lack of control over how subcontractors treat customers

On first read, I think part of Tim's challenge on the cost issues is that his exhibitors are new school thinkers, possibly undercapitalized, and armed with deep and wide metrics from their online marketing activities - metrics difficult to duplicate with inexact media like tradeshows.

The experienced among us know that booth space is often only 20-25% of total exhibitor expense. But as show managers, we have to justify the other 75% too.  Despite advances in data capture, our industry's metrics remain too inexact for many customers and prospects.  For the show manager, there's simply no one spreadsheet factoid we can point at for a specific show and say, "This was your expense. This was your return. How can you say exhibiting at our show didn't work?"

That, plus, particularly with drayage, many of Tim's exhibitors may not be "used to" this type of extortion (or the soda example,  which truly sucks), whereas in traditional and mainstream industries the person responsible for managing the logistics just plugs that number into a spreadsheet because they know it's coming.  So it maybe the unanticipated surprise and shock as the actual figure.

I wanted to give Tim a wider audience for this post as it's a necessary discussion for our industry.

I'd write more about it, but I'm on my wife's Dell which has a broken space bar and uses XP, which I've all but forgotten how to deal with ;-)

Comments

[rainmaker]

Thanks for the link. I read Tim's post and I do agree with him.thank you.

[Trade show exhibits]

Thanks for the link, Rich. I read Tim's post and I do agree with him. The new media is fascinating, but it can cost quiet a bit. The creative minds are a little bit different than the traditional media days. You have to think out of the box with some spice with the new technologies.

[Steve at Pinnacle Trade Show Displays]

Hi Rich, Thanks for the link. I read and enjoyed Tim's post and left a comment there. I agree with him that trade shows can seem like an extortion racket (as you point out, the booth space charge is usually only 25% of the overall cost). I think it's a lack of competition mixed with a small dose of greed, and the "industry" better wise up before they kill the golden goose. Of course, I'm bias since I sell trade show displays, and would hate to see the end of trade shows... Steve

[Steve at Pinnacle Trade Show Displays]

Hi Rich, Thanks for the link. I read and enjoyed Tim's post and left a comment there. I agree with him that trade shows can seem like an extortion racket (as you point out, the booth space charge is usually only 25% of the overall cost). I think it's a lack of competition mixed with a small dose of greed, and the "industry" better wise up before they kill the golden goose. Of course, I'm bias since I sell trade show displays, and would hate to see the end of trade shows... Steve

[Dana]

Thanks for this commentary -- I have been forwarding Tim's post like mad this morning.
He points out so many issues that MAYA Design (a human-centered design consultancy in your own backyard, Rich, in SouthSide) revealed in their recent white papers: The Invisible Attendee and The Invisible Exhibitor. Go to http://www.maya.com/invisible/
I know this comment may sound self-serving to some, but there is some great info in those papers that many show organizers we've talked to have found helpful. I hope people will continue talking about these issues! Tim may inspire others in the industry to educate themselves about the causes and motivations so that they are better armed to make change.

[Tim Bourquin]

Thanks Rich. Starting new shows in new industries definitely means inexperienced exhibitors so that certainly exacerbates the challenges. And you're right that more web-centric companies are the ones who have the biggest issues with in-person events. Good points all. Thanks for the link.

Tim