Retail
MarketStar Retail
MarketStar Channel
MarketStar Direct
Industry Insights
News and Notes
For centuries people have been coming together to buy and sell. Whether product, service or ideology, we love to meet and we love to do it face-to-face.
I just had the opportunity to attend the HIMSS show and it was truly a tradeshow experience at its best. For all of the meetings, conferences and expo halls where I have wandered and connected, there is one truism for all: Every event has a shelf life. The one industry extinction most of us remember was Comdex, although it’s still alive in cyberspace. HIMSS, however, is one on the early side of the bell curve gaining momentum.
What was great about that experience was the energy, and the buying and selling that happened. In this particular space – Healthcare IT – I heard several times the phrase, “It’s really like the Wild West right now for us.” Content, training, dinners, one-on-ones, press, partnerships, etc. … so much buzz.
There isn’t a better place to put your finger on the pulse of what is happening in a particular market than at an event. We share more with each other when we meet live, and our face-to-face activities seem to have more gravity.
As the world evolves and automates, there is always a group that espouses prophecies of finality. There’s the end of the world, the demise of the channel, death of e-mail, no more newspapers and print publications. My particular favorite was the “paperless office” back when we thought everything would be done online. I specifically remember a renowned technology thought leader saying, “I believe as much in a day of the paperless office as I do in the paperless bathroom.”
The tradeshow has undergone changes; going virtual, geo-locating services, products and people searching for each other on social media, and GPS locators; nevertheless it still lives on and continues to evolve. With all of these changes, I for one, look forward to the next event and, more importantly, face-to-face business opportunities with you.
So colleagues, friends and future business partners, I look forward to seeing you at the next show.
Am I right or what? What do you think?
100% agree. three thoughts on this 1) people will always do business with people they like. there is no better way to build relationships and trust then to meet face to face where a common experience is shared. we still very much appreciate the value of a handshake. 2) people are either visual, auditory or tactile learners. a trade show/conference experience offers and supports all three – an opportunity that cannot be replicated with any other format. 3) the more people get introduced to each other, products and opportunities on line, the greater the need (and appreciation) for face to face events (see thoughts 1 and 2
i agree it is critical that live events evolve with market dynamics and also suggest they integrate themselves with and leverage the new and alternative mediums.
I look at the trade show business like the magazine business. People love magazines and there is a real need. Yet, at this point in the digital age, the magazine business is dwindling (not dying) BUT not because people don’t like to read magazines. It’s the advertising business model that supported the magazine industry that broke. Too many potential advertisers (=exhibitors) believe they have better things (=internet) to do with their money. So there will be far less magazines and as a business, magazine have to evolve with the internet age. I am suggesting trade shows will dwindle in number and those that survive will learn, as Nancy says, to evolve. Some trade shows– despite being needed– will still die. In Europe, some trade shows are thriving: look at ISE in Amsterdam as an example of a growing success.
Another way to look at this is the economic advantage of a trade show. If I can take one flight and stay in one hotel room but meet with five, ten, 15, 20 potential business prospects, then I have done my job, and SAVED money in the process.
I also echo the sentiments of everyone else on the value of the handshake. LinkedIn and Twitter a great gap fillers in relationships, but nothing beats the face-to-face.
Pingback: Why the tradeshow will never die…and why you must keep going « Sales-Channels.BlogNotions - Thoughts from Industry Experts