Are tradeshows dead? In the traditional “booth and sales” sense, perhaps they are. However, like everything else, one needs to constantly innovate and respond to industry trends. The Tradeshow Industry is no different.
Tradeshows
I read in Portfolio.com today that CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is losing out to individualized messaging tactics by companies (like Apple and Microsoft) that used to rely heavily on the CES as a venue to annually launch new innovation and products. Microsoft has recently also given up the event’s keynote speech.
I argue that the premature obituary of tradeshows like CES is really a fork in the road. Tradeshow and event managers can continue along the slow path of inconsequence, or they can lift up their view, and see the very solution unveiled at CES. This means greater consideration of their exhibitor and the consumer needs and overall customer experience.
Tradeshows and conferences continue to have one thing digital mediums don’t – which is the living breathing sense of touch that occurs between vendors, prospects, networkers and attendees in a comparative sense between vendor booth to vendor booth. By “sense of touch” I mean the very real interaction of physical human space bubbles interacting with company and product messages, consumer enthusiasm and new technologies and products showcased at these kinds of events.
What is the technical solution? It’s right there, at recent and future CES shows. There is human interaction and information collection via QR Code (quick response code) or Microsoft Tag (a qr-code-like barcode on steroids). [Click>>To learn More about these codes.] This interaction engages the human with the vendor in a living, breathing, and sense of touch experience that is not possible for product launches without events like CES. Moreover, the comparison and interaction between similar vendors and their offerings at launch time can’t happen, without these kinds of events.
Now, with the advent of NFC (near field communication) the living, breathing sense of touch user experience can begin even more automatic and immediate. But, you have to be at the tradeshow to make it work!
Behind this NFC, QR and Tag world is the collection of early data, in mass quantities, in a competitive comparative sense that can’t happen in the Apple or Microsoft Store on the street. In this sense, Tradeshows also have a new role to ignite and accelerate competitive innovation – the kind that will improve the value customers get, in the end.
What I am saying here about technology and data is that the solution to disruptively innovate tradeshows like CES will come from innovation inside the tradeshow industry to disruptively change in order to provide a better experience (event, tradeshow or conference) for its customers. That is, ONLY IF leaders in the tradeshow industry realize the connection and drive disruptive innovation. Disruptive innovation around event data, like for many industries, could well be an entire new and growing business for the industry.
It’s not enough to have the coolest tradeshow booth with the best dressed sales staff in it. Events have to deliver a unique attendee-centric experience and be interactive and engaging – then CES and other events will have a long-lived place in the marketing mix.
