Feature article—
"Future of Trade Show Marketing? You Decide."

From the dentist's chair I listen as my doctor-cum-marketer explains how marketing as we know it will be gone in a decade. Gone. And, knowing my life as a recovering exhibit manager, he adds: "I'm afraid that means trade shows, too."

I can't say anything.

Dr. X isn't alone in his belief. Truth be told, he's in the majority. And the ugly truth be told, an arresting number of people in our exhibition industry believe so, too. I expect such proclamations from the computer-obsessed. Corporate America always has been susceptible to the latest notions to solve every business problem imaginable. But our own brothers and sisters of the show floor? Heretics!

In my opinion, this stems from two things. First, these folks must view all marketing tactics as interchangeable commodities. Second, they do not understand the trade show business. How could they?

Let's review the facts.

No other medium affords the seller more control and buyer accountability than a customer interaction on the floor of a trade show. Other media — e-mail, VoiceMail, direct mail — the marketer puts the time and content of response completely in the recipients' hands. Forget the PR spin and ask yourself, "Is that really what you want?"

On the show floor, you see who and what you are dealing with. All of your senses are available for deployment. You can probe until you get the feedback you want and need to cinch the deal. Ask any good sales person: The close comes from quickly and accurately reading needs that the customer may not know how to communicate, or, worse, may want to hide.

Trade shows create an excitement and time pressure that motivates action. Opening and closing days are dates certain. Decisions have to be made. No one wants to be left out. When the exhibitor says, "Offer ends Friday," it has real meaning. Pressure is good for sales! These are seller advantages you can leverage — and you won't find them in the perpetuating ether of cyberspace.

The exhibit hall creates a world of "immersion diversion." Complete, uncompromised attention to the important business attendees come to conduct. No disruptions. This is not only healthy, it's attractive. The average person receives 178 messages each day in an information barrage that interrupts him three or more times an hour. This is the electronic age. So said the Wall Street Journal, citing a study by the Institute for the Future/Gallup Organization. "Critical thinking and analysis get lost" in this environment. (Incidentally, the study also found that e-mail is not replacing other kinds of messaging; it is simply "layered over existing methods, increasing the communication message load.")

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