The future of trade conventions and business networking
 A recent survey on the future of trade shows (Fast Future Research) suggests that most people find trade shows too costly to attend relative to their often poor organisation and design. According to the 1000+ respondents, in the future the quality of content, technology made available and opportunities for networking will increasingly be the main drivers for a good event, with ethical and environmental factors continuing to influence the decision to attend.The quality of networking (76%) was named as the most important factor to would encourage delegates to attend events, and nearly 60% of respondent felt their organisation would be investing far more in alternatives to live trade event in the future. The majority (79%) expected a growth in smaller more specialised meetings and 48% thought there would be an explosion in the number of free or very low cost evening only meetings held in low cost venues.
Two-third of the companies regularly attending trade shows believe that they will need to offer strong price based incentives in the future to attract the desired delegates, and they want to focus more on opportunities to conduct transactions at these events. The most commonly expected developments at live events are ‘Live video streaming to remote participants ‘(75%), ‘A social network before, during and after events’ (70%) and ‘All event content downloaded to our mobile phones’ (64%). Using advanced, immersive and experiential technologies were generally seen as the way forward to offer personalised experience and to capture every activity, presentation and conversation at the events. |
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In the past we have had a stand at the three major book fairs, Frankfurt, London and BookExpo America, for the purpose of getting books to translate (we are primarily a translation company, but we specialise in translations for publication). We have discovered s significant downward trend in the amount of business we do. We have stopped attending Frankfurt (much too expensive for accommodation etc.) and just visiting the fair is usually not profitable unless one has specific appointments. This year’s BookExpo was a disaster, largely because the organizers decided, without consulting anyone, to shorten the fair from three days to two! This year, my business partner would not even agree to our exhibiting at the London Book Fair. Considering that I have done so for the past 20 years, I found the disinterest of Reed Exhibitions in encouraging us to exhibit this year to be very disheartening, but then Reed Exhibitions, who also organise BookExpo, are a law unto themselves and the British end (as opposed to the American end) seems to have little interest in encouraging sales.