Why I love trade shows as an exhibitor
I get it. As an exhibitor, getting stuck 2 or more days inside a soulless exhibition hall where you hope to convince visitors passing by your stand to take interest in your product or service amidst hundreds of others that are potentially funnier, more appealing, more interesting, can be quite daunting. In addition, it’s usually too warm, too cold, too windy. You must stand up all the time, speak to strangers, do demos, sometimes waste time with someone completely out of your target audience who insists on chatting just with you. You end up each day exhausted, voiceless, and hungry because you’re not supposed to eat on your stand. Plus, there’s a backlog of work since you’re unavailable during the day as you have to remain available for visitors. And let’s not forget the infamous hunters & gatherers, that haunt trade shows with the hope of getting whatever freebies are available — and it can be a lot, from the basic pen to corporate-branded socks, teddy bears, tote bags, various types of toys or anti-stress objects, or simply to get whatever is available to drink or eat.
What’s not to love in all this? Because, yes, all of this is real, and I’m probably downplaying it. Trade shows are like that , and worse. So why bother?
The main reason is very clear. In my space (B2B in SaaS, specifically HR Technologies), good quality trade shows are still extremely valuable. When organized by quality providers that work hard to bring in qualified people in sufficient quantity, trade shows are an excellent opportunity to start a discussion with a prospect who may never have heard of you before. It’s not just good for brand awareness (who is there and who isn’t), but most importantly to gather qualified contacts, engage in conversation, and enable further meetings after the show that will hopefully lead to new business. As all of this is wonderfully traceable with the most basic CRM platform, trade shows are a marketing tool that is very easily measurable, with clear KPIs. The challenge often is that the average time-to-sell in a B2B context is quite long, but you can immediately measure the number and quality of acquired leads, and after a few weeks you can count how many qualified follow up meetings took place.
But all of this is not the main reason why I love attending trade shows. Since they tend to be a gathering point for an entire ecosystem in a specific place, they are also a wonderful networking event. Obviously, you spend time with colleagues that may be based in different places whom you usually don’t really have the opportunity to meet often. During the day but also at breakfast or dinner, you can catch up with them and improve working relationships. During the show itself, you meet clients that may not be directly involved in your project but are nonetheless happy to see you there. You meet partners and can catch up to renew and extend the business relationship. You meet competitors, and can attend their presentations the same way they attend yours, therefore levelling up the playing field. And last, but certainly not least, you meet former colleagues that you’re happy to catch up with, especially if you’ve been in this industry for a while.
At the core, trade shows keep a human and physical dimension in a very much digital world and online businesses. You see people in real life to whom you usually talk via Teams, Meet or Zoom (my condolences to Skype and Webex). You engage in real discussions, and bring a much more real dimension to the business relationship. You add a personal touch because you remember someone had a daughter a year before, or because someone else asks you about your own family. And when it comes to people you spend more time with, such as your colleagues, you also end up making common memories: this one restaurant where we went last year, that one hotel where we’ve stayed before, or that one time where a hugely interesting prospect visited the stand 5 minutes before closing, which led to a big contract.
This human element is what I particularly like trade shows as an exhibitor. And I think this is why visitors keep coming back: when they know the event is well organized and the exhibitors have invested to meet with them, to answer their questions and maybe, just maybe, solve the issue which brings them to the show in the first place. This human touch is what makes it so successful, and so energizing.
