The Big Trade Shows Need To Blow Up Their Model And Start From Scratch

It's no secret that Comdex, along with every other big trade show in the industry, faces some serious challenges.

While I personally hate the annual schlep, I'm a huge believer in the value and efficiency Comdex and other shows offer. The difficulty they face, however, is that most of that value and efficiency happens everywhere but in the exhibit hall.

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ROBERT FALETRA

Can be reached at (516) 562-7812 or via e-mail at [email protected].

Far too many people who travel to Las Vegas because of Comdex never set foot in the convention center. Instead, they fork over hundreds of dollars for fancy hotel suites, book a gaggle of meetings, and see more customers and suppliers in a week than would be possible in a month of travel. The trouble is the show organizers get no benefit from this, even though they were the ones who lured everyone to Comdex in the first place.

When you consider the importance of Comdex in helping advance this industry over the years, the role the show has played is evident. For years vendors have spent months planning and executing their Comdex plans to rise above the noise level.

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That noise level was deafening from the mid-80s to the mid-90s. Back then it was so important to be on the show floor displaying products that companies were willing to pay hundreds of dollars a foot to rent space in remote hotels that were considered part of the convention and could be booked only through Comdex.

Today, the world's largest vendors are taking their exhibitions to the major hotels,where they are not only able to display their products and hold press conferences but are also able to set up dozens of quiet meeting rooms.

Seems to me the future of large trade shows like Comdex rests in their ability to transform themselves from a convention-center-centric model into a service model.

Comdex has to service the needs of vendors that want to show their wares and, more importantly, hold meetings in space that is conducive to discussions.

'We need these gatherings to continue to advance the industry and to get a look at true innovation from the smaller companies that have fewer opportunities to display their value to a large crowd.'

When Comdex was at its height and I was interviewing top executives in their booths, the biggest challenge I had wasn't just getting an honest answer but hearing what they were saying above the noise on the show floor.

Comdex was successful at a time when VARs were interested in stand-alone products.

Virtually nothing stands by itself in this connected world, and the show must also accommodate the need of attendees to view everything in a multivendor-connected context.

In short, the old show model must be blown up into pieces so small they can never be re-assembled. The shows' producers then must rebuild the model based on today's needs, even if those needs are not going to afford the owners the opportunity to get anywhere near the margins they would like.

So what needs should be addressed? Quality space must be provided that enables exhibitors to conduct business as well as display products. Attendees must be qualified and organized so they are identifiable. More real-world displays of connected technologies should be added. Organizers need to do a better job of cutting costs to make it less expensive for attendees to book plans through them than to go around them. And we need some excitement to draw crowds,and I'm not talking about eight or 10 lame keynotes from the same executives giving a marketing pitch.

I hope the big shows will adopt this new model because I believe we need these gatherings to continue to advance the industry and to get a look at true innovation from the smaller companies that have fewer opportunities to display their value to a large crowd.

Make something happen. I can be reached at (516) 562-7812 or via e-mail at [email protected].