Chiaroscuro Concepts

A few years ago, when the economy collapsed and companies’ marketing dollars seemingly evaporated into thin air, an innovative group of marketers sought to salvage what was once considered an aging and archaic means of marketing: the trade show.

As more and more companies began to tell show producers that they simply lacked the budgets to ship their booths and staff to trade shows in the far flung corners of the US and around the world, a group of marketers sought to staunch the bleeding of the trade show industry by coming up with the concept of virtual trade shows.
In a sense, it was a brilliant move. Who hasn’t been to a trade show either voluntarily or forced to go by your company, only to return home later, bogged down by too much bad food, 15 pounds of company literature you won’t read and 50+ “leads*” generated by your sales team? (*IE—people stopping at your booth to register for the free iPad give away in exchange for swiping their badge with the lead retrieval).  Virtual trade shows would end all of that.

Housed in an online space, your “booth” would function exactly like a plastic/metal (flesh/bone?) booth and sales team would but in a virtual capacity. You could chat online to leads—leads that had to provide an unparalleled amount of information to the show’s coordinators in order to gain access.  You could network and attend mixers.  Look at competitors’ booths and products.  Avoid union charges for drayage and booth setup.  All from the comfort of your own desk. It was genius.

But as virtual trade shows began to actually take place, attendees noticed something.  Not only did they notice that the cost of creating a virtual trade show booth could cost the same amount as a tangible one, but they actually missed all of the trappings that go along with normal trade shows. They missed the people interaction.  The bad food.  The cheesy raffles. The promotional models.  And so they began to go back to the brick and mortar setting of the Jacob Javitz Convention Center.  The Las Vegas Convention Center. And dozens more expo halls around the country.  In the end, the virtual trade show was defeated by the most basic of elements: the need for human interaction.

While virtual trade shows serve a purpose and we can’t completely write them off (we never say never), we can’t help but notice that more companies are returning to the normal route of trade show participation.  And we’re kind of glad about that.  We say long live the droves of floor walkers.  Long live the promotional games.  Long live the exacerbated sales pitches and the build up to attending a show that will probably leave you with a hangover and jet lag.  And long live the companies that continue to push for face to face interaction in spite of our current economic climate.  Because in the end, we are human and that’s something nobody can take away from us.

For help managing your company’s trade show campaign, booth production and promotion, contact Chiaroscuro Concepts at info@chiaroscuroconcepts.comX.