We hold several virtual trade shows in closely monitored corporate environments, very successful and much loved by the participants, which are held entirely online, with no in-person counterparty. However, the definition of success for these virtual trade shows is different from what the convention industry would consider to be the definition of a successful trade show. What I envision will happen is that all marketing departments will be woven into virtual trade shows as part of their marketing mix. This post may seem like introspection or a set of lessons learned. As is often the case with any introspection exercise, something good will come out of it. By understanding and confronting the reasons for the failure of virtual trade shows to realize their true potential, to be able to connect millions of companies around the world, I hope to facilitate reflection on the right climate for virtual trade shows to flourish.
It’s only a matter of time before virtual trade shows become as popular as social media. Social media is limited to people who know each other through a certain degree of separation. Virtual trade shows, on the other hand, make casual encounters possible. Therein lies its power and potential.
- Virtual trade shows can connect businesses, but they don’t connect emotionally with business professionals. It is more interesting to hear about a real-life romance that sprang from an online dating site than to hear about a successful business from a potential customer found at a virtual trade show. Have you ever heard of two companies falling in love with an online matchmaker and wanting to do business together? Even if we hear about them, perhaps there are very few scenarios where they can become human interest stories.
- Virtual trade fair participants don’t like to share their success stories. When we piloted a trade show for the promotional products industry in October 1999, I made a few follow-up calls to find out if any actual inquiries and orders were generated. In fact, one exhibitor had someone place an order directly after visiting their virtual booth. Here is the problem. For competitive reasons, he didn’t want me to advertise it. About a month ago I heard that a virtual exhibitor was talking about 2 contracts she won after online visits to her virtual booth from buyers of a large Fortune 100 corporation. Again, due to competitive reasons, she has avoided media attention. I heard it took 15 years for sliced bread to become wildly popular. I think virtual trade shows will be more successful once it’s not such a well-kept secret.
- Virtual trade shows are too transparent. Every mouse click can be tracked in a virtual trade show. Trade show organizers are more easily accountable for trade show performance than they deliver to exhibitors. The return on investment in a virtual trade show is easy to identify and analyze in absolute terms. In a real world trade fair, there are several subjective aspects that influence the perception of the participants of whether they consider a trade fair to be a success or not.
- The virtual trade fair is a loser without cheerleaders. Without exception, whenever I have mentioned virtual trade shows to marketers and exhibitors, they have always expressed great enthusiasm for its value. However, when it is seen as a replacement for face-to-face trade shows, it has elicited strong mixed reactions. Often times, a concert at a trade show is an escape from the cubicle. It is the time when one can combine a trip to exotic places together with the family and have a mini vacation. Virtual trade shows are not limited to fighting misconceptions about what they can do for a business, they actually compete with a marketing executive’s free time. Virtual trade shows shoot themselves in the foot when they try to position themselves as people who help a business executive spend time with his family. Asking someone to give up trade shows in person and doing only virtual trade shows is like asking a chocolate connoisseur to give up chocolate. Highly unlikely.
- “There is no such thing as a virtual trade fair”: This, literally, was the welcoming comment from a veteran trade show industry executive whom I had met during our first few years in business, when I was driven to his office. While describing the magic of bringing a trade show to life in person, the magic of ‘getting it right’, the magic of bringing the right attendees in front of the right exhibitors year after year, the magic of seeing an empty convention center coming. I live for a period of 3 days, the emotion of creating value and entertainment, I could see in their eyes the pride and joy of creation. He said he feels like a Hollywood filmmaker. Virtual trade shows will most likely have to wait until they have learned to scale into untapped alternate markets before they can earn the respect and attention of veterans in the trade show and media industry. For now, it’s like telling Formula One drivers that their races will take place in the arcade. In their current state, virtual trade shows can provide neither a comparable adrenaline rush nor the incremental financial incentive to excite established trade show organizers.
- The metaphor of the fair is being taken too far. When we started in the late 90s, it made sense to borrow the trade fair metaphor for these online events. Making a virtual booth look and feel like a real-world trade show booth helped users climb the learning curve quite well. However, the demographics of the workforce have changed significantly in the last decade. Newcomers to the workforce see the web as an extension of their universe. There is no need for a real world metaphor to explain what one is trying to do with a virtual trade show. So why should a virtual booth look like a real world trade show booth? Why should one have virtual trade shows that have a two-dimensional panoramic view of an exhibition hall with mindless human figures gliding aimlessly? Why don’t virtual trade shows define themselves to provide an additional dimension to a company’s entire marketing experience? Why provide a metaphor when the virtual trade show can never replace the in-person trade show and is not designed to replace it?
- The absence of standards on what an ideal virtual trade show should do is a major hurdle. We receive inquiries for different types of online environments. They cannot be accurately described by the term virtual trade shows. They serve various purposes. They always have a business objective. Your goal is to solve one or more problems. Often they have nothing to do with in-person trade shows. However, the absence of standards for virtual trade shows means that it is open to anyone’s interpretation. When you look at public access virtual trade shows, whether from HGTV or the EPA, you never know what to expect. The concept of interaction at the same time and in different places, as my co-founder aptly puts it, is missing most of the time. Having users go through mindless and convoluted pages of navigation only serves to reveal that the virtual trade show suffered from a lack of clear direction, purpose, or a sense of ownership.
- Using traditional media to attract audiences to a virtual trade show has been known to fail. We have learned this from experience. If you send me a postcard in the mail reminding me of a virtual trade show, or if you place an expensive ad in the nation’s leading magazine about a virtual trade show, I still can’t click to enter.
- Exhibitors and sponsors do not appropriate the virtual trade show experience on offer. Unfortunately, some of the virtual trade shows that I have experienced include cases where a media company runs through roadblocks to advertise the virtual trade show, hitting me with emails to stay on my radar screen, only to have no human being. real available online during the live event, or have someone clueless and / or indifferent, simply jot down an email address and phone number to pass on to the right person. Virtual trade shows fail when sponsors and exhibitors don’t have enough skin in the game.
- The feeling that anything online should be free. There are two problems with giving access to a virtual trade show for free, even when a sponsor fully supports it. One is that without enough in-game mask, the groups that are supposed to appear online to make the virtual trade show a success will probably not appear. Second, when a virtual trade show is delivered for free, it cannot receive adequate support. An inadequately supported virtual trade show, in turn, is a disservice to users and to the concept itself. Like face-to-face trade shows, a virtual trade show is distinguished by the quality of the traffic and the interaction it can produce.
- I danced even though my feet hurt. Trade shows are usually a lot of fun. They often include a band and a dance floor. Virtual trade show producers then have a very poorly woven argument under which to cover themselves if they try to tell trade show participants that some foot pain can be avoided at our virtual trade show. Sometimes the “no sore feet” argument sells, but is not strong enough to result in widespread acceptance of virtual trade shows.
- Neither the green movement nor the rise in gas prices can help virtual fairs become commonplace. While participating in the green movement is great, I hesitate to anchor the value proposition for our virtual trade shows on that argument. The same goes for rising gasoline prices. Virtual trade shows have been convincing in value even when gasoline was selling for $ 0.95 a gallon. It shouldn’t be any different even if gas reaches $ 8 a gallon. Virtual trade shows have been convincing in their value long before clear filters at airports force us to spend an extra 10 minutes in the gym. There are no free gas coupons here. Riding the latest news headlines has never helped virtual trade shows.