While other aspects of events may have slowed throughout the recession, trade shows have continued to succeed at a steady pace. The main reason marketing teams and organizations have continued to turn to trade shows? Because they provide benefits for organizers, exhibitors and attendees alike.
This article examines several of the reasons why trade shows have remained a shining star despite the challenges of the recent economic landscape, and a number of trends that are expected to emerge in the trade show industry in both the year ahead and beyond.
Keys to Success
Dale Maurer, director of sales and market- ing for the Morgantown Event Center and the
Waterfront Place Hotel in
Morgantown, West Virginia, points out that everyone involved with a trade show ben- efits. "For the organizers, especially associ- ations, [trade shows] bring their members together with clients, so that is an added benefit to membership.”
He continues, "A trade show also adds non-dues revenues, which keeps member- ship costs down and allows the associa- tion management to do their job.”
While the organizer benefits, the
exhibitors also stand to gain because they receive direct access to their targeted audience. Even more so, they gain access to the most interested members of their audience. If they weren't interested in what the exhibitors have to offer, they wouldn't be attending the show in the first place.
Attendees benefit because they are able to obtain the latest information available about products and services that they need while also having the opportunity to interact with these service providers directly. Notes Maurer, "Attendees benefit by seeing new innovations in the industry, taking advantage of trade show sale prices, and networking with others in their industry. It really improves their business- es.”
With over 40 years of trade show planning experience, Maurer sees the symbiotic nature of trade shows. It creates an envi- ronment through which everyone bene- fits, and that is key to the industry's suc- cess. He aptly describes the successful trade show as being akin to a three-legged
36 November December 2011
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