TRADE SHOWS
Tradeshows – are they worth the investment?
Healthcare exhibition season is here again – Healthcare Estates in Manchester, Medica in Düsseldorf and in early 2020, Arab Health in Dubai - as well as a myriad of other trade fairs, trade shows and conferences. Allison Seabourne of Medstor considers whether, in an age where so much in the healthcare world is preceded by the word ‘virtual’ or ‘digital’, there is still a role for the human interaction offered by these events, and asks the question, in 2019, are trade shows still relevant?
Ask anyone in the healthcare industry, and they will agree that attending a trade show, particularly an international event, costs a lot in time, effort and, of course, money. Stand design, liaising with the venue, planning, staff training, sorting flights and accommodation, marketing, getting equipment shipped to the venue safely and at the right time then taken away again, even making sure you have enough brochures and branded giveaways – it calls for real team effort, a huge number of hours and costs thousands.
Add to that the increasing necessity to
justify and audit every penny spent, and you can see why companies might question whether it wouldn’t be easier to just run a social media campaign and leave it at that. However, as sales director of Medstor, I have always believed that the importance of conferences and trade shows cannot be overstated and have first-hand experience of the long-lasting customer relationships created directly from meeting at these type of events. They are also a perfect opportunity to take our products, made, to my great pride, in our own factories by our own staff, and offer them for use globally – a truly rewarding experience. Attending trade shows gives you time to focus, to network in person, learn from other experts, share ideas and pitch products. We can all too easily become consumed by our
English business language, plus the consistent high quality of UK manufactured goods and our flexibility to trade, often stands us head and shoulders above our competitors.
In the beginning…
I have no doubt that our participation in trade shows over the last 20 or so years has played a vital role in Medstor’s growth, and I see no reason at all why other companies that provide a quality product should not experience the same benefits. As a supplier of specialist healthcare materials management solutions, the NHS was our primary UK trading partner and we were lucky to be part of their extensive implementation of materials management in the late 80s and throughout the 90s, which continues with the government’s new Scan4Safety initiative, currently under implementation.
own operational platforms and lose sight of the wider industry picture and the opportunities that exist in an increasingly developing world. I believe that events like Medica offer an incredible opportunity for UK companies to take their products and services to a global audience. Countries that may have once seemed impossible to sell into are now open for business. Our shared
I believe that events like Medica offer an incredible opportunity for UK companies to take their products and services to a global audience. Countries that may have once seemed impossible to sell into are now open for business.
22 I
WWW.CLINICALSERVICESJOURNAL.COM
The sharing of knowledge and best practice from this national interface is invaluable, and when paired with the opportunity to be able to share these practices globally, the knowledge grows exponentially. While we started out with one main customer - the NHS - I always felt it a shame that the UK didn’t have its own industry trade show. The demise of the two Blenheim Maxwell Birmingham shows called time on the large pavilion events other than the National Association of Theatre Nurses (NATN) at Harrogate, which did continue for some time after this, offering a fantastic platform for innovation and shared community. We know the NHS is dynamic, and while the drive to reduce waiting times in the late 1990s led to a real growth in the delivery of private healthcare providers, massive changes were also underway as to the funding initiatives as we entered one of the busiest new build programmes the NHS had
OCTOBER 2019
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