As one door opens...

I'm here in Chicago, it's the night before the Motivation Show.  I'm filled with all sorts of thoughts and emotions as the venerable Mo Show prepares for its last performance in its current fall iteration. 

I have these conflicted thoughts in large part because of my experineces two weeks ago at IMEX.  You remember IMEX, don't you?  It's the place where all the travel exhibitors from the Mo Show went last year.  Nobody knew if it would be a success or a failure.  The ancedotal information said it was a success. 

Boy Howdy.  IMEX was a revelation--a return to days I barely remember existed in this business.  Where professional people made appointments, actualy KEPT them, and came to the meeting prepared to discuss opportunities where my brand was a fit and where my equity would enhance the client's event.

The energy on the floor was palpable--I had forgotten what that much "juice" felt like.  And it's all because the End User--those Albino Rhinos we all know exist but yet nobody had ever seen--showed up in force and engaged us to an extent most of us havent experienced since we abdicated the selling process to intermediaries 15 years ago. 

It was amazing--and like putting your finger in a light socket. 

Which brings me round to Chicago.  It used to be that way, when it was both floors of McCormick North.  When the established suppliers had the big booths upstairs, and the newcomers slugged it out in Wild West Show fashion in the basement.  That was Fun. 

It's not that way now.  It hasn't been that way for a long time--probably since before 2001.  I remember writing a blog post and essentially calling the Mo Show "dead"--and that was in 2009.  The once-mighty show has come to this--a shell of its former self, an emaciated remnant of what was so important to our marketplace. 

It's sad. 

I'll miss it. 

Perhaps it will rise, Phoenix-like from the ashes of its current state. 

Perhaps not. 

Maybe we're all fooling ourselves to think that our market "needs" a gathering place.  Perhaps the advent of 24/7 information flow reduces the importance of face-to-face time.  Or maybe we just need to take the moments of electricity like IMEX and accept that they are indeed the exceptions that prove the rule.

I'm here to turn out the lights.  It's a task I'm not very happy about...

Pete