The Shows Must Go On...

I'm in Chicago, about to go to a reseller's end-user show.  Next week, I'll be in Las Vegas for IMEX, the big travel incentive show.  In three weeks I'll be back in Chicago for the Motivation Show.  Then, back to Vegas (twice!) for client events.  Then to Orlando for ASI, and Vegas for PPAI, and...

STOP!!!

I thought the digital revolution was supposed to stop all this Showing.  We'd sit in our offices, connected by video and have Virtual Meetings.  Tradeshows were passe, a relic of a time when information wasn't instantaneous and relationships meant everything.   Did that get shelved along with the flying cars we were promised?

If tradeshows are out of touch you sure couldn't prove it by our business.  If you really wanted to, your feet could hurt just about every week from standing around at somebody's show.  There's national associations, regional associations, Client shows, "vertical" market shows, and God knows what else. 

Sometimes I think we're "showing" more and "selling" less.  I know, I know--going to trade shows is selling, where we meet many clients over a focused period of time.  But 15 minutes (or less--make that definitely less) standing in a booth (and scanning the aisles for other clients/friends/etc.) isn't exactly a great selling environment. 

I've always been a Curmudgeon about tradeshows.  I get the "you can see SO many more people in two days!" argument.  But Quantity needs to be balanced with Quality--There's NO way a tradeshow provides me a chance to impart the important issues of my brand.  There are too many distractions, the sensory overload limits the client's ability to absorb, and my feet hurt. 

But despite all this information at our fingers, we are having more and more shows.  I'm guessing that technology is great for what it does, but it can't replace the things we can gain meeting face-to-face.  And our business remains one of relationship-building, and that's always done better in person.  I may not love it, but I'm gonna have to start liking it because it appears they're not going anywhere (except for Vegas, where I might as well rent a place so I can feel "at home" the 30 days a year I'm out there)...

Pete