Not Only Luck.
An essay by John Melonakos

The Value of Tradeshows

My opinion on tradeshows has evolved since we started in 2007. At the beginning, they seemed so fun and like a great way to unveil ourselves to the market and to potential customers. I hoped they would be a driver of revenue for our business.

Initially they drove a some business. Over the years, the new business from tradeshows has declined. We see the same people year after year at the same shows, and the number of new attendees is just a fraction of the total.

Tradeshows as a driver of new business are getting disrupted by online lead generation opportunities.

Tradeshows are also a big time sink. Think of the opportunity cost of a 1-week tradeshow. That’s over 2% of annual office productivity lost on a single tradeshow. That’s a lot to burn on an event, not to mention the costs of preparation, travel, exhibition, and toll on family life.

We still go to be part of the market and, importantly, a good support for our partner companies. We go for branding. But I don’t think it moves our revenue needle much any more.

Overall I still love going to tradeshows and taking part. But we are reducing our presence at most conferences and eliminating several completely from our yearly routine.

What are your thoughts on the value of tradeshows?

 

 

Related articles

From the conversation

Comments preserved from the original post.

Johnson Cook

I agree with you. Smaller shows are only new business drivers the first few rounds… BUT, then they become relationship strengtheners/builders. (This is especially true for high touch, services businesses where relationships matter more than product/SaaS businesses.) If you have some good current clients at those shows, they like to see you there. It gives them confidence in your growth and pride that they are clients. Also the tradeshow fees are often close to the fees to attend so you can just see the booth as a way to be in the crowd and then wine and dine your clients during the event.

Tyler Tatum

You make a valid point regarding the need to assess the value of any tradeshow you attend.

I read a blog post by Tim Ferris. He mentions this exact issue:

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/11/08/how-to-dominate-any-tradeshow-and-why-even-solo-entrepreneurs-should-try/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timferriss+%28The+Blog+of+Author+Tim+Ferriss%29

My takeaway from my experience and the lessons in this blog are that you need a goal for every tradeshow you attend. Further, you need to optimize your approach to meet that goal. If you are looking to maintain client relationships, and you feel a booth is overkill, then I would suggest attending and having a hospitality suite at the conference hotel. You need a room regardless, and inviting people to the hospitality sweet may be cheaper and more effective than having them visit your booth. You may also be able to leverage space in a partner’s booth for shows that are not your high priority tradeshows.

If you do decide to go all out on a tradeshow, I think you have to get creative and find ways to make your target audience enjoy interacting with you at that tradeshow.

lance

If you want a boondoggle go to the trade shows. But I will tell you I have tried to justify them in many businesses from a ROI perspective. They do not pay out. Cost per lead is too high. Customer acquisition cost is too high. Cost of incremental business is too high. There might be some value in product choice validation but I have yet to figure out how to make it work from a numbers perspective.