It's all about networking
I spoke to Portcullis marketing manager Clive Room while I was there and he gave me his reasons for not exhibiting. “In these days where ROI is pre-eminent, justifying the cost of a small stand at a trade show is very difficult,” he said.
“The way forward is for these shows to be the Facebook of the industry; encouraging people to exchange ideas in a field that has behaved all too secretively in the past. Discretion may be the better part of valour, but no man is an island entire of itself.”
"The way forward is for these shows to be the Facebook of the industry."With specific reference to the security industry Room observed that he thinks visitors are using the show for the wrong purpose and this could easily be applied to many other trade shows. “A lot of people are walking around Infosec looking for a ‘plug-and-play’ security solution, when they should actually just be talking to each other and trying to establish a consensus on best practice.”
My own opinion of trade-specific shows is that they are primarily useful for networking. That’s why, despite the quietness of the Birmingham event, I was able to have a lot of interesting conversations. I didn’t find much actual news, however, which further emphasises its role as a networking event than a trade show.
Distributors clearly agree with me, with previous show stalwarts like VIP and Interface Solutions staying away and Enta’s presence diminished from last year. Even Ingram Micro, which always has a relatively big stand at the show, last year launched its own show and the word is that it plans to repeat it this year.
I’ve heard many other distributors say that they can see far more ROI from hosting their own events than paying for a stand at the NEC and it is this trend that future shows have to compete with; demonstrate ROI or die.
Still, lest we forget, there are some other reasons to go to a trade show.
Incidentally, rather than pay the rates at the hotel next to the NEC, we stayed at a nearby B&B instead for considerably less. Our enjoyable stay culminated in a huge English breakfast and a free transfer to the NEC so you could do worse than consider The Redlands if you ever need to attend an event there.
