From One Engineer to Another

12 Reasons Why Virtual Trade Shows Fail ...

Thursday, November 20, 2008 by Rick Short [Rick Short]
Indium Corporation exhibiting at VIRTUAL PCB.

Indium Corporation exhibiting at VIRTUAL PCB.

"12 Reasons Why Virtual Trade Shows Fail to Realize Their True Potential"

... is the name of an article written by Ramesh Sambasivan. He says it so well that I truly have nothing more to add.

Here are some of the points, to whet your appetite for the full article:

  • Virtual tradeshow participants do not like to share their success stories.
  • Use of traditional media to pull audiences into a virtual trade show is known to fail.
  • The feeling that anything online ought to be free.

 

I've participated in virtual trade shows (that's me in the bottom-left corner of the image, at a Circuits Assembly virtual trade show, Virtual PCB), and will do so in the future. One of the 12 reasons is very important to me:

  • The tradeshow metaphor is being carried too far.

To help these events gain value we may need to break the mold and consider what these things truly are.

Read this great article, then come back and comment.

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Comments for 12 Reasons Why Virtual Trade Shows Fail ...

Friday, November 21, 2008 by Claude Schuyler:
I agree that the metaphor is carried too far. Creating a little mini trade show may be a cute idea but in practice it strikes me as similar to going to a model train exhibit and expect to catch a ride from New York City to Buffalo. The infrastructure and design of these trade showssizes, formats, acceptable file types— limits the potential to deliver dynamic content on the web. When weighing the potential of these online events the consideration should be what trade show goals can the web fulfill when compared with an actual trade show. Once this is established, create a more flexible vehicle that fully supports the delivery of this content. Another observation is that current virtual trade show limitations tend to make the viewer experience generic, not unique to the exhibitors personality and brand. I think this contributes to the lack of emotional buy in from viewers and the potential to interact on a more meaningful basis.

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