Marketing For Power Packed Business Growth: Business Exhibitions, Are They Useful?

Monday, November 20, 2006

Business Exhibitions, Are They Useful?

Trade show exhibitions allow prospective customers to

see planned new products
talk to different suppliers
network with their colleagues
network with the rest of their industry

The aim is to educate and in due course the exhibitors will follow-up and sell products and services the trade show visitors looked at.

Contrast that with business exhibitions.

A business exhibition is rather like a 3 dimensional yellow pages. And rather than letting your fingers do the walking you really do walk from stand to stand.

And the stands are full of accountants, hire car firms, conference locations and other sundry business services.

In other words stall holders that many businesses only need on an irregular basis.

You're unlikely to see new products launched - they're aimed at the trade shows.

You can certainly talk to different suppliers and network with other business people.

However, everyone attending is "in business" and often there is no real detailed common ground or understanding of each others business.

One of two Northwest business exhibitions I attended last year was very poorly received and stall holders and attendees I talked to were very disappointed with it.

I'm going to attend a business exhibition in Manchester this Wednesday. Some of the seminars look interesting so I'll see whether it's useful for my business or not and let you know.