We run several highly successful and well-loved virtual trade shows in closely-monitored corporate environments that are held entirely online, without an in-person counterpart. However, the definition of success for these virtual shows is different from what the convention industry would consider to be the definition of a successful trade show. What I anticipate will happen is that every marketing department weaves in virtual trade shows as part of their marketing mix. This post may seem like an introspection or a set of lessons learned. As is often the case with any introspection exercise, something good will come of it. By understanding and confronting the reasons for the failure of virtual trade shows to fulfill their true potential, of being able to connect millions of businesses around the world, I hope to provide some insights into the right climate for virtual trade shows to flourish.
It is only a matter of time before virtual trade shows become as popular as social media. Social networks are limited to people who know each other through a certain degree of separation. Virtual trade shows, on the other hand, make chance encounters possible. Therein lies its power and potential.
- Virtual trade shows can connect businesses, but they fail to connect emotionally with business professionals. It’s more interesting to hear about a real-life romance that sprang from an online dating site than it is to hear about a successful business from a potential client found at a virtual trade show. Have you ever heard of two businesses falling in love in an online matchmaker who want to do business together? Even if we do hear about them, there are perhaps very few scenarios where they can become human interest stories.
- Virtual trade show participants don’t like to share their success stories. When we hosted a trade show for the promotional products industry back in October 1999, I made a few follow-up calls to find out if any real inquiries and orders were generated. In fact, an exhibitor had someone place an order directly after visiting her virtual booth. Here is the problem. For competitive reasons, he didn’t want me to advertise it. About a month ago I heard that a virtual exhibitor was talking about 2 contracts he won after online visits to his virtual booth from buyers of a large Fortune 100 corporation. Again, due to competitive reasons, he has avoided media attention. I heard that it took 15 years for sliced bread to become very popular. I think virtual trade shows will be more successful once they are no longer such a closely guarded secret.
- Virtual trade shows are too transparent. Every mouse click can be tracked in a virtual trade show. Trade show organizers are easier to hold accountable for the trade show performance they deliver to exhibitors. The return on investment of a virtual trade show is easy to identify and analyze in absolute terms. At a real-world trade show, there are several subjective aspects that influence attendees’ perception of whether or not they consider a trade show a success.
- The virtual trade show is an underdog without cheerleaders. Without exception, every time I mentioned virtual trade shows to vendors and exhibitors, they always expressed great enthusiasm for its value. However, when it is perceived as a replacement for in-person trade shows, it has drawn strong mixed reactions. Often a concert at a trade show is an escape from the cubicle. It is the time when you can combine a trip to exotic places together with the family and have a mini vacation. Virtual trade shows not only fight misconceptions about what they can do for a business, they actually compete with a marketing executive’s spare time. Virtual trade shows shoot themselves up when they try to position themselves to help a business executive spend time with his family. Asking someone to give up in-person trade shows and just do virtual trade shows is like asking a chocolate connoisseur to give up chocolate. Highly unlikely.
- “There is no such thing as a virtual fair”: This was literally the welcome comment from a veteran trade show industry executive whom I had gotten to know during our first few years in business, as I was ushered into his office. As he described the magic of bringing a trade show to life in person, the magic of ‘getting it right’, the magic of bringing the right attendees in front of the right exhibitors year after year, the magic of seeing an empty convention center come alive over a period of 3 days, the excitement of creating value and entertainment, I could see in their eyes the pride and joy of creation. He said that he feels like a Hollywood filmmaker. Virtual trade shows will most likely have to wait until they have learned how to scale in untapped alternative markets before they can earn the respect and attention of media and trade show industry veterans. For now, it’s like telling the Formula One drivers that their races will take place in the arcade. In their current state, virtual trade shows can provide neither a comparable adrenaline rush nor the incremental financial incentive to excite established trade show organizers.
- The trade show metaphor is being taken too far. When we started in the late 90s, it made sense to borrow the trade show metaphor for these online events. Making a virtual booth look and feel like a real-world trade show booth helped users scale the learning curve quite well. However, the demographics of the workforce have changed significantly in the last decade. Newcomers to the workforce see the web as an extension of their universe. There is no need for a real-world metaphor to explain what one is trying to do with a virtual trade show. So why should a virtual booth look like a real-world trade show booth? Why should one have virtual trade shows that have a panoramic two-dimensional view of a showroom with mindless human figures gliding aimlessly? Why don’t virtual trade shows define themselves to truly provide an added dimension to a company’s entire marketing experience? Why provide a metaphor when the virtual trade show can never replace the in-person trade show and is not designed to replace it?
- The absence of standards for what an ideal virtual trade show should do is a major hurdle. We receive inquiries for different types of online environments. It is not possible to accurately describe them with the term virtual trade shows. They serve several purposes. They always have a business goal. Your goal is to solve one or more problems. They often have nothing to do with in-person trade shows. However, the absence of standards for virtual trade shows means that it is open to anyone’s interpretation. When you watch public access virtual trade shows, whether they’re from HGTV or the EPA, you never know what to expect. The concept of interaction at the same time and in different places, as my co-founder aptly puts it, is missing most of the time. Making users go through convoluted and meaningless navigation pages only reveals that the virtual trade show lacked a clear direction, purpose, or sense of ownership.
- Using traditional media to attract audiences to a virtual trade show has been known to fail. We have learned this from experience. If you send me a postcard in the mail reminding me of a virtual trade show, or put an expensive ad in the nation’s leading magazine about a virtual job fair, I still can’t click through.
- Exhibitors and sponsors do not take ownership of the virtual trade show experience that is offered. Unfortunately, some of the virtual trade shows I’ve experienced include instances where a media company goes to great lengths to advertise the virtual trade show, hits me with emails to stay on my radar screen, only to have no being real human available online during the live event, or have someone clueless and/or indifferent, who simply takes an email address and phone number to pass it on to the right person. Virtual trade shows fail when sponsors and exhibitors don’t get enough of a hand in the game.
- The feeling that anything online should be free. There are two problems with giving a virtual trade show access for free, even when a sponsor fully supports it. One is that without enough in-game appearance, the groups that are supposed to appear online to make the virtual trade show a success probably won’t. Second, when a virtual trade show is delivered for free, it may not be adequately supported. In turn, a virtual trade show with inadequate support is a detriment to users and to the concept itself. Like in-person trade shows, a virtual trade show is distinguished by the quality of traffic and the interaction it can produce.
- I danced even though my feet were sore. Fairs are usually a lot of fun. They often include a band and a dance floor. Virtual trade show producers then have a very poor argument to hide behind if they try to tell trade show attendees that they can save themselves some sore feet at our virtual trade show. Sometimes the ‘don’t have sore feet’ argument sells, but it’s not strong enough to result in widespread acceptance of virtual trade shows.
- Neither the green movement nor high gas prices can help virtual fairs go mainstream. While getting involved in the green movement is great, I’m hesitant to anchor the value proposition for our virtual trade shows on that argument. It’s the same about spiraling gasoline prices. Virtual fairs have been compelling in their value, even when gasoline was selling for $0.95 a gallon. It shouldn’t be any different even if gas hits $8 a gallon. Virtual trade shows have been compelling in their value long before transparent screens in airports force us to spend an extra 10 minutes in the gym. There are no free gas coupons here. Riding the latest news headlines has never helped virtual trade shows.
