How Effective Are Trade Shows?

The hardest thing for companies to obtain is ideas. Attending trade shows exposes you to the newest products and trends in the targeted industries. No one, on their own, knows everything that is being developed. Reading trade magazine ads gives only a snippet of information about new developments and often those are passed over without any notice at all.

Attending trade shows puts thousands of the newest developments right in your face with a chance to ask questions about them from the most knowledgeable people, regardless of your immediate need. All you need to do is force yourself, if necessary, to be interested in all you see for three or four hours. You also get to interface with those people on a personal basis. You will remember them, they will remember you.

Time passes. A manufacturing situation occurs that needs to be resolved or a product needs to be developed or modified or packaged or whatever. From somewhere in a dusty corner of your mind, you pull out a recollection of a device, product, service or whatever that would be perfect for solving your situation. Now all you have to do is try to remember anything about your encounter with the exhibitor, do a search to jog your memory of the company name, get their phone number (avoid email initially), call up, ask if they had exhibited at the show and try to find the person you had spoken to. You will remember speaking to him, he to you, and now he will be more than happy to help you with your situation.

How much is that worth?

My engineer always said that if you come away with just one idea, the show was worth it.

And don't limit yourself to just shows related to your industry. I attended shows targeting the industrial process controls industry, my major focus. Having received tickets to a production and packaging show, I attended and found a whole 'nuther" world of ideas out there and expanded my effectiveness.

Hello Jaguar!

Thousands of new ideas and development. I never saw this kind of demonstrations. Where was in trade show Bayer's waterborne 2-components urethane? It was created, tested, and commercialized by one big company to be the first on the marketplace to dominate what was dominated by solvent based urethanes. This is one example. Yes, trade shows are made to have presence, talk with people concerned with their products. New ideas you create them, other people don't give away good ideas like Xerox/PARC. I have many new, different, innovative, and very profitable ideas but I don't have the money, the courage or the commitment to turn into reality. Or my boss told me to cool down, we will do later which never arrived. Here, I talk about specifics and not general opinion about any or all kind of subjet. Please, revise your view and let me know. Sincerely yours, Gil.

EVERY trade show I ever attended has paid dividends far beyond the small investment in time, travel, and lodging.

Dear Guest!

I understand your ability to capture ideas during the visit of any trade show. I follow my profession's trade show, "Coating" trade show, for over 30 years. TRhe result is disastrous. Very little new appears year after year, and I am talking about raw materials, equipment, and process novelties. Nothing or practically nothing happens in this industry during the last 35 to 40 years. Please, don't tell me to change my profession or the industry I am in. It's too late for that. In the other end, I discover that it's possible to innovate when you get out of a big toewn, around 2 or 3 million people, and ask questions to people outside of this zone, and you get free ideas from every individual. I made improvements on quality and processes, created new, unique, and innovative products for niche markets. People don't have any idea how to do, solve problems, and they don't talk about, except when someone ring the bell and they are open to explain their difficulties with existing products. They buy them because they no choice to buy another or better. This is my way be a deviant or different to get new ideas, products, and processes. Just ask yourself, this object is beautiful and useful. Could we make better? Could we improve it? Could we offer the same to someone else? And I stop to suggest questions. It's a good exersize and creates good dividents on the botteom line. Try it! Let me know if is effective in your area of activities!? Sincerely yours, Gil.

I would think the coatings industry would have many, many innovations even in just recent years. Low VOC's, e-coat, electrostatic, powder coat and development of equipment (ovens, booths, material handling, VARIOUS guns, thickness gauges, spectrographic test meters,...)and procedures. I remember in the late "90's the effort that BASF and BMW were going through just to perfect clear powder coat. And this is only paint. Don't get me started on plating of aluminum (wheels, trim) and plastics.

At the shows, the innovations are there, you just need to want to be open to them during the breaks from socializing. All the exhibitors show what they have been showing for years. Some of them bring something new and exciting. It's like trying to find an orchid in a forest.

Hello Jaguar!

No critics to your notes, however, most of the low or no-VOC paint are tinted with nonylphenolethoxilate surfactents and many with huge amount of glycols and other formaldehyde containing colourants. I know what is in the colourants. VOC and toxic products which may get to 2 or 3% by weight of the paint. Advertising is beautiful and efficient but they don't or never tell you what is the final product. Another difficulties to introduce new products into the users' hand. Change furniture manufacturers using solvent based products to waterborne equivalent. Do it and let me know the results of your effort. Semi-gloss alkyd still not killed by legislation or painters' preference. Half of the gallon is mineral spirits. Thanks! Airless spray exists for decades, old fashion thickness gauges still better than many complicated and expensive gadgets, and who needs spectographic testing? Some Dr in chemistry recommend a hard emulsion to create a hard film by suggesting to not use coalescing agent to not increase the VOC. The once tinted and dried paint still soft for 4 days. I prefer to stay simple and use new raw materials without the suggestion of the raw materil supplier's top tech person. They made the resins, emulsions for a specific purpose but it's to us to use where we could use with profit. I'm not talking money. I agree with you that certain organizations create new products but big organizations never accept deviants which people are creators of trouble in those organizations. If you follow others' ideas, you will never be an innovator! All yours, Gil.

I give you a good rating because you point out that good ideas are found "outside the zone". Not only in the coating materials, but at virtually every level of science and engineering, this holds true. After all, e=mc^2 came from a patent clerk, not a world-reknowned physicist!

It is impossible to quantify the value of trade shows in terms that will satisfy the bean counters. I also do not believe that one will discover anything "new" at trade shows- "new" being the cutting edge of whatever technology one is pursuing. Generally, there is a time lag, depending on the industry, between discovery and publication/promotion (perhaps one can discover something "new" by attending shows outside one's primary industry or sphere of interest, but a bit of research will demonstrate that nothing is ever presented first in a trade show).

The real value of trade shows is the personal contact. There is no other way that I know of to achieve this. It is what goes on behind the scenes, at personal encounters, that counts, not how many sales are closed.

"but a bit of research will demonstrate that nothing is ever presented first in a trade show)."

This may be true but more than once I've discovered products or services that I wasn't aware of at trade shows.

Hello to researcher!

Compliments for your discovery! Many people go to visit every trade show because they are out of work for a few days or nothing other to do, have money to show off and socialize with big companies' super people. Yes, raw material suppliers develop new products for big corporations by projects, maintained secret by contract for a year or two, and after that period of exploitation by a few, they release to the last majority to pick-up the dust (market shares) of the marketplace. When you are small, you are the last to know about something new. Imagine that you are a big, multi-billion dollar raw material supplier and you have an innovative product to launch on the market. All salespersons need time to sell the first drum (liquid), ton (powder), or piece (equipment). Each company, related to eventually develop a new product(s) with the innovative product. The big company will fire half of the selling staff because they cannot sell enough to satisfy the company's needs for sale of that innovative product. In the other hands, most of the small companies who are involved to develop something new with this innovative product don't succeed. Now, you catch the reality why the big company give the opportunity to another big company. The sales are guaranteed, the profits are entering, and both big companies are happy to create innovative and dominating products.

Before you will visit the next trade show of your choice, look around what you can make, ask if one company has something to help your development of this super innovative product, and make contact with the company because they want selling immediately, in big volumes and not drum by drum or ton by ton, do you catch me? This the way things turning around, and don't want to change them. Friendly suggestion from an old boy who was already involved in both cases, small company visiting trade shows to find something revolutionary, and big to collaborate to the development of innovative raw material to create new products for the marketplace. Again, keep your monay in your pocket and don't dream about findingnew things in trade shows, Gil.

I make a point of going to at least 1 show each year. You may be right in that, if you are looking for something specific, it's best to approach companies directly but I like to go to the shows with an open mind. Looking at what other people are doing, even if it's not directly related to your industry, can spark ideas. I can think of a couple of occasions that have resulted in our using the services of a company for something we were not aware was possible before.

Hi Nigh!

Excellent idea! I do visit trade show every two or three years. When earlier I went, I found the same things like at last event, so wait a year or two and get some new things. For idea collection trade shows are fine but not more than that. After my opinion, and I am not negative but companies try to hide what they do. The best example is when you ask for a Material Data Safety Sheet, everyone hide the principal ingredients or pieces or being not mentionned at all. Have a nice visit at the next, Gil.