Reap what you sow
22 June 2009
I spent a fair amount of time at the National Electronics Week (NEW) in London last week, and came away with mixed views.
First of all I think it worth pointing out that for all this was very much a UK event, the lessons we can take from it are relevant in many other countries, particularly those in the more mature regions in a manufacturing sense. As we know, in some regions – in particular those in Asia that are still growing – there is a thirst for knowledge and information that makes almost any event a success in terms of visitor numbers. Some countries, like Germany, have a great tradition of attending exhibitions and see it as part of their job function, while in others, like the UK and USA, exhibitions are seen more of a luxury in terms of ‘time out of factory’ and only of importance if purchasing decisions are imminent.
The latter scenario is not as bleak as it sounds. While exhibitions can be disappointingly quiet, the people who do attend tend to be those with serious intent to buy – and it only takes a placement machine supplier to sell one piece of equipment for it to be ‘a good show’. This was the case, I felt, last week. There was no doubt it was quiet and many exhibitors were rather underwhelmed by the turn-out, but equally there were those who believed that they might not have shaken many hands, but the ones they had shaken were the hands of the right engineers who were serious about buying equipment.
It should also not be a surprise that some exhibitors did better than others (hence the headline). I talked to one exhibitor who actually had a crowd on his stand for most of the day. His company were involved in EDA (Premier EDA Solutions was its name) and so not directly related to the manufacturing market but I was curious as to his company’s popularity. Marketing was the simple answer. The company had put on a series of design-related seminars as well as running smaller sessions on its booth. It then went and told everyone they could think of that they were doing this, whether customers or not. The result was that before many people arrived at NEW they were expecting to see Premier EDA. It was a clear case of making the most of an opportunity.
Other companies went along in more cautious fashion for very understandable reasons. Having invested in stand space, stand build, expenses for a number of staff members as well as the ‘loss’ of the best part of a weeks work, it is not unreasonable to expect some return. But I think in most Western countries, Germany apart, unless there is a new event that captures an industry in its infancy, there is going to be an element of ‘reaping what you sow’. The same is true of visitors as well as exhibitors. NEW, like many such events around the world, included several seminar streams and other educational opportunities. Attending shouldn’t have been seen as a gamble as to whether it was going to be a worthwhile use of time or not, there was enough there to make it useful even for those not looking to buy equipment in the immediate future. But many of the potential audience obviously did not think it a worthwhile gamble and consequently stayed away. A shame, because it was a well thought out and well designed event.
Perhaps the moral of the story is if we want to keep our local, national and regional events we all (visitors, exhibitors, exhibition organsiers and press) need to get behind them. If they then succeed then we all benefit, if they fail then our whole industry is a bit poorer as a consequence.
As ever, I would be interested to hear any views on this week’s comment. Maybe you believe that exhibitions have had their day and have been superceded by the web and even newsletters like these. Or maybe you see the value of an exhibition as a meeting place for industry. Feel free to send an email to let me know.
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