How important is attending trade shows?

[Cyndalie]

How important is attending trade shows to your business plan as an adult webmaster or company? Do you feel that key business deals can only be made at conferences and gatherings. Do larger gatherings facilitate fewer or more business transactions and new business relationships, or are smaller shows the way to go?

For the record, Phoenix Forum is no longer a "smaller show" - it defintiely is rivaling Internext as far as an annual must-attend.

What changes to the show circuit would you suggest or like to see?


For me personally, I think there are simply 2 many. You have your tradeshow/conferences (Internext, Cybernet, Phoenix, Xbiz) and then you have your gatherings (RedneckGetaways, Snowgatherings, CostaRicaBash, IslandGathering, etc). I think the regional Webmaster Access shows fall somewhere in the middle - they aren't too large and not too small.

I think I'm going to stick with the 'a show is only as productive as you make of it, regardless of size' philosophy.

What kind of deals do you primarily look to make when you attend a show? New contacts, maintaining existing, product/service sales, new signups, branding, traffic/affiliate deals...?