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...?

[Platinum Chris]

Well for me, being new in the game, its working on putting faces to people. Getting to know them a bit better than besides forums and IM's. Physical conversation is by far superior than this electronic mumbo jumbo. You cannot see expressions which help dictate an interesting conversation. As far as the sales person in me, I'll be looking for new contacts/signups. New traffic source media buys. What's new in the industry. Also, one of the key areas I'll be pushing, is our Reality and DVD vod feeds.

Beyond that, there are a lot of shows from what I see, just like in the gambling industry. If one was to attend every show, eventually all one would end up doing is party. I've seen it happen. Also, people can get burnt out traveling all the time. I believe here at PB, we're going to be rotating who goes, and the bigger shows, we may all go.

[ScreaM]

I've never been to one but that's only because I live so far away from smutland (America). It would be quite an experience to attend a trade show though.

[Sarah_MaxCash]

I think it is important to attend at least one so people know you are real. I don't think you need to be at every show after that. There are so many these days anyway.