When is enough, enough or why we don’t need any more tradeshows

Michael Robertson, President and CEO of SGIA (Screen Print Graphic Industry Association) put out an interesting letter to the membership, discussing the latest attempt to create another tradeshow in an already crowded space. See portion of article below

"While SGIA is responding to the interests of the exhibitor community by continually building on the industry's leading show in the Americas, Fespa is attempting to add more shows to an already crowded schedule. They are providing a good example of how not to listen to customers. The outcry from exhibitors who are in opposition of Fespa trying to rejuvenate the struggling Graphics of the Americas show compels us to bring this concern to the forefront.

Another wide-format imaging tradeshow is the last thing exhibitors want. Attempting to rejuvenate the Graphics of the Americas tradeshow would not introduce a new market; it would only segment the existing market.

As has been Fespa's approach in the past, they will try to pressure exhibitors into participating by playing one against the other. However, this time I believe the manufacturers and suppliers in the community have had enough. They will make the right decision to limit the number of shows in which they participate and further invest in the development of new technology that moves the entire community forward."

As a provider of exhibit marketing related products and services, The Portables should be the first company to agree that more tradeshows are a good thing, but we take quite the opposite view. Tradeshows are an extremely effective marketing tool and generate a significant ROI, only if they are well attended. If customers don't come to the show, the cost of attending the show becomes quite prohibitive. We constantly preach to our clients to attend the most significant tradeshow in their space and make a big impression as opposed to attending a number of shows and being a bit player.

Ultimately the attendees will determine whether another tradeshow for the Large-format print industry will appear. From our perspective, since we are in the market for more digital print equipment, the only show that we will be attending will be SGIA 2010.