Everyone has heard this statement. It’s relevant for the recent economic crisis and certainly also relates to our professional lives. With much talk of late about lasting effects of the recession on the tradeshow industry and its current model, these words may never ring more true.
In the January 2010 issue of EXPO Magazine, Dan Cole, Vice President of Sales and Business Development for the Consumer Electronic Association, said in his Sales Q & A column that if an exhibitor is “not sufficiently disturbed by a problem” they will not “act in order to solve their pain.” He went on to say that not only does there need to be “enough pain,” there also needs to be a solution to that pain. Read more here.
The same thing can be said of show organizers. If they are not “sufficiently disturbed” by exhibitors, they will not “act in order to solve their pain.” Exhibitors are starting to voice the need for show organizers to be more accountable. We see this from industry surveys, at conference sessions and industry blogs. Most organizers continue to say that until exhibitors demand accountability, they will not be proactive in providing it; with little to no disturbance from something they do not consider a problem.
