Is today’s trade show still relevant, or of value? These are crucial questions to ask as you’re evaluating your strategic marketing plan, and deciding on where to spend your precious marketing dollars to market your product or service. And for us at Star—as a company that has thrived and relied on this form of face to face marketing as a business, it’s an important—yet sometimes daunting—question that we also have to continually ask ourselves.

Trade shows are alive and well—but they’ve changed—and are continuing to change.

Trade shows have been around for over 150 years. And—we know that trade shows are still out there—and there’s a lot of them. If you look at our trade show calendar, you’ll see over 1000 trade show exhibitions over the next 6 months in the U.S. alone. And trends are showing that the industry in general is an upswing. So those are all good signs for the evolving trade show or exposition and exhibition industry in general. It means that there are still many buyers that see the value in attending a trade show in their respective industry, and there are many businesses and organizations that see enough value to exhibit at these trade shows in their respective industries.

But along with that, there’s an interesting white paper posted by the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) documenting the trends that are impacting the Exhibitions and Events Industry. It covers 13 “trends” that are impacting trade shows and events:

  1. Generations – A new generation of buyers are interacting and communicating in a much different way today
  2. Big Data – Data analytics will play a bigger role with a trade show
  3. Data Capture, Recording and Reporting – How, what, when, and where we capture data at shows is changing
  4. Technology – Mobile technology and devices pose threats and also benefits to how we market at trade shows
  5. Social Media Marketing – Social media is influencing where companies invest their marketing dollars, and how they market
  6. Year-Round Communities –  Social media is fostering dialogue and communities that interact on an ongoing or year round basis
  7. Experiential Trade Show – The “experience” at a trade show is becoming more and more important
  8. Non-Attendee Engagement – Reaching the “non-attendee” is becoming an important and beneficial aspect for the trade show marketer
  9. Exhibitors – Technology is affecting how marketing professionals interact and their decisions in exhibit marketing
  10. International Trends Impacting United States Exhibitions – Global economies and events affect trade shows here in the U.S.
  11. Internet Connectivity – Connectivity to the Internet is becoming a major factor in all shows
  12. Private Events – More companies are participating in non trade-show related events
  13. Complexity – All these trends are making trade shows a more “complex” event

What does this mean for the exhibitor?

Today’s evolving trade show has changed and evolved significantly from the trade show from ten years—or even five years ago. Luckily for you (and us), trade shows are still a very vital and viable form of marketing. It’s still one of the few ways that a buyer can easily survey and preview the latest products in their area of interest. And it’s still one of the best venues to meet key decision makers and buyers from your target markets. As a trade show or event marketer—it’s important to know and understand how to market to today’s trade show attendee. Trends will definitely influence—and sometimes dictate—how you develop and approach your trade show marketing strategy. And it means that you will need to continually evolve. But if you can understand how these trends can help your trade show strategy, and how to work with the challenges that they present, you can still benefit from this tried and true face to face marketing tool.