Has Sin City Lost Its Sheen?

With so many of my industry friends and colleagues now emerging from the fog of NAB Show 2022, I thought now might be a good time to reflect on the event and offer some helpful (controversial?) thoughts on how it and other trade shows and expos might evolve post-pandemic to ensure their own survival and success.?

Those who know me are well aware that I have been very critical of our industry’s largest trade shows for some time. That said, I feel that my criticism is specific and nuanced. Trade shows are an important part of our industry’s landscape, for sure, but they need to be smaller, more focused and less concerned with their own profitability. Much steam is spouted about how these events are run for the benefit of our industry by its very own professionals. In truth, however, almost every exhibition regardless of industry is run by people who organise exhibitions for a living, and their primary remit is to make a profit and pay dividends. That’s fine, of course - I’m not trying to deny anyone the right to make a fair living. If I ever get curmudgeonly about these things, it’s usually because of a perception that organisers are complacent, out of touch with contemporary marketing, or unwilling to consider reforms that would benefit exhibitors and visitors (and, I’d argue, secure longer term success), even if they might negatively affect short-term revenues. As I’ve said before, I’ve consistently seen the role of these large conferences and exhibitions diminish in the other industries I’ve experienced. Ours will be no different, and it’s about time the organisers accepted that the future might be smaller and less profitable, but better for the industry overall. Controversial, I know…

Speaking of controversy, is it now time for NAB to move on from Las Vegas and find another city to host the show? While it was obviously great to return to face-to-face customer meetings this year, you couldn’t help but notice that Vegas has become expensive in, or because of, our absence. Room rates were up, resort fees were up, and the $7-plus-obligatory-tip for a mediocre coffee on my way to the monorail felt like a daily mugging. We’ve always known Vegas is a machine, designed and finely tuned to relieve us of our money (from the ‘Vegas sandwich’ at check-in that ensures we get a good room to the tips automatically added to the most obscure of hotel service charges) but this year felt different. I always say that the best restaurants in Vegas make you feel like you’re not in Vegas, and maybe that says something. In addition, I saw more homelessness and overt drug use this year than ever before, and Vegas somehow felt grubbier than I remember. I’m no prude, but perhaps Sin City is better left to the party people with their yards of green fluorescent cocktails while the rest of us get on with our business elsewhere??

NAB Show itself felt very positive, and the feedback from visitors and other exhibitors suggests that both groups were happy with the event. That said, three full days would probably have been enough. With the majority of exhibitors scaling back and playing it safe, the fourth day felt like an inter-company indulgence rather than any meaningful exercise in lead generation. Speaking of final days, we can only hope that IBC’s tenacious love affair with the five day format is now well and truly busted - it’s been the elephant in the room for over a decade, and day five should have been culled long before 2022. As exhibitors, we are driven and guided by the behaviour of our customers, so events that work well for them also work well for us. In my view, three days for both NAB and IBC would be ample. I also preferred seeing smaller booths with much less equipment on display this year. Let’s be honest - nobody ever buys at these shows anyway; it’s simply an exercise in chatting about what’s new and then following up with a more in-depth discussion and demo.?With the passage of time the major US broadcast customers have all become part of around half a dozen station groups, and these are all key accounts for any vendor of size, so the important stuff increasingly takes place before or after the show, not during.

Anyone visiting the new West hall at NAB must have been impressed at the size and scale of the new facility, and the Tesla tubes were admittedly good fun, but I wonder how wise this investment will turn out to be?given my belief that the future lies in smaller rather than larger events. NAB have plenty of reason to be satisfied with their event, and the large IBC team who came to Vegas will undoubtedly take heart from last week’s attendance, but I can’t help feeling that much of the enjoyment around the show came from it being the first one to offer a renewed sense of normality, albeit with caveats. The important point to make here, I think, is that the lives of our customers have changed, as have a great many of their business models. Time will tell if NAB and IBC are prepared to embrace this new normality and better respond to the changing needs of visitors and exhibitors rather than simply trying to coax and cajole us all back to the good old days. Because you know what they say about nostalgia – it’s not what it used to be… :)