Trade show thoughts

Like London buses, you don’t get any for ages, and then loads of trade shows turn up at once. Chronologically, in the past 6 weeks we’ve seen the?BSC show??in Battersea,??NAB?in Las Vegas,?PLASA?in Leeds,??Pro Light and Sound?in Frankfurt,?ISE?in its new Barcelona home, and the?MPTS?show in sunny Olympia. Did I miss any? It’s been a crazy schedule, and clearly the show organisers were determined to run their shows after the enforced absence, regardless of what any other show had planned.?

BSC is always a great show for anyone in and around digital cinematography, and this year’s show, despite being delayed from its usual early Feb date, was excellent. This was the first show for me since lockdown, and it felt good to be back. The key evolution that I see in this sector is the use of LED screens as?XR?(Extended Reality) backdrops on top-end drama and feature film sets. There were a number of screen providers on the show floor, which not so long ago was the sole domain of the camera and lens manufacturers and rental houses. We at?Adamantean?have seen a significant increase in the demand for LED panels and there’s no doubt that this is partly due to this additional utility for what is a well established product for festivals and events.

The venue was beyond full, with a large overspill tented area in front of the main building, such was the demand for floor space from exhibitors keen to show their wares. Digital cinematography equipment is expensive, so the proportion of kit that is paid for using leasing is higher than in many other areas. Having the only product that everyone in the room actually needs; money, made it a busy show for us.

We decided to give NAB a miss this year, and it seems that the numbers were well down even on pre-pandemic levels, with organisations taking fewer delegates, and fewer UK businesses attending generally. But from what I’ve heard from those who did make the trip, and pay the eye-watering last-minute flight costs, they were pleased with what they achieved and who they met. Did you go, and did you make it pay?

PLASA was a well-attended show and I was interested in comments from exhibitors that we met. The exhibitors like the show as all of the stands are the same size, a shell scheme with space for a little kit and a seating area. This means that the usual “my stand is bigger than your stand” ego-massaging that often bumps up the cost of exhibiting at these shows just doesn’t happen. With the PLASA show not been owned by a generic big-event business, it makes the show more focused on the industry that it supports, rather than on generating huge revenues for the organiser. I like that.?

This was in sharp contrast to the ISE show at its new home, and yes I did check the Amsterdam weather (it was raining) as I landed in a bright and sunny Barcelona. Some of the stands at ISE were amazing, and the creative possibilities achievable with LED screens now is extraordinary.?Roe?in particular stood out for me, and their transparent screens provide the ability to create stunning effects and give the creatives the ability to realise some stunning visual effects for their clients. Theatrixx also had some impressive and robust LED screens on show. I did receive an amazing lesson on line array speaker systems from a D&B technical guru which was really impressive. But it was one of the slightly smaller stands, belonging to?Newtonlab Space, that has stayed with me. It was just jaw-dropping. I must confess that I’ve not heard of them, but their technology stood out in a room full of stand-out technology.?

Bizarrely, one of the main ISE talking points in my social feeds seems to have been the decision from the organisers?not?to have lanyards with name badges. I did see comment from one high-profile visitor that he liked this decision and felt that the exhibitors shouldn’t be randomly scanning every badge. To my mind, having been an exhibitor who has paid exorbitant costs to be present while the visitors get in for free, if you’re paying nothing for the product, then you are the product ! Get over yourself, and accept that the price of your free entrance to a venue full of cutting edge equipment and expert advice is that you may get your badge scanned. Either that, or pay to get in !??

A name badge also avoids the truly awful “hello mate” as the exhibitor desperately searches their mental RAM for the name of the client they know well, but can’t quite put a name to.??There were almost 44,000 attendees after all, so a name badge hardly seems like a bad idea!

As I write this, MPTS is still fresh in my mind, which seems to have been a stellar success for all concerned. Despite, or perhaps because the bar ran out of beer on several occasions, the reports from exhibitors was of excellent attendance, quality conversations, and money well spent. As an attendee, it was actually an enjoyable experience, with easy to find stands, natural light which was refreshing, a great buzz, and name badges! With no one stand dominating proceedings, it felt collaborative, educational, and positive. LED screen technology was again a big factor at this show and the?80Six?stand stood out for me, with some really smart technology.??I also enjoyed the birds-eye view from the top floor as it made plotting your path through the ground level stands easier, so it was a little disappointing to hear that the show will be bigger, and on one floor next year; located next door in the Grand Hall at Olympia. I just hope that it doesn’t lose its focus.?

MPTS and BSC do seem to have found the trade show sweet spot. 2 days seems to work; the size of the shows makes them doable in a day for those with a “day-job”, but who can spare a day to see what’s new, and the speakers and seminars were reportedly first class. MPTS also registered a record 8000 attendees over the 2 days. Good work !

The big shows like NAB, IBC and ISE may face an existential threat, despite what may prove to be a false post-pandemic dawn. Two years ago, PPE was just a degree syllabus and key-workers were only locksmiths. The enforced hiatus has caused a seismic mind-shift for us all, and may have broken the habit of the major manufacturers who pay for us all to attend these shows. Once the novelty of?IRL?shows has subsided, and the exhibitors are asked to settle the 6 figure invoices for the most expensive real estate in Vegas / Barcelona / Amsterdam, they may reconsider their 2023 marketing spend. It did for BVE after all. They’ll have seen the huge reduction in their costs of not exhibiting at the Mega-shows, and may find that doing more regular and focussed “national” events like MPTS might prove to be money better spent.?

We are currently booking our IBC Amsterdam accommodation, and the pricing is through the roof. The International Broadcast Cartel seems to be back in full swing, ready to fleece the media businesses’ expense accounts yet again, and it really doesn’t sit well. With reports from Vegas that it was even more expensive than usual, as if that were even possible, you need to be demonstrating some genuine ROI to make these big shows pay. I think that some reinvention from the big show organisers may be required when so much of the show spend leaves our industry.?

So if you visited any of these shows, let me ask you a direct question. Would you pay to attend, and shift some of the considerable cost burden of the show away from the exhibitors? A nominal ￡20 / €20 per day would reduce the cost of exhibiting, allowing more businesses to exhibit and making the event more valuable to all. Is it worth ￡20 to you? And if you wouldn’t pay and don’t think that you get ￡20 of value from a trade show, what are you doing there anyway? I recognise that it would be a brave show organiser that tried this first, but I can’t help feeling that the mega-trade show model is slightly broken.?

What do you think? All comments welcome.?