Buzzgain

Over 3500 people who attended tradeshows last year were asked “Why do you go to a trade show?”

The top 3 reasons they gave were: a) To keep up with industry trends b) Learn about new products / companies / technologies and c) Network

When asked why they would not attend one in 2009, I was half expecting a) Economy b) Lack of budget and c) All of the above.

Instead we heard: a) Lack of networking opportunities b) Ability to follow the show “remotely” without going there (leveraging Twitter / Ustream.tv, etc) and c) Not a good ROI on time investment.

So what’s changing with technology trade shows?

1. Smaller more focused shows: Clearly Macworld, CES, Comdex and others are under transition. From the one size fits all environment, we are moving towards conferences around a specific niche – usually driven by the passion of one individual OR Bar Camp style open format highly interactive sessions. In 2009 we suspect shows like Web 2.0 Expo will see fewer folks attending and more likely the show being split into multiple niche shows. The exception is SXSW which is more like a

2. Networking: Many conferences and tradeshows now offer networking opportunities leveraging Facebook fan pages or event pages for attendees to network before and after the show. Which helps, but the hallway conversations are where relationships are built, which makes the case for more BarCamp style unconferences.

3. Learning moves to the web: Waiting for one day in the year to learn about the latest and greatest in the industry in an era of bloggers, Twitter and viral videos is just not feasible. Expect more “How to” and “Success Stories” or “How we did that” type sessions in these conferences and fewer “Here’s the next big thing” or the “State of the industry” type sessions.

So then what are the implications?

1. Local tax revenue drops: This is an obvious one. While conferences generate good sized (100 – 1000) type crowds, local tax revenues at convention sites will drop significantly thanks to the drop in # of 10,000+ attendee trade shows. Local bars and pubs should still do okay, but hotels and convention sites will probably be in for a rough time. SXSW has a $110M impact on Austin. That’s bound to get a reset.

2. Rise in speaking engagements opportunities: There will be a lot more opportunities for speakers with experience “doing” something as opposed to “preaching” something to do. Expect fewer of the Gartner, Forrester analysts heading sessions, unless they have practical industry experience and working experience.

3. Rise of the show built around a narrow niche (like blog networks): Related bloggers and blogs will network together to host an event around a specific niche. Its more viable now and more profitable with smaller audiences and better networking opportunities.

Do you think we got the main implications right? What else do you see happening?