How much business is actually done at trade exhibitions?
Probably not a lot, and it is unlikely that enough extra business is gained to cover the costs of being there. The cost for a company to have an exhibition stand is extortionate, and the only people who make any money out of the event are likely to be the organisers and the venue itself.
Fear of being seen to be
absent keeps companies stumping up the cash. It's a bit
like staying up late at night with friends in case they
talk about you when you've gone to bed.
On the whole, customers and reps both like to go to meet old friends, share a beer or two and put the world to rights in the hotel bar.
Customers also like to visit each stand in turn to collect free promotional items. You can spot the experienced exhibition delegates a mile off. They are the ones who head straight to the stand that is giving away carrier bags bearing a company logo. They then sweep through the hall locust-like, filling the bag with free pens, cups and five year old breath-mints, justifying their kleptomaniac tendencies by saying, "It's for my children, you know. They wouldn't forgive me if I didn't take something back for them." For sport, I try to corner one or two of them and force them to listen to a fifteen minute presentation on the long term patency rates of abscess drainage catheters. They only come once.
From another point of view, a trade exhibition is a good place for a disgruntled rep to seek a new job within the industry. The couple of months after a major trade show usually sees some familiar faces reappearing in a new hat. "Doctor X, forget everything I told you about Product Y. Product Z is the thing to use."
Maybe the company should only send the under-achievers to represent them at the exhibitions, in the hope someone else offers them a job. This will allow them to retain the better reps, and save someone the unsavoury task of offering the no-hopers the opportunity to find alternative employment later on!
I seem to be sent to a lot of exhibitions. Hmmmm....
N.B. This site looks best when viewed from a distance after drinking six pints of lager.