Is Participating in a Trade Fair or Convention a Waste of Money?

Is the participation in a trade fair or convention by a business worth all the trouble and will it bring in new orders? This is question many entrepreneurs or business owners frequently ask themselves or on others.

If you look at the answers business owners give when asked “Why they participate in trade conventions?” you will see that they all give different reasons.

Below you will find some of the answers or quotes they have given us:

• “We are on this trade fair for image building reasons. We are building our brand.”
• “For us it’s all long term. Don’t expect a direct return; the participation price is too high for that.”
• “It is an ideal place to find new ideas and to find out what the competition is doing. What are the new trends, etc”
• “We find it the ideal way to communicate with consumers. You find out directly how the potential customers think about your product or service. That is priceless information.”
• “We have doubted for a long time if we should do trade conventions or not. We have a small company and the participation price is for most trade fairs very high. In the end we decided to participate because our competitors participate.”
• “You can explain in ‘real life’ what your business does. This is much better for us, who are selling a high end product than we would use the telephone or internet.”
• “We have met our most important customers at these conventions. If we would stop our turnover will drop.”
• “We have met many of our business contacts on these types of fairs. These contacts are priceless in today’s markets.”
• “The greatest disadvantage of trade shows is that it labour intensive. The advantage is that we meet many people and we can show them our products.”

For most business is participating in trade fairs a must. Most of them don’t stop, because they are afraid that they will loose sales, thus money. But all in all, most of them think that participating in conventions is worth it!

Did you have a positive or negative experience with trade conventions? Trade fair ideas or tips for your fellow business owners? We love to hear about them, so please leave a comment.