Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?

[softball]

JFK started a thread at the zoo about the future of trade shows. I am wondering if they are really necessary or just a hangover...pun intended...from a previous decade?
I have been to broadcasting trade shows in the past and they have always had new cameras, new standards, new toys to play with. A peek into the future. It seems that Porn shows all have the same "seminars" and always seem to be bragging about business being done. Its a monotonous litany. "Mainstream" trade shows talk less about business being done, because it just is. Stuff gets sold. Orders for new toys get taken and so on. This business has stuffed itself and the trade shows never had the acumen to peek into the future and help forge a path or change a direction or even really prepare anyone to cope with this cataclysmic change. It seems that they (the shows) never had any vision beyond the best blow job award or titties to touch.
So where is/was the value?