Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?

[EmporerEJ]

Originally Posted by LizAEBN

Believe it or not, I have breakfast meetings at every show. I tend to set up my major meetings between 8 am and 11 am with add-ons throughout the rest of the day.

.

Yea.....vacation or not, I'm not doing business meetings at 8am in the morning.
I'm in the Adult business.

3am? No problem
6am? No problem, (but I'm starting to get fuzzy.......)

7am-noon- you are talking to yourself


Unless of course, I travel to the west coast....then I can function on the "normal" (And who decided that anyhow?) business hours.

[tony404]

Originally Posted by LizAEBN

Believe it or not, I have breakfast meetings at every show. I tend to set up my major meetings between 8 am and 11 am with add-ons throughout the rest of the day.

Sure there are people who will treat it like a vacation or not get up til 3 pm or act like "ballas" -- I don't think the problem is endemic to the shows - AVN and xBiz have provided what has been asked for (who's heard all the bitching when there aren't "enough" parties? *raises hand*). I think the biggest problem is that people stopped being as hungry, and the show putter-onners are convenient scapegoats.

There's still a shit tonne of business to be done at a show, if one is hungry and looks for it.

When you think about it. Its so not cost effective to have to go to shows to have meetings that could be handled on phone or internet. Its not like your repping a company thats new. AEBN is the biggest at what they do. So its not like you are going to run into someone who doesnt know who your company is and works in adult. And if they dont know chances are they have no traffic and are worthless.

[miz_wright]

Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

Yea.....vacation or not, I'm not doing business meetings at 8am in the morning.
I'm in the Adult business.

3am? No problem
6am? No problem, (but I'm starting to get fuzzy.......)

7am-noon- you are talking to yourself


Unless of course, I travel to the west coast....then I can function on the "normal" (And who decided that anyhow?) business hours.

And, being self-employed, that is your prerogative. I fond those to be very productive hours for me. On the other hand, I am kind of known for being the crazy-needs-no-sleep woman, 'cos I am generally up by 6.30 am to attend office business and going to sleep around 4 am.

Originally Posted by tony404

When you think about it. Its so not cost effective to have to go to shows to have meetings that could be handled on phone or internet. Its not like your repping a company thats new. AEBN is the biggest at what they do. So its not like you are going to run into someone who doesnt know who your company is and works in adult. And if they dont know chances are they have no traffic and are worthless.

Tony - thank you for the kind words about the company. I will freely admit I run into people who have no idea who we are with some regularity. And some of those end up being incredibly valuable contacts *shrug*

[Toby]

Tony, I have to disagree. There are just some things that are more effectively handled face to face where each person can see the facial expressions, body language etc. of the person they're talking with. Also, there are things that are said face to face that just wouldn't be mentioned via email, ICQ or over the phone. Maybe I'm a bit old school in this regard, but being able to look someone in the eye as you shake their hand goes a long way to establishing a trust factor.

In my case, as strictly an affiliate webmaster, being at the shows demonstrates I'm not some surfmaster wannabe living in Mom's basement doing this on the side.

Also, as I've mentioned in the past. Shows for me isn't strictly about doing business. I also get some new perspectives and some fresh ideas just from the interaction with others that you just don't get from boards or other online communication.

You really should watch Liz work a show just once. She'll talk to more people before lunch on the first day than I will during the whole show. If she didn't bring in enough new and additional business to justify the cost of sending her to shows I'm sure AEBN would have stopped sending her ages ago. They've never been one of those companies that toss money around wildly just to make a splash.

[tony404]

Originally Posted by Toby

Tony, I have to disagree. There are just some things that are more effectively handled face to face where each person can see the facial expressions, body language etc. of the person they're talking with. Also, there are things that are said face to face that just wouldn't be mentioned via email, ICQ or over the phone. Maybe I'm a bit old school in this regard, but being able to look someone in the eye as you shake their hand goes a long way to establishing a trust factor.

In my case, as strictly an affiliate webmaster, being at the shows demonstrates I'm not some surfmaster wannabe living in Mom's basement doing this on the side.

Also, as I've mentioned in the past. Shows for me isn't strictly about doing business. I also get some new perspectives and some fresh ideas just from the interaction with others that you just don't get from boards or other online communication.

You really should watch Liz work a show just once. She'll talk to more people before lunch on the first day than I will during the whole show. If she didn't bring in enough new and additional business to justify the cost of sending her to shows I'm sure AEBN would have stopped sending her ages ago. They've never been one of those companies that toss money around wildly just to make a splash.

I placed boardroom level executives as a head hunter and never met anyone it was all on the phone. One of my biggest clients who paid over $100k in fees to this day I dont know what he looks like. and I found him making cold calls from a directory.I can tell you about face to face at webmaster access atl the ceo ibill shook my hand and looked me straight in the eye and told me I was with a winner.

[EmporerEJ]

Originally Posted by tony404

......I can tell you about face to face at webmaster access atl the ceo ibill shook my hand and looked me straight in the eye and told me I was with a winner.

And you were.....He won all the marbles, then ran off with them and started an IPTV company that disappeared as quickly as it showed up.