I ran a poll recently on the above subject a couple of weeks ago, amongst small business owners. They were located on Linkedin and on a Facebook Business Group.
I've summarised the results I got below.
Some 30 - 50% of respondents find them useful, and pick up one or two useful ideas or product / service suggestions. More so on Linkedin
Few respondents found them completely unspiring.
Linkedin users do recommend using them for business development - less so here in the Facebook group. But in the Facebook group there was a significant number – some 60% - who just don't attend these type of events - unless there's a specific person or seminar they wish to see.
Overall I didn't get a strong feeling that Business Exhibitions were rated as a 'must-do' activity - there weren't comments or feedback saying how successful people had found them.
I attended three business exhibitions in May - a national event, a local regional event, and a local networking event (at which I also exhibited). In this case the most useful was the local regional event - because I made a good contact who has since become a contributor to a business news magazine I edit. But it could be different next time.
At one time the majority of business to business exhibitions were mostly trade shows, where people in the same industry sector got together and updated themselves on the latest developments, and made new contacts. These ofocurse still go on, but more recently there's also a lot more general business exhibition events, and in this area its more difficult to measure ROI because the participants come from such diverse fields. It is something exhibitors need to focus on if they want them to succeed in the longer term.
Regards
George Montgomery
GBS Group - Business Development Consultants
http://www.gbs-group.co.uk
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