May 31, 2010— The debate in recent years has grown by leaps and bounds, helped along by a struggling economy that has everyone looking for ways to save on costs and maximize return on investment. What is that debate? Trade shows versus road shows—the large-scale events where everyone brings their best and biggest, or the smaller scale events that go to the users, and feature just a single company. Printing News asked a few industry players to weigh in on their thoughts when it comes to which is more effective and what they plan to look for in the future.

The participants are: Simone Wilker, owner, AlphaGraphics of Paramus, N.J.; Scot Draeger, manager of product strategy, HP Exstream; Jeff Hayzlett, former chief marketing officer and vice president, Kodak; Kevin Kern, senior vice president, marketing, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A.; and Sheryl Pattek, vice president of marketing services, Océ USA.

PN: In your mind, what is the difference between a trade and road show?

SW: The difference between a trade show and a road show is the size of the show, which in turn determines the venue of the show. I think of the trade show as being very large and the road show as being smaller and more intimate.

SD: A trade show is where you go to one location for several days with the idea you are going to have a lot of people walk by your booth and it is up to you to entice them enough to get them to stop and find out more. A road show, in terms of the HP Exstream Results Tour, allows you to take the technology and solutions right to the customers' door, it is more targeted and more personal and intimate environment.

JH: While differing in size and scope, both trade and road shows provide good venues to meet with customers and discuss how Kodak can help them grow their business. Trade shows typically target an entire industry and, as a result, feature exhibits from a large number of vendors and companies. As a result, trade shows tend to draw significant numbers of attendees from around the country or globe, making them ideal for showing products to many people from one location. Road shows are much more focused on attendees who are interested in a specific subset of the market, i.e., workflow or digital printing, and generally come from a defined geographic area. Road shows often are put on by a single company, creating unique opportunities to meet with defined customers and prospects about defined topics, products and solutions. Road shows are good for creating personalized experiences for each attendee.

KK: We view the primary difference as being that a road show is driven by a manufacturer with a specific direction, while a trade show has a broader purpose and brings together a wider spectrum of attendees. While a road show is orchestrated entirely by a manufacturer, the trade show brings many different companies and audiences together.

SP: A trade show is typically a large event hosted at a central location where multiple vendors come to demonstrate their goods and services. Alternately, whether it's an event hosted in a hotel, at a demo room or a truck that takes products on the road, a road show is an event that showcases a company's products and services on a more personal basis, to smaller groups in a more intimate setting. Both events are intended to accomplish similar objectives, whether it's creating brand awareness, launching a new product, developing new business or communicating with the press and analyst communities. However, a road show or vendor-hosted event provides customers and prospects with a more personalized experience focused on their specific business goals and objectives. Océ doesn't load equipment on a truck and take it on the road. However, we do host personalized customer events and open houses at our Customer Experience Center in Boca Raton, Fla. and our solution studios across the country.

Typically, these customer events address industry-relevant topics and provide educational opportunities for attendees. We might host an event to help customers adopt environmentally-friendly technology and business practices, facilitate the migration to digital book printing or transition from print provider to integrated marketing services provider. Customers enjoy an opportunity to learn more about the technologies and solutions available to help them solve their business issues. What's more, they can experience the latest hardware and workflow technologies and meet with Océ product and technology experts, who are on hand to address customer needs, answer questions and run demos.

PN: What are the primary benefits of a trade show?

SW: The primary benefit of a trade show is to expose the capabilities of the participating vendors to a large number of potential buyers. The vendors are able to showcase their wares. Buyers learn first-hand how vendors can benefit their company and buyers can compare the offerings easily.

SD: Visibility to a targeted audience, the ability to engage with many customers/prospects/press/analysts in a short time period; the ability to see what
competitors are showing/doing; and generating awareness through all of the trade show activities, programs and marketing vehicles plus educate people about your solution.

JH: Trade shows offer the opportunity to get a good sense of what's going on in the industry, reach a wide, diverse audience at one time, display new products and solutions, gather sales leads, showcase a company's thought leadership and expertise and generate publicity for a company and its products.

KK: A trade show offers a more nondenominational educational track to participants. In other words, there are many manufacturers participating, speaking and presenting a variety of different topical areas. Thus, a broader universe of potential attendees is targeted and the opportunity to interact with such an audience is definitely a benefit. Additionally, trade shows give manufacturers insight into what is happening around the industry.

SP: From a vendor's perspective, the primary benefit of a trade show is that the association or group hosting the show drives attendance of both end users and the press and analyst community. Of course, we supplement those efforts with personalized invitations and outreach to customers and prospects. However, the onus is on the organization hosting the show to attract an audience. Another benefit is that they provide a snapshot of how your products and services stack up against the competition. As a vendor, you get a sense of what's going on in the market in a very visceral "on the front lines" way. In addition, they provide an opportunity for vendors to engage with the press and industry analysts all in one location to gain an understanding of the "state of the market." It also enables vendors to communicate with the press and analyst community and get real-time feedback on their products, services, strategies and new technology introductions.

From the attendee's perspective, a trade show provides a unique opportunity to see and experience all of the vendors and their products in one hall, to understand the "state-of-the-art" of print technology and where the market is heading. Trade shows also provide attendees with opportunities to network with their peers in the various social settings associated with the show.

PN: What are the primary downsides of a trade show?

SW: The primary downside to a trade show is its size. Trade shows tend to be very large and include many, many vendors. It can become overwhelming and physically exhausting for the buyers to see and interact with each and every vendor. In addition, because of the size, trade shows tend to be at large convention centers or exhibition halls. These are in large cities. That can mean travel time for the buyers. Hotels, parking and travel charges add up. There would have to be a good reason for buyers to incur those expenses in today's economy. Why attend a big show in person, when you can see products on the Internet? Also, at trade shows you see people carrying bags with tons of brochures. What do they do with them when they get back to their office? They probably sit in a stack on their desk and then get thrown away. Sometimes trade shows just offer too much. Buyers have to learn to focus.

SD: Cost, the time out of office for the exhibitor and the attendees; and they are not targeted enough. The audience usually consists of a lot of "tire kickers" and non-decision makers with a shotgun approach.

JH: Participation in trade shows can be expensive, from booth rental and personnel registration fees, to shipping and setting up products, to staff and travel costs. Other areas of concern include a general downward attendance trend at trade shows in general, and the difficulty in standing out among many exhibitors.

KK: While trade show participation can often require a large financial investment, it also requires a fairly big investment of people time. More importantly, we perceive attendance at such events to be on the decline. Expanding Web capabilities offer more alternative means for engaging in education than ever before and people are able to interact and learn about anything without leaving their home or office. Fluctuating economic conditions have also impacted attendance in recent years.

SP: For the vendor, the biggest detractors of trade shows are the complex logistics and sheer expense of transporting sophisticated equipment to a hall in a specific city for a limited period of time. It can be very costly—with the price tag running from hundreds of thousands to more than a million dollars. In addition, trade shows provide only limited time to engage with specific customers. The trade show environment doesn't lend itself to conducting in-depth reviews of customers' business goals, running their applications or partnering to enhance business processes.

Measuring ROI from a trade show is essential. Ensuring that the show leads deliver a return on investment requires following up and tracking leads through to the sale and post-sale activity. There is also the issue of drawing the right people to the booth and being able to quickly develop an accurate picture of those who do visit. You may have hundreds or thousands of people moving through your booth, but how many are genuinely interested in what you're selling? How many are other vendors scoping out the competition? How many guests are developing a vendor list or actually making buying decisions?

PN: What are the primary benefits of a road show?

SW: The primary benefit of a road show is that it is generally smaller than a trade show and can be held in a local venue, hopefully, not far from the buyer's office/center. There are smaller numbers of vendors and it is easier to see everything. When you get back to your office, you only have a small stack of brochures to go through. It is easier to remember what you have seen and who you have spoken to. You can pop into a road show and then go quickly back to work.

SD: The ability to target specific prospects and customers by industry, stage of sales cycle, interest; it allows you to get exposure to multiple people on the inside—IT, line of business managers, executive, users—with one meeting or stop; it allows for a different level of intimacy and personalization for the customer or prospect, informal and relaxed environment; there are multi-uses from individual stops to press events, to support for a trade show to executive dinners in the evenings; it can act as a "thank you" for customers and executives and a briefing center on wheels for prospects; they have high attendance rates due to ease of walking outside to the parking lot to learn more about a solution (instead of traveling to a trade show or hotel venue for a seminar).

JH: Road shows can be a very effective way of encouraging prospects to take the next steps toward becoming customers and for keeping current customers up to date about new products. The primary benefit is that the targeted and, often pre-qualified, audience of a road show allows us to more efficiently and effectively provide the information that the audience wants and needs. We can hold personalized demonstrations and discussions on a one-to-one basis.

KK: The most obvious benefit of road shows is the ability to control the event from start to finish. The manufacturer determines the timing, venue, audience and agenda. By having a more targeted audience, road shows provide an opportunity to have more one-on-one interaction with attendees which can consequently help deepen customer relationships.

SP: Our version of a road show is a customer event that is either hosted at our Customer Experience Center or at a solution studio. Both experiences are designed to foster a high level of intimacy. We see a lot of value in these events because they enable us to focus on individual customers in a more personal way. We can address their unique concerns, run their applications and discuss the issues that keep them up at night.

Vendor-hosted events let us provide a personalized, interactive experience in a smaller, more intimate environment. We can immerse clients in our culture and technology. We're focused on them, and they're focused on us. Attendees can collaborate with experts one on one, experience the latest products, test applications, and gather information for more informed decision-making. In bottom-line terms, the cost per opportunity for a customer event is lower than a trade show because we can amortize a single investment across multiple events as opposed to having to recoup a large investment in one three-day event.

PN: What are the primary downsides of a road show?

SW: The primary downside to a road show is that it is only held for a short period of time. Some are just one day, or one morning. You have to be available in their time frame if you want to attend. Second, there are not as many vendors. Third, some equipment or items need larger spaces in order to be exhibited and are costly to set up and move around. It may be too costly for a vendor to do the road shows. Then the buyers miss out.

SD: Again, cost; putting together the resources in terms of logistics, planning, booking appointments; and staffing can be challenging for extended road shows.

JH: Road shows are necessarily limited in reach, provide limited opportunities for media exposure and aren't as effective a venue for showcasing senior leadership.

KK: A road show requires the organizer to do all the marketing themselves. As noted before, the road show also has a much more limited audience than the broad spectrum of attendees to a trade show. Lastly, compelling learning opportunities are a necessary component of road shows and can often be an important determinant of the number of participants.

SP: Overall, we find customer events to be a very effective way to engage with customers and help them move their businesses forward. From a vendor perspective, the downside of these events is that the onus is on us to create the event, make the experience relevant, present topics that genuinely resonate with the market, line up experts, develop a meaningful agenda and get attendees to the event. We are dependent on the strength of our own outreach efforts and our sales organization to bring in attendees.

From the attendees' perspective, the only downside to a road show is that they are not experiencing the products and services of a wide range of vendors—they're focusing on Oce. For customers, this really underscores the importance of doing both—attending the big shows to get a sense of what's out there and attending smaller events to get an in-depth look at a specific vendor's offering.

PN: How do you see your company balancing these two types of events in the future?

SW: We sign up and then think about it. It means time away from the office and it can be expensive. Parking at the Javitz Center in NYC is $50 across the street. Do I want to spend that kind of money before I even walk in the door? Driving in and out of the city is a challenge and you never know how the traffic will be. The convention center is massive and you are on your feet all day. So, we consider the pros and cons as the date approaches. But here is the key: If there is something that we are particularly interested in, we will make a point of going, no matter what the time and expense. If we need to make an informed decision regarding a large number of competing vendors, the place to go is the trade show. The local road shows are great. It is a quick and easy in and out. If there were more local road shows, I would be happier.

The answer to balancing out the two would have to do with our specific needs at that point in time. If there was a product or service that we really wanted to know about and the particular trade show or road show provided a way to get that information easily, then we would decide to attend. If given a choice, I would vote for a local road show over a large, distant trade show. But sometimes you do not have that choice to make.

SD: HP depends on integrated marketing programs to deliver the most value and road shows and trade shows are a part of that mix. We will continue to utilize both of these marketing programs on several levels as they both serve a purpose in any demand generation program.

JH: Kodak will continue to strategically participate in both trade and road shows, depending on market, customer set and opportunity. For the trade shows we do participate in, we continuously push the envelope in terms of innovative formats and presentations, keeping the experience fresh, informative and relevant.

KK: While both trade shows and road shows have their benefits, Konica Minolta looks to focus on the highest impact shows. We are constantly evaluating our involvement with each show and we hope to add a few more road shows moving forward. As we become more and more solutions-driven, road shows provide a powerful opportunity for us go into more detail and explain our applications in depth to customers.

SP: In my opinion, both types of events are essential components of an effective integrated marketing communications strategy. While we see tremendous value in hosting customer events at our solution studios and at our Customer Experience Center, we believe both events offer value. Customers benefit from customized visits, live technology demonstrations, professional services and application and paper testing. The intent is to help them understand how Océ can help transform their applications and workflows to make their businesses more profitable.

In the past three years, we've hosted more than 50 open house events and a total of 2,500 guests at the new Boca Customer Experience Center and our field-based Solution Studies. The response to all of these events has been overwhelmingly positive, so we know that these events deliver customer value. In terms of the role trade shows play in our marketing strategy, we are committed to supporting the industry in key events and trade shows. We will continue to actively participate in trade shows where the relevance and value justifies the investment required to participate in the event.