Guest editor ’ s comment
The exhibitor base voted with their feet and stayed in the NEC – clearly showing that the venue had some credible claim on that particular trade show . There are many other examples : it is hard to see Spring Fair not running in the NEC , nor the Harrogate Gift / Craft Fairs moving elsewhere . But trade shows , by and large , do not have to constantly improve to hold their positions in the way that magazines , or cars or breakfast cereals or toothpaste do . This is a relatively rare thing . Examples of Darwinian pressure are everywhere – we have mentioned East Germany ’ s Trabants , but think China . In 1500 China was the most advanced country in the world . But its borders were deliberately closed and when China had to confront the West 300 years later it was powerless . It had cut itself off from innovation and competition . The collapse of the USSR in 1989 was not because the Wall fell , but because the closed economy of Russia had nowhere left to go .
Are trade shows all they might be ; how might we know ? You might argue that trade shows are as good as they can possibly be . I am obviously not suggesting that there are
no new ideas , for instance in segments which did not exist 10 years ago , nor occasionally launching cleverly into a smaller venue and growing there . Nor that new companies cannot grow on the back of new launch events and disruptive approaches ( this is not an advertisement , but CloserStill did exactly that ). But don ’ t ignore the facts . In the UK , the 50 largest exhibitions represent some 75 % of the whole turnover of our industry ( surprising perhaps but true ) and most are relatively well embedded . We have tended to define success as doing roughly the same thing each year and growing the profits by perhaps 3 %. So many of our shows have been about raising prices a bit , simple order taking , keeping cost rises down , watching the cell in the bottom right-hand corner of the spreadsheet , and getting the 25 % bonus for meeting budget . I am not against this – and there are very good reasons why our industry operates as it does – but this is not going to win anyone a Business Award for growth and excellence . In our large groups , it is the people who go out and launch a new event , however small , who should get the big bucks – not the managers running a stable , non-competitive event each year . I am perhaps exaggerating a little to support my argument , but our system can , in its very nature , be accused of tending to inhibit growth and quality . Arguably , we unconsciously restrict innovation and change . This is not because we are bad or unaware people – any more than the Chinese were in 1500 . It just happens to be the environment ( and the very successful one ) in which we work . Hence , we are rather different from most businesses . Charles Darwin , had he ever heard about trade shows , is unlikely to have included us with the finches in On the Origin of Species . EN
Autumn — 15