Every 4 years, one of the largest trade events for the logistics and supply chain sector, IMHX, takes place at the NEC. It attracts a huge audience from across all aspects of the warehousing, logistics and transportation industries and a large number of trade journalists.
I was at the show working with my client Indigo Software earlier this September and being there highlighted the continuing relevance of trade shows within the purchasing decision making process. This rather contradicts the general consensus among many marketing professionals that as a result of digital marketing, ‘trade shows are dead’. Given the volume of attendees at IMHX together with the level of end user interest received by my clients at the event, that was certainly not the case.
Typically budgets allocated to trade shows and exhibitions have dwindled in recent years as the Internet has overtaken other channels as the primary means of researching B2B suppliers. But although reviewing potential partners online is essential, once a shortlist is in place, there is no substitute for getting out and meeting vendors. Trade shows provide a convenient way to do that and an opportunity to gauge the cultural fit of a would be supplier for an end user organisation. Most technology purchases are long term investment decisions, so ensuring a good match of cultures is essential to the success of the project and an increasingly important criterion in the evaluation process. It’s an obvious consideration but has officially been verified by Gartner clients.
In my mind, there only two real downsides to events such as IMHX – the awful venue that is the NEC and generally poor food choice availability whilst you are there. But I guess you can’t have everything.
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