I wrote this on the plane while heading back to Shanghai. 2008 has only 3 more days to go so I guess this post should be the last piece of the year. I want to talk about an old topic, “The future of exhibition.”

The future of exhibition is still an offline world. The organizers adopt a lot of online practices to organize the events with better features. The online world alone has never been truly interactive compare to the offline world where people meet people, hug and shake hands. The offline world, on the other hand, gets upgraded by adding its online counterpart.  The return of investing an exhibition booth gains more values.  I know, I know, all these are not new.

But I see “change” starts emerging in this region for the exhibition industry. The organizers become more quality conscious. They focus more to recruit quality visitors and no longer exaggerating the long queue of the show. Two weeks ago I was in Beijing attending the Reed China Business Summit. I heard this comment from Paul Beh who is the President of Reed Exhibitions Asia Pacific, “You won’t say a toilet is good when many people are queuing up for it.” Of course, an exhibition hall is not a public lavatory. But I agree with the metaphor, queuing makes people annoyed and is a waste of time. Exhibition organizers have been using Internet to cut short the visitors’ queuing time.

I even see more values of spending for an exhibition particularly during the recession. Because this is the moment when you need to align sales with marketing, cut short the sales cycle and do no bullshit. What else can be better than meeting a potential customer face to face? The organizer of future exhibition will help you to profile your leads over the Internet and facilitate the offline business communications.

So let me take you to a future like this: An exhibitor pays for an exhibition booth. The organizer starts matching the exhibitor’s company with the relevant buyers instantly over the Internet. The organizer properly profiles the buyers and the exhibitor will be able to download the buyer profiles from the Internet prior to the show opening. The buyers take virtual tour guide for the show before they arrive the venue. The organizer has built a community website for the event, which interlinks with other social network sites. The exhibitors and the buyers continue their communications over the Internet. They reach fruitful business cooperation. Thanks for the future exhibition.

If you have yet seen the future exhibition, I am sure it will happen in just 3 days later, in a happy new year.

I dedicate this post to the fellow marketers of Reed Exhibitions. You all inspire me a lot!

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