2022 and 2023 are going to be HUGE for in-person events.
— Joe Pulizzi
Content-marketing guru Joe Pulizzi is bullish on tradeshows, as are many who've attended one lately.
I'm not so sanguine, despite the Delta variant waning.
He pointed to the recent shows held by Informa, the National Association of Convenience Stores, the National Confectioners Association, and the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute as examples of the industry's recovery.
I allowed I was perhaps underestimating tradeshow organizers' resiliency.
But whether you back bulls or bears, don't put your money on these two species: cows and pigs.
They're done for.
Three decades ago, I wrote an investigative article—the first of its kind—for the tradeshow-industry magazine EXPO.
It revealed two best-kept industry secrets: one, that most organizers' shows were cash cows; and two, that most organizers' net margins were piggish—well over 70%.
The article, entitled "Porcine Profits," made a few show organizers uncomfortable; but none disputed its accuracy.
Pent-up, post-pandemic demand notwithstanding, those heady yesterdays are over.
Show expenses are up; show participation, down; and no broad-scale economic rebound is going to change either of those facts.
Organizers are going to have to forget about bulls and bears and cows and pigs, and at last become rhinos.
That, or become dinosaurs.
HAT TIP: Thanks to Dan Cole for introducing me to the rhino.
