Why Concrete Equipment and Aggregate Trade Shows Don

Our company, Mid Atlantic Concrete Equipment, has been attending World of Concrete or CONEXPO-CON/AGG trade shows as a vendor of concrete plants and equipment for over 25 years. Our industry (concrete equipment and construction) like many others has changed dramatically with the new economy. Committing to a trade show the likes of World of Concrete or CONEXPO-CON/AGG that can allegedly draw in excess of 230,000 attendees from both venues and fill all three halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center as well as millions of square feet of outdoor displays is an incredibly expensive undertaking and strains the resources of the most well healed participants. Only the most seasoned buyers can stay focused on their mission in an environment such as this. These shows are a great distraction to many. Sure it’s exciting to see equipment, catch up with folks that we haven’t seen in a while, eat like kings, pick up trade show trinkets to bring home to the kids and see the colorful residents of Las Vegas but not many concrete producers are in a position to spend a week of their time away from their ready mix concrete business in the best of times let alone today.

Finding a Return on Investment in these trade shows is becoming a real challenge. It’s a stretch to believe that with only 3% of attendees considering a purchase as their prime reason for attending a show that the planets will be aligned and you and your potential buyer will consummate a deal. One has to begin to wonder who is benefiting from our concrete industry trade shows. Hmmm, the promoters? I’ve always had a difficult time dealing with the numbers of ready mix producers or “attendees” thrown around by trade show promoters. Do those numbers include trade show employees, vendors and their employees? I would contend that there’s a lot of business being done at these shows however most of the businesses is being recognized by the convention centers and tradeshow promoters. $6 hot dogs anyone? The truth is most companies do not look for, expect or have systems in place to review a tradeshow return on investment. Their primary motivator to be at the show is FEAR (false evidence assume real): the fear that they will be negatively talked about to others by their competition for not showing up. “Company “X” must not be doing well, they don’t have a booth here”. If a business is doing everything I’ve outlined below to promote their products elsewhere I believe tradeshows are actually a significant disruption to the average business.

I know I’ll have many folks challenge this statement but I believe that trade shows may have outlived their usefulness. Today there are veritable oceans of tools to be utilized by potential buyers and sellers that provide significantly better ROI’s; webinars, lunch and learns, product and feature-rich websites, private invitations to product demonstrations, online videos, blogs, white papers, e-books are but a few of the resources available to both. And let’s not forget the valued relationship that exists between a vendor that is passionate about his customers business and his friend that we call a customer. In the end people buy from folks they know, like and trust. The relationship I’m describing here typically doesn’t have the ability to develop in a tradeshow environment.

We’ve begun to notice virtual trade shows springing up in other industries and hope that this concept gains momentum. In today’s age it makes sense to be able to have your product available 24/7 for any potential customer to be able to kick the tires. While this concept is in its infancy and not yet mainstream I believe there is merit in it.