We are living in the digital era, so why should companies operating in B2B markets still take part in trade fairs and spend huge amounts of money on these events?
Today, if you want to discover more about a company or get in touch with it, you can simply look it up online, arrange a quick call, and understand whether its products or services suit your needs. From this perspective, stressing employees about organizing a booth, producing valuable content specifically for a fair, arranging meetings, and losing valuable working time may seem absurd.
And yet, salespeople still like attending fairs and spending time talking to customers, distributors, agents, and even competitors. They clearly see some value in these interactions, even if the financial return compared with the amount of money spent on fairs is often quite low.
The human side of business still plays an important role, especially for SMEs, whereas it may be less relevant for large companies. Work-related relationships remain important even in the AI era because, in business as in real life, we are still emotionally driven. People understand this and try to pull those emotional strings when building professional relationships.
We could also say that exhibiting at trade fairs has value because it allows a company to demonstrate its strength: it shows other companies that you are still present, active, and doing well. Of course, they could also understand this by looking at your numbers, but communicating it through an impressive booth has its advantages.
In conclusion, trade fairs still have some value, but they do not grow a business by themselves. Businesses grow through other channels, and innovation is the key to achieving long-term success. Fairs are mainly valuable for the human side of companies, which is certainly important, but should not be the main focus of a successful business.