"But the evidence is that the exact opposite happened," says Steven
Hacker,
president of the Dallas-based International Association for
Exhibition Management, an industry trade group. "And, in a way,
that's not surprising. The differences are pretty stark. A virtual
show is one-dimensional, no matter how sophisticated it is. You
can't touch the product, you can't bounce the product, and you
can't taste it. That's a problem, especially if it's a food-service
trade show."
In fact, the growth of virtual booths has been skewed toward
information- and technology-related events like PC Expo/TechXNY;
one out of 10 shows, according to figures from Tradeshow Week
magazine, still doesn't have a Web site. But virtual booths also
have flourished at shows dealing with financial services,
healthcare,
telecommunications, and biomedicine - all segments
where new products don't necessarily need to have their tires
kicked on the show floor.
Attendees at PC Expo can access the trade show's Web site, click on
the virtual floor (which looks like an ordinary diagram of the
Javits Center), and then cruise from booth to booth with a mouse.
Each click opens a new exhibit. Visitors can preview new products,
use e-mail to set up a meeting on the trade floor, watch streaming
video, and listen to audio.
Event officials expect as many as 95 percent of the IT
professionals attending to use the feature. It is not limited by
technical considerations - it's designed to work with the most
basic computers and modems - but by whether exhibitors want to
spend the money to put up a virtual booth. Says Andy Sison,
TechXNY's marketing manager, "It's designed to pull attention to
the booth and to add visibility. This way, exhibitors don't need to
have the biggest booth. They can have a smaller one and still
attract attention before, during, and after the show."