EVENT REVIEW: Internet Publishing Expo’s Schizo Exhibit Hall

By Claudia Levine, MarketingSherpa’s NY Correspondent

We were intrigued that yet another player, North American
Publishing Company, decided to launch a conference in the
Internet publishing arena in these economic times a couple of
years after competitors’ shows were established. Still they
own the print properties from which to promote this: Internet
Publishing Magazine, PrintMedia and BookTech the Magazine.

Another funky thing about this show is the way exhibitors from
the owner’s two other concurrently-running shows -– Catalog
Tech 2001 and Magazine Tech 2001 – were intermingled with the
Internet Publishing Expo exhibitors. From an attendee’s
perspective, the exhibit hall took on a somewhat schizophrenic
atmosphere. Not overheard, but it just as soon could have
been: “Ok, so why am I talking to you? And I mean this ever
so politely.”

Exhibitors, though, seemed happy enough with results. One
benefit of being at a show Year One is that your competitors
may not be exhibiting there yet. You have the prospects all
to yourself.

Another thing we noticed: booth sizes weren’t huge. This is
just what we’d expect when a exhibitor goes out on a limb for
the first time. So, while the booths were all well design and
atttractive, exhibitors didn’t seem forced to send anything
extravagent (read: expensive.)

So, what did exhibitors think? David M Scott, VP of Corporate
Marketing for NewsEdge Corp summed up the feelings of many
when he told us, “It lived up to our expectations.” However,
he was careful to note that exhibiting was not a solitary
marketing effort. NewsEdge also ran an ad in the related
print magazine and their CEO was featured as one of the
event’s speakers. These three tactics worked well enough in
tandem that NewsEdge has already signed up to repeat them at
next year’s show. It’s also worth noting this year NewsEdge
was the only company in its category to exhibit, by next year
competitors may also be at the show which could lessen its
impact.

John Girard, CEO of clickability, told us his booth also got
good foot traffic – on par, maybe even better than that of
other shows. He also participated as a speaker on one of the
panels to increase buzz about his product.

Would he return next year – and should you be there, too?
Well, “our initial numbers are promising,” Girard said.
“Slightly better than expected. But we like to do an ROI first
before making another commitment. So far, it looks good,
though.”

Lesson we learned: Be flexible enough in your budget and
planning to test exhibiting at new, highly targeted
conferences. You might just have the whole floor to yourself
at less expense than other more established shows on your
schedule.