I have just attended the Xerox Forum in Rome, Italy. This was a three-day event encompassing four separate conferences and around 1,200 people of which almost over 800 attending were Xerox customers and 150 were customers of other suppliers of digital printing systems. Xerox is not the only supplier running such events. Last year HP ran an even larger event in Barcelona for its large and very large format display graphics divisions, and it will be running another customer event in Rome in a couple of weeks time. Such events allow companies like Xerox and HP to spend real quality time with their customers, and their customers have the opportunity to learn more about building their businesses and also to network with similar customers from around the world.

These events are becoming popular with vendors at a time when many industry vendors are having doubts about the value of large trade shows. Such trade shows cost a huge amount of money for vendors and many don’t see such expense as being worthwhile. Xerox told me that the Rome event, which included all the costs of accommodating the guests, was a fraction of the cost of exhibiting at a major trade show. These doubts about the commercial viability of exhibiting at trade shows are not new. I remember about ten years ago having a discussion with the CEO of Scitex who told me that he would have liked to withdraw from the drupa show as it was so expensive and which the company hardly found any new customers. One problem for vendors at a trade show is they get very little time with customers and prospects. Visitors to a show today spend very little time there because of the constraints of time and cost, and they will try to see as much as they possibly can in the time. Few attend for more than a day.

After trade shows the organizers will put out releases saying how much equipment had been sold at the event. In most cases orders taken at trade shows are all carefully stage-managed and would have taken place if the event had not taken place. Few customers turn up at a trade show and sign up for an expensive piece of capital equipment on a whim. Discussions will have been taking place in most cases for months before.