Vegas Fastener Show
I'm still in Vegas and am pretty tired but I wanted to post something before I go to sleep. Early a.m. flight tomorrow. I once again end the show feeling like I accomplished quite a few things I set out to accomplish. I never did hear the final attendance count but, like other shows this year, I'm sure attendance was down. I do not mean to suggest that the show was slow, because I thought it was well attended. And, as usual, it was more heavily attended on Tuesday (the first day) than on Wednesday. Still, attendance did not seem bad.
At every show there are exhibitors that are disappointed by attendance. Then there are others that will say that they felt the attendance was good. Regardless of the numbers, if you get some face to face time with some good customers or if you pick up a new account or a new sales person, then the show could be a success. And yet, I do understand that exhibitors who pay for booths do count on a certain amount of visitors tho justify the investment. I post this note hoping that I will get some feedback from those who attended the show.
I did not attend all the conferences on Monday so anyone who would like to comment on those is certainly welcome. I did attend the anti-dumping meeting. The speaker offered a lot of detail of what went on throughout the process and what it meant. Although there is no predicting what will happen from here, I did hope to hear a bit more about what he expected to happen now that the petition was thrown out and a bit less on what took place to get to this point.
I think I am fading and need sleep so I will post more at another time. Please readers, let's hear your thoughts from the show.
At every show there are exhibitors that are disappointed by attendance. Then there are others that will say that they felt the attendance was good. Regardless of the numbers, if you get some face to face time with some good customers or if you pick up a new account or a new sales person, then the show could be a success. And yet, I do understand that exhibitors who pay for booths do count on a certain amount of visitors tho justify the investment. I post this note hoping that I will get some feedback from those who attended the show.
I did not attend all the conferences on Monday so anyone who would like to comment on those is certainly welcome. I did attend the anti-dumping meeting. The speaker offered a lot of detail of what went on throughout the process and what it meant. Although there is no predicting what will happen from here, I did hope to hear a bit more about what he expected to happen now that the petition was thrown out and a bit less on what took place to get to this point.
I think I am fading and need sleep so I will post more at another time. Please readers, let's hear your thoughts from the show.
We had the best NIFS show ever. We have been attending these shows for at least 16 years so that is quite a distinction. We made a concerted effort to contact people before the show and invite them to our booth. We also were the cover story in The Distributor's Link. We had many happy clients and very interested prospects show up at the booth. Additionally, we had breakfast, dinner and suite meetings with prospective clients. We couldn't have been happier with the show.
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Dennis, that is excellent. Your post really hits on what I feel is the only way to use a trade show. Be prepared, contact people ahead of time and use the format to schedule lunches and diners and coffees and beers or whatever works best for you. In economic times like this it is hard for the people who run these shows to have the same or better attendance as previous years. The fact is, for some companies it just wasn't in the budget this year. But if you worked the show right you can get results like you described. Sounds like you got your money's worth and you really worked the show. Let's face it folks, there is no better format than the Vegas show for meeting that many industry associates in a short period of time.
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TS/All:
We are very pleased and satisfied with the results of the 'Vegas Show.
We are still processing the data, however, preliminary figures show total registration of 3,963 persons...including 1,052 distributors.
A complete listing of all Show attendees with contact info will be sent to all exhibitors early next week for lead follow-up.
Time now to focus our attention on the National Industrial Fastener Show/East scheduled for May 25-26 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio.
We sold a number of East Show booths in Las Vegas and are ready to grow this event significantly over the next six months.
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
Jim Bannister
General Partner
National Industrial Fastener Show
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T.S. - Like Dennis and his team, we lit up the phones for two weeks before the show and it really paid off. Except for a brief period on Tuesday and the last hour on Wednesday, all four members of the FCH team were busy speaking with users, members, or prospective users of our sourcing network. We were very glad to receive a wonderful video endoresement from Bruce Darling, of Porteous Fasteners, as well. You don't find those kinds of opportunities outside of a trade show setting.
There is no question that the show was a bit smaller in scale this year, but for FastenersClearingHouse.com it was a great way to demonstrate our search engine and fastener sourcing network, and to make contact with our users.
Hats off to Jim, Mike, Susan, Denise, and their team on another success. Thanks also for the support and kind words from so many FCH users, members and non-members alike who stopped by our booth.
One thing that would have made NIFS better for us would have been if you'd stopped by to say hello. But since nobody is really sure of your true identity, maybe you did and we didn't know it...
See you next year!
Eric Dudas
www.fastenersclearinghouse.com
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I thought the show was great!Attendance was most likely down but the people that came, came to work! Numbers are great but substantive contacts is why we come to the show.
The Monday sessions were well attended and I'm sure those folks learned a lot. Tuesday was very busy and Wednesday is always the day to catch the people you missed on Tuesday.
I just can't remember where I left my car!
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Hello All
I complete agree that going in prepared most definitely yields the best results!
However one thing I do not understand are the 'short hours' for the NIFS. My idea is not to draw parallels but we guys had put a booth at Fastener Fair, Germany too and even on the second day we had a lot of new visitors. The timings there were 9am-6pm on the first day, and 9am-4pm on the second. Compared to that, NIFS had 9am-4pm on the first and 9am-1pm on the second. So if the timings are only till 1pm on the second day, chances are people visiting would be the ones who are staying at Vegas and chances are they came on the first day too.
As an exhibitor to get the maximum, I would ideally like new visitors on the second day as well! I am sure as a visitor too, one would want enough hours at the fair to get his return on the air-ticket and time spent!
Just a suggestion!
Prateek Arneja
Mohindra Fasteners Limited, India
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