Estet Company of Ukraine – the organizer of InterCHARM Ukraine, the largest Beauty Industry trade show in Ukraine - is proud to announce the selection of  the predecessor of HATCH Marketing and Consulting, LLC (HMC), P.O.P. Event Marketing, Inc., as their Exhibit Sales and Marketing Team for the USA and Canada for  the 2011 and 2012  gatherings.

Please click here to read the News Release and learn more about HMC, Estet, and InterCHARM Ukraine.

Today, we continue a series on “The First Trade Show”, the name I give to The Great Exhibition.  Click here to see all sixcharacteristics and the first entry on “The First Trade Show“.

Characteristic #1: Trade Shows gather artisans, innovators, and manufacturers to present their work to a lot of people.

First Lesson – Invite Tons of People…
“Six million people—equivalent to a third of the entire population of Britain at the time—visited the exhibition.” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Exhibition, on October 14th, 2010.)

I understand that your trade show does not need one-third of the population of any country.  You want decision makers at any event focused on facilitating commerce and order-writing. However, wouldn’t it be fantastic if one-third of your industry’s decision makers attended? Yes, it would.

Second Lesson – …or at least Invite Lots of the Right People
The Great Exhibition started with what we might call the “Industry-Exclusive” days, which were priority showings for the Captains of Industry and the Aristocracy.  Only the Upper Classes at that time could have afforded the entrance fee of the first few months: Three Guineas, or about £275 or over $430 in today’s money. There is a reason for this cost: The buyers, “Thought Leaders”, and those with the “Decision Making Power” were given time to see the magnificent technology, but they were not alone.  This reminded me of “The Women’s Conference” that Maria Shriver just finished in Long Beach, California.

Third Lesson – Hybrid Events Bred Buzz.
By the end of  the summer and early fall of 1851, the common man entered the Crystal Palace for only one shilling, under $7 or €5 a person in today’s money. Wikipedia says”The one-shilling ticket proved most successful amongst the industrial classes, with four and a half million shillings (£19.5 Million), being taken from attendees”.  Doesn’t this sound like events such as The Consumer Electronics Show ?

Now, you might manage the “Very Specific Industry Association Convention“. Your exhibitors might not want thousands of unqualified attendees at your event.  But your event’s exhibitors need more than sales, though OF COURSE, they should expect at your trade show.  They need good reputation and free advertising.

Here are two ideas for building reputation:

- an “Exhibitors Give Back” day/afternoon or some Community Outreach for Medical Industry Event

- an Open to the Public Tech Showcase/pavilion/period near the show floor.   A Defense Industry show could invite the general public to see (non-classified) innovative and “cool” products available. Wouldn’t Boeing love that additional advertising to taxpayers?

Yes, this shifts the paradigm, but that’s what the Crystal Palace did.  Why not your event?  So, do you agree?  How/Should trade shows engage the public?

Third Lesson – People come to events to see the fantastic and new.
People attend your event to see innovative technology.  That was true at the Crystal Palace, a fact proven by its longer, more formal title: “The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations”.  If that event occurred today, someone would transform that title into a neon sign with these words: “New, Fantastic, Amazing! See the Whole World’s Inventions and Products! Only $7!”

Technology will always be a central reason for business people to leave their office for to become attendees ata trade show. On the show floor, exhibitors should remember this.  As my CEO and father always says, “NEW” is the most powerful word in advertising, NOT FREE! Only one other word will induce an exhibitor to pay attention for a few valuable moments… but shouting out the names on attendees’ badges might seem a little too desperate for exhibitors. Hey, it worked for you if you found me through Twitter: it said “New Blog Post” in the message!

Stay tuned… catch my next blog entry on Tuesday, November 2nd at Noon Eastern US Time (and end of the work day in Britian).

Today is the 159th anniversary of the closing of the world’s first trade show… well, maybe.

Saying something was “The First” is a dubious undertaking.   For proof, visit a tech venture capitalist’s boardroom, and pitch your “first of its kind website”.   Then, ask for a cushion on which s/he will toss you out!  New products or events almost always have forerunners and competition.

Bazaars like Khan el-Khalili have been around for 600 years, but strictly speaking... it's not a trade show.

So, who are the parents of trade shows? Marketplaces have existed throughout the world for millenia.  Bazaars also have been around for centuries. “Khan el-Khalili (Arabic: خان الخليلي)… in the Old City of Cairo” may be the oldest, dating back to 1382. Istanbul‘s Grand Bazaar (KapalıÇarşı, or Covered Market) also is one of the most prominent predecessors to the modern shopping mall, all the way back in 1461.

However, bazaars and marketplaces were not trade shows.  It’s not a trade show when someone puts a roof over a business district.  To clarify, I will define a trade show and emphasize some of their positive and negative characteristics.

1. All Together — Trade Shows gather artisans, innovators, and manufacturers to present their products.

2. In One Place — Trade Shows take place in a centralized location, usually, but not exclusively, indoors.

3. The Next Big Thing – Attendees come to see new and exciting technologies, products, and services from the exhibitors, some with the focus on buying the new products.

4. Limited Time – Trade Shows are usually temporary events, maybe only for a day,  maybe much longer.

5. See You Next Year – Trade Shows are routine events, happening sometime annually.

6. Time and Money – Trade Shows require huge resources to organize and create.

So, what was “The First Trade Show”?  How can Event Organizers learn from it and thereby create better events? Does it warn us about pitfalls that many trade shows fall into?

I consider “The Great Exhibition” (an event sponsored in part by Queen Victoria of Great Britain and her husband Prince Albert) in Hyde Park of London, England to be “The First Trade Show” (Should it be “The First Trade Fair”? Maybe, since it’s in Europe!). It was the forerunner of World’s Fairs, World Expos, and the Event Industry of the 21st Century.

What made the event so influential as the predecessor to the thousands of industry trade shows and convention centers worldwide?  The design certainly helped!  This event is sometimes called the Crystal Palace Exhibition, for the glass and metal structure created to house it.  Don’t you think it may have inspired some architects of Convention Center lobbies around the world? Maybe the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando? Could be!

It opened May 1, 1859, and it closed on October 15th of the same year. It fits into all of the six characteristics above (even #6 since the Crystal Palace was disassembled and rebuilt in another region of Greater London, three years later).  The event was an incredible spectacle, unlike anything else of its time.

And what can Event Organizers learn from it? In the next couple weeks, follow this blog to see how we can learn from the Crystal Palace Exhibition.

We will use the above list of six main characteristics of trade shows. With the Crystal Palace Exhibition as a reference point, we will see what aspects should be repeated, as well as learn from its mistakes. Starting on Monday, we will look at Characteristic #1: Trade Shows gathered artisans, distributors, and manufacturers to present products to a large audience.

Please keep watching… and have a Truly successful day!

I enjoy basketball. I find it to be fun, fast-paced, and energetic. But I go to see baseball the most, and I follow both baseball and soccer more. Why? I can see paying $40 for my family of four to get nosebleed seats to see the Orioles or Nationals, but it would cost me $100 to go to see the Washington Wizards of the NBA, or even the University of Maryalnd’s men’s basketball team play…

But by the way he is running the Washington Wizards, Ted Leonsis is making the NBA relevant in DC. Trade Show and Conference organizers, take note! You can learn a great deal from him about how to engage your participants.

If you look at  Ted’s Take – The Wisdom of Our Crowds, you will see how Mr. Leonsis genuinely listens to his customers: the fans and attendees for the forty-one games/events which the Wizards play in DC.

All you #EventProfs out there, be like Ted! Trade Show Organizers and Conference Planners need to learn from Mr. Leonsis. He knows his attendees make his team into a Revenue Generator. Without them, ROI is zero, and the events would soon shut down. Isn’t that true of your trade show or conference? You can learn a lot from his methods of engagement and promotion.

Read up, learn, and Mr. Leonsis, if you are listening, remember, we want to like Pro Basketball. Keep listening, and we will pay to enjoy it.