I was curious to find out how successful (or unsuccessful) of an experience exhibiting at a virtual trade show has been for B2B companies, so I decided to find out.

So much emphasis has been placed on attendee engagement… like how many sign ups, how many hours of content watched, etc.

But all too often it seems like companies that pay good money to be a sponsor or become an exhibitor are overlooked when success is measured at these virtual events.

I mean after all, if it wasn’t for you and your marketing dollars, there wouldn’t even be B2B shows to begin with.

For virtual trade shows to survive and thrive it has to make sense for both attendees AND exhibitors.

If exhibiting companies don’t walk away with enough value these online trade shows are just glorified webinars pumping content to the masses without making any meaningful connections.

Over the past year, the trade show exhibition industry has found itself needing to make big changes to still be able to connect with people.

So how effective are virtual trade shows now that in-person events have both hands tied behind it’s back?

Is this new wave of mass live online attendees a glorified youtube stream or is it the new frontier of product discovery and how suppliers and buyers are connected?

I wanted to know, so I posed the question to hundreds of EXHIBITING b2b companies to find out.

The question polled was: “Have you Exhibited at a ‘Virtual’ Trade Show and if so, how would you rate your experience?”.

The results are in so let’s take a look:

After polling hundreds of B2B Exhibiting companies across all industries we received the following breakdown:

The highest percentage of respondents at over 29% said they have ‘Not yet exhibited at a virtual trade show’.

That is almost 1/3 of companies we asked that have not yet tested the waters almost one year into the pandemic.

Next, according to our findings a little under 22% of those asked said they have exhibited virtually and that it was very worthwhile.

26% of survey respondents said they had exhibited virtually and the results were so-so while approximately 23% said it was quote, “a waste of time”.

When adding them all up, we found that just over 1 in 5 companies had both exhibited at a virtual trade show and found it very worthwhile leaving almost 4 out of 5 companies either not participating at all or participating but with lackluster results.

So let me ask you- Do you agree or disagree with these survey findings?

Now, keep in mind this new virtual format is new for everyone including the participants, the exhibitors and defintely the associations that are producing these shows.

From what I am hearing, the results also vary by industry.

Some industries are better suited for making connections online, whereas other industries such as apparel, heavy equipment or other verticals in the physical world need more touch and see in-person.

Personally, I see virtual as having a place going forward once people can gather safely but more-so as a ‘bolt-on’ feature for in-person trade shows while virtual-only will work for some industries or be a tool for making connections in-between the larger annual get-togethers.

The ability to reach hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands outside the walls of a convention center is too attractive to pass up.

Exhibitors might be pleasantly surprised by the expanded reach.

It’s entirely possible that high-value contacts such as business owners and decision makers will attend in-person while others may attend virtually.

The fact is, Convention Centers are already equiping their buildings with high speed internet and building out broadcast studios to pump out content direct from the showfloor.

In a way our old economy B2B Trade Shows have become a new frontier in the tech space which is really exciting.

I think the pie is about to get a whole lot larger.

It’s hard to plan an expense paid business trip for the whole family to Disneyland if you don’t have a convention to attend!

The entire world relies on people connecting with other people. I mean not everything can just run on Amazon… or can it?

Thanks and I hope you found this information helpful!