An online event that I took part in on Wednesday this week, brought it home to me just how long it is that we've been apart from peers and colleagues.
The last industry get together I attended was exactly a year ago now. Before everything came to halt, I visited an exhibition at the Business Design Centre in Islington called the Garden Press Event. For me as an editor, this is a great show. It's not open to the public or the wider trade, rather it's specifically geared towards the specialist gardening press.
Most visitors who would ordinarily come along to the day, write for the gardening pages of newspapers and magazines, or run their own websites, blogs or social media channels dedicated to horticulture. For me representing a trade journal read by dealers of outdoor powered machinery, it has been heartening over the past few editions of the show to see more and more brands familiar to our readers exhibiting. It means that your suppliers are wanting to promote themselves and the machinery that their specialist dealers sell, to journalists that write for outlets that will be read by your customers.
In the years that I have been attending, the show itself has grown in size and I'm confident in saying that March 2020 saw the greatest number of machinery brands yet take a stand. Here in March 2021 of course, the show was unable to take place physically. This week the organisers ran an online version, which fair play to them, was as slickly produced and professionally put together as one could have hoped - however, seemingly as a consequence of being virtual, there were fewer machinery manufacturers than last year taking part.
Throughout the day there were a series of live video presentations by exhibiting companies. Of interest to our sector was Craig Hoare of Hayter / Toro talking about the two brands' latest battery offerings and their sustainability credentials. A very appropriate message to be disseminating to the consumer press.
Hayter / Toro's Criag Hoare presenting at the virtual Garden Press Event this week
As well as this there were roundtable video discussion rooms available where the journalists could chat with representatives from the exhibitors. Each exhibitor also had their own page where they could leave press releases, videos and links to their various channels.
As a virtual trade show experience, I can't see how the organisers could have done more. They created a virtual space that worked, as opposed to the alternative of simply leaving everyone without any Garden Press Event at all this year.
However ... it's just not the same. Nowhere near.
I personally find it so difficult to get into an online event. If I'm sat at my desk, I've inevitably got something else which I could be getting on with. I'll admit the fault could very well lie with me rather than the concept, but I do find it a slog to dedicate my concentration to a virtual exhibition. I can't get over the feeling that I could be finding all this information out at any time, by simply visiting the websites of the exhibiting companies.
If I've travelled to an actual show that's where my focus solely lies for a day or two - and most importantly, I'm having natural interactions with the representatives on the stands and fellow visitors I bump into on my way around. For me, recreating these elements is a real struggle on the internet.
Readers thoughts on 2021 shows
All of which brings us back to the discussions we've been having recently about trade shows in 2021.
We posed a few questions to you our dealer readers a couple of weeks ago, regarding your feelings on the trade show scene this year. You can read the results and a selection of your opinions that clearly illustrate the differences in viewpoints, here.
Perhaps reflective of how wider society might feel as things begin opening up, there appears to be a genuine dichotomy between those who are keen to get on with activities and those with a nervousness about returning to mass interactions.
Indicative of this split, on the key question of if in-person events go ahead this year will you want to attend, whilst there wasn't a completely even spread across the three options, it was certainly close between yes, no and undecided!
Reading through your responses, I must reiterate just how much I do not envy show organisers this year! It is also a very tricky position that manufacturers find themselves in - facing the tough choice as to whether they commit to attending or choose to leave it another year?
From my own point of view, virtual events do their best and have provided something during these times when a physical show simply isn't permitted. But as we move along the government's roadmap and the legal prohibitions are lifted, I think online events directly replacing traditional shows will be found wanting.
But will enough punters be willing to turn up, or sufficient exhibitors commit their money, time and staff to any shows that do choose to open their real-life doors?
As I say, I certainly do not envy these decision makers.