Conferences, how they have changed

 

So, the conference cycle has started again, and it looks so much different than it did prior to the Pandemic. We were recently at an event which before had a lot of vendors as well as a lot of attendees. This time, the number of vendors was way down, which made it a little disappointing to attend. The number of attendees also seemed to be way down, and I think that is because so many people still don’t want to go to events that could be crowded.

The other thing that I noticed at this event that the number of physical things that you could see was way down as well. I understand that it has become more of a virtual world but if you are offering phones or services or other equipment it would be nice if you would have the equipment so that I can see it. Pictures or plastic copies of the items just doesn’t cut it.

Being able to talk to some of the vendors is nice when the show isn’t as busy so that is one of the advantages that I am seeing, but it also means that the vendors aren’t making as many connections so probably not going to be making a lot of money from attending the conference and paying the cost of having a booth.

The other thing that has been happening, and I heard it again at this conference, is there are a bunch of events all on the same day, so people must decide which one they are going to attend. This does make it hard, especially if you are a reseller or provide managed services because it means you could miss the best opportunity because you decided to go to one event over another.

It is going to be interesting to see how conferences are like even in another year because I think more and more of them are going to be going virtual only because then you don’t have the cost of a booth or the cost of staff to man the booth. The staff can remain at their desk (either at home or in the office), so any travel is eliminated. I hope that not all conferences go virtual because what is also important is the networking that happens between attendees.

Yes, conferences have changed, so now to see what they are going to become in the future.