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Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Oct, 2000 by Dale Buss

The idea of "virtual trade shows" is quickly dividing business-to-business multimedia companies into two camps: those embracing these virtual venues as an effective way to join the mad scramble to build industry-specific communities on the Internet, and those who think the whole idea is bunk.

"We expect the online trade show network to be a key component of our growing integrated media platform in print, in person and online," says Dan Ramella, president and CEO of Penton Media Inc., talking about B2Bshowplace.com, the business-to-business online trade show network the publishing giant launched in July to serve 16 vertical markets.

Good luck, counters David Audrain, vice president of Hanley-Wood Exhibitions. "So-called virtual trade shows are oxymorons, because the trade show as an entity itself can only be a live event," says Audrain, without specifically criticizing Penton's efforts. "You can never replace a trade show with a virtual entity of any kind, because then it wouldn't be a trade show."

Actually, there is a huge middle ground developing on the issue, and that is where most major players are gathering these days--even, to some extent, Penton and Hanley-Wood. They and their counterparts are all threatened to varying degrees by the flood of dot-com startups that are creating vertical b-to-b exchanges or that are using an expertise in Webcasting or other technologies to try to move every live event they can onto the Internet. So now, nearly every major b-to-b trade show producer at least is trying to figure out how to use the Internet to complement or enhance its physical-world exhibitions, conferences and seminars and to create online "stickiness" within each of their traditional marketplaces.

At the same time, the early financial flameout of some ambitious dot-coms eyeing the virtual trade show market--part of the overall attrition in Netbased companies so far this year--has helped create a current environment that is ripe for brick-and-mortar companies to make their moves. "Now people with established trade shows and publications have the luxury of bringing their clout to the table and planning their approaches, instead of being scattered and scurried," says Howard Hauben, senior vice president of Internet strategy and development for the Miller Freeman properties recently acquired by VNU Inc. "Technology is cool, but getting the world to drink from that trough has been much harder for some of the startups than anticipated. We can do that in a more reasonable and measured way."

Advanstar Inc., for instance, is "focused on building full online communities, with full content and e-commerce capability for our vertical markets," says Jim Alic, vice chairman of the Boston-based publisher of such trade magazines as American Spa, Video Store and Cosmetic Surgery Times, and producer of conferences, including HairColorUSA and Sensors Expo. "We're really aggregating all of the stuff we have, and customers and contacts, into what we hope will be full vertical sites that will include exchanges, catalogs from vendors, content from our magazines and outside news feeds. We want to become a one-stop resource for all buyers and sellers in our markets. We realize that's a tall order."

Similarly, IDG World Expos is "trying to approach it in a sensible way," says Rob Scheschareg, vice president of the Framingham, Massachusetts-based publisher of The Industry Standard and other information technology publications and producer of Linux World, Mac World and other industry shows. "We're not trying to create virtual shows; that's not really the goal. It's to extend the value that our shows bring beyond just the three or four days that the physical event takes place-- just like NFL.com does to extend the physical events that occur on Sundays."

It's relatively easy for publishers to figure out how to leverage their magazines on the Net: Slap the editorial material on a Web site, decide what's free and what requires a fee to access, enlist advertisers and then provide fresh content as frequently as possible. But it's a much stiffer challenge for b-to-b media companies to reckon with the online possibilities for trade shows, given that so much of the value of the events for exhibitors and attendees is in the sheer critical mass of what's gathered in one physical location-- and in the elbow-rubbing, business-card swapping and overall atmosphere.

"Trade show attendees are always looking for four things: information, education, new products and networking," says Hanley-Wood's Audrain. "With new products, for example, 99 percent of people come to trade shows so they can touch it, feel it, and see the bells and hear the whistles. There are just very few products for which you can get as good a feel online as you can in person."

And at shows, adds IDG's Scheschareg, "You bring the opportunity to network with peers, you get training from the conference programs, and you're there for all the product announcements."

One Heavy Hitter

Partly because its trade show operations-- agglomerated from a series of acquisitions over the past few years--now amount to about 40 percent of its overall revenue, Penton has become the industry's most aggressive Internet player. B2Bshowplace.com stems from a decision made a year ago "to attack the virtual marketplace in a big way," recalls Drew DeSarle, vice president at the Cleveland-based publisher of Internet World, Industry Week and other magazines.