Moving to Vitrual Trade Shows - Is it worth it?

My colleague Rick Short addressed a great question in his blog Virtual Trade Shows in the B2B Environment today.

Marketers in the electronics manufacturing sector, suppliers of capital equipment or consumables, and users have faced ever increasing costs to attend trade shows over the past few years.

We're reminded of the costs every day when we fill our tank up at the pump.

The big 'take away' from both Rick's post for me is simple. Virtual shows can be used to augment traditional trade shows, but may never replace them. At least not in the near future.

One of my electronics sector Clients summed it up pretty well by commenting that customers and prospects needed to have a hands on experience with his products. It that tactile, touchy-feely time that really makes the difference with hardware.

What do you think?

Working together to better our world, a WOMM winner

When I read Seth Godin's blog (When you least expect it) this morning, it reminded me of from my mis-spent youth and a bumper sticker talking about doing random acts of kindness.

He ordered t-shirts from an online vendor with the expectation that they would fill his order correctly. Little did he anticipate that the vendor would check out the imprint design and make an offer a donation to the non-profit run event.

And the vendor expected nothing in return (as Seth aptly put it:) "Just plain generosity."

My hat's off to Custom Ink and their dedication to serving the community at large.

Now that's word-of-mouth marketing at its best!