The subject of this post is a little misleading. For the record I want to state officially that I am neither an exhibitor myself nor do I own a company that exhibits at this event. I work for a company that exhibits at this event and as a result of my employment I attended both the 2008 and 2009 events in Orlando and Boston respectively.

I have taken some time over the days since the conference ended to speak with other exhibitors and attendees in an attempt to gauge their sense of satisfaction. I am afraid that the general feeling was not as positive as the organizers might have hoped for.

Of course the top comment from every one of the people I spoke with was the mysterious disappearance of the three main anchor exhibitors – NCR, Diebold and Wincor Nixdorf. As is always the case when big business does not behave as we expect and then offers no formal reason for the actions taken or not taken – the rumour mill ratcheted into hi-gear. Despite all the doom and gloom prognostication for two of the three missing exhibitors, I believe the real reasons are first, the current state of the economy (no one is selling 100% of their quota) and second, that the BAI should perhaps rethink it’s strategy of holding one giant everything-in-one-place event.

My own personal experience from this years event was that the number of attendees was definitely down as compared to 2008 and that those that did attend were tasked with gathering information for their peers back at the office. As a result it was difficult to have meaningful conversations with those that did stop to chat as they were likely not involved in the line of business that our products are focused on. It made for some short and frustrating conversations as the recipients had little if any experience with which to measure the effect of what I had to say. Many of the connections one would expect to make on the exhibit floor will now need to be made after the fact and some with the additional expense of travel.

I am not sure what the solution is for BAI or for other hosts of similar events. I do not envy them their challenge, but one thing is for sure – during this year and a half of incredibly trying economic times, they have satisfaction of knowing they are not alone.

Our company has exhibited at this event for many, many years and I do not think that our owner would cast aside that kind of consistency lightly. However, I do know that he will think hard about spending the many thousands of dollars it requires to attend this event the next time he is asked to commit our attendance.