Event Industry News Podcast

We invited Paul Woodward, chairman of Paul Woodward Advisory, to discuss his article: Too Big to Succeed. Within the podcast, our host, James Dickson, asked Paul on his professional background, the opinions expressed in his article and the history of trade shows. Having been in the exhibition industry for over 35 years, Paul is justified in having perhaps the controversial opinion that trade shows are suffering a profound blow, drawing examples from Cebit, Baselworld and Interbike. If exhibitions aren’t closing their doors for good, they’re making drastic cuts in order to preserve their presence in the trade show world: Cebit is gone and Baselworld has suffered a 50% reduction in exhibitors. Though Paul commented that trade shows are still useful for smaller companies, he stated that a lot of bigger brands are asking questions regarding the effectiveness of these exhibitions. The development of technology has allowed businesses to invest money in digital marketing and their own events, but trade shows may