USE IT OR LOSE IT!

Well this month my page is devoted to a rant! The culprit responsible for this rather uncharacteristic outburst was my attendance at ‘an international defence industry event’ as a visitor. No doubt you can imagine that security was tighter than tight McTight on a tight day in tightsville. After what can only be described as an eternity of queues, flashing photographic proof of ID and name badges, quoting security codes and passing through airport style security apparatus and an element of rather unnecessary body-frisking, I was finally processed and deemed worthy and presumably safe enough to venture into the hallowed halls. I do have to admit I would make a rubbish spy in any event, because I had great difficulty deciphering what many of the items on display were for or did. However what I did appreciate and witness was the fact that many exhibitors had gone to a great deal of effort in making their stands look great and many had fabulous displays and activities that drew crowds from the aisles.

Demonstrations, moving and revolving displays, simulators, video presenters and scale models to name but a few. Here was definitive proof that even the most unlikely manufacturers and dealers have finally got the message that you need to spice up your stand to attract visitors. Well done!

Or should that be well done-ish? Whilst it was laudable to see so many exhibitors making the effort to attract visitors successfully to their stands it was distressing to see so many visitors so captivated by the animated and interesting displays being ignored so comprehensively. In my journey through the halls I joined many a visitor queue to witness yet another riveting display of prowess, capability and innovation. Lamentably at each and every one of these performances the audience was not approached, questioned or even smiled at. In fact, in all too many cases we were left to wander off without so much as an acknowledgement or even a smile. Visitors were asking each other questions about what they had seen or heard to try to fathom things out for themselves. It was a perfect opportunity for someone from those stands to approach us and answer our questions and engage with us. I do not believe the reason for the ‘cold treatment’ was due to the nature of the industry in question either.

At the risk of making assumptions, I guess I thought it obvious that the purpose of attracting visitors was to create the opportunity to interact with them, rather than merely attracting them as an end result! Maybe I should be more obvious in my future advice and spell it out. “It is a good thing to attract visitors to your stand so that you can interact with them”. There I said it. Now let’s see whether that makes a difference next time. . .