Two days, two views.

I have to admit, sometimes experience can get in the way. Or maybe it's expectations that get in the way. My two days exploring the International Builders' Show and talking with attendees and exhibitors reminded me that the same experience can be viewed through very different eyes. Long-time exhibitors in spacious booths were concerned about the light traffic. Yes, it was the first day of the show, and yes, the weather across the country was not cooperating, but wow. This was not the Builders' Show they remembered, with crowded aisles and long lines for registration, coffee and giveaways.

But a few conversations with first-time exhibitors made me look at the show through their eyes: they see an opportunity to engage with thousands of builders (how many are they really going to be able to talk with, anyway?), "break in" to the "main" (only) exhibit hall, and they are excited and pleased and optimistic. They're looking forward to following up with all those leads.

The second day of the show, traffic picked up quite a bit, and it'll be interesting to see what the final numbers are. I'm not sure the show will ever be as big as it once was, but I think that's OK. Maybe we all just need to look at it differently.

Did you attend the show? What's your view?

2011 Builders' Show

I'm heading to the International Builders' Show in Orlando tomorrow, and am so curious to see how it goes, and what the tone is. Twenty years ago, it was a "can't miss" event for building products manufacturers. I remember hearing the speculation that some manufacturers had spent more than a million dollars on their booth for this grandaddy of trade shows. Anyone who was anyone exhibited at IBS. At one point, attendance at the show was estimated at more than 100,000.

But recently, a number of big players have decided to sit out a year or two (or more). Some of them attend the show, schedule meetings with customers and the media, but don't invest the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars just to share some floor space with thousands of other manufacturers. On the other hand, it appears that some smaller, new companies are seeing this as the perfect time to "break in" to IBS and get noticed in a less crowded field. Their attitude seems to be, "who cares if attendance is 'down' to 50,000 or so? That's still a lot of builders!"

How do you feel going into this year's IBS?