Although the Bristol Show does break the “smaller is better” mantra, the benefits of such an approach are obvious, from the fact that it’s way easier to find a venue with half a dozen decent rooms, than one with a hundred or so, to the simple truth that the people making the effort are the ones who’ll reap the reward – and, to quote another simple truth, the more you put into a show, the more you get out. Organising dealers can also time the show to suit themselves and their business/suppliers and leverage their mailing and contact lists to target a receptive audience. Meanwhile, casual visitors or the simply interested, are likely to get a far more positive impression of what serious audio has to offer, both in terms of the relaxed environment and the performance on offer.
If organisers and exhibitors need to sharpen up their act, show visitors need to adjust their expectations. It’s way more interesting to hear and enjoy half-a-dozen good sounding rooms than to fight your way in to ‘see’ seventy or eighty rooms, of which only one actually sounds any good.
Which brings us to the requirements for a successful B2B event…
As an industry, high-end audio has two, somewhat conflicting requirements from a B2B event. I’ve already run through the meet-and-greet aspects and business opportunities such an event offers. It depends for success on sufficient members of the manufacturing and retail businesses involved, congregating in one place. But the sheer number of companies and trade representatives involved also creates the opportunity for a ‘prestige’ or high-profile public event. Back to the High-End Show in Munich: this is a four-day event, of which two are given over to trade visitors, two to the public – at least in theory. This slightly schizophrenic arrangement is a direct result of the show’s history. Established by a group of German audio interests to promote the industry within Germany, to a German audience, following the demise of the ‘trade-only’ CES show(s) in the US it grew into a major (actually, the major) international audio event. Ask most exhibitors and the international business opportunities are far more important to them than playing their equipment to German audiophiles. It created an uncomfortable conflict within the event. The exhibitors increasingly grew to resent the expectations and demands of the public – many of whom gate-crashed the trade days – while ticket sales helped subsidise the cost of the show. Meanwhile, the explosion of (often self-appointed) members of the online ‘press’ further muddied the waters, generating a tidal wave of agenda driven and shallow coverage, making it even more difficult for manufacturers to achieve value from their considerable investment.
Against this backdrop, the move to Vienna has a horrible inevitability about it. Is Vienna a geographically astute choice? Is it a major international hub? Does the venue offer a step up in quality over the MOC in Munich, or even as many rooms? The answer to all these questions is “No”. In fact, several long-time (and significant) MOC exhibitors have been denied rooms at the new venue. So, why Vienna? Because the High-End Society is a German entity and, in the absence of an alternative venue within Germany, at least they speak German in Austria! It’s a classic case of domestic concerns undermining what is in reality an international event. But the biggest irony is that Vienna is located at the far end of Austria: nobody outside of the show organisation that I’ve spoken to, expects many of the German public to make the journey…
