Let's get the show on the road right here, right now
Time marches on. Things change. And no more so than in the world of commerce. Take, for example, the way the London financial markets work. During the 1980s, the rise of New Money was represented by the image of City floor traders, dressed in their brightly coloured, striped blazers, gesticulating wildly in a bear pit, shouting: "Buy! Buy! Buy!"
But now it's "Bye, bye, bye". The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (or Liffe) has phased out the pit. The Connect computer system has taken over. No more yelling, no more waving; digits have been replaced by digital. It's the end of Liffe as we know it.
Changes to commercial practices are not limited to the City, of course. All areas of finance and trading have seen huge reforms over the past two decades. For thousands of years, goods were purchased by physically exchanging either other goods or valuable metal or, eventually, money. In the last 20 years, however, ordinary people have found themselves paying for what they want by every means other than handing over cash. Cheques, credit cards, direct debits - virtual money has replaced real money in nearly every modern purchasing transaction.
The locations where purchases are made have changed too. We see an advert on television and pick up the phone; we log into the Internet and part with our money. And this monetary revolution has influenced the way that businesses operate.
No longer do manufacturers or service suppliers simply place advertisements in the press or on railway station walls. These days, they create sophisticated marketing campaigns; they "build awareness"; they promote "brands"; they send out mail shots; they identify specific customers; they target, aim and fire directly.
So, in this high-tech, digital world, where does a traditional purchasing arena such as Hotelympia fit in? What makes 1,000 exhibitors set up shop in a show at Earls Court? What makes 60,000 visitors walk through the doors?
The answer to these questions lies in the figures. It's the sheer scale of a show like Hotelympia that has unique appeal. Exhibitors will meet and greet existing customers; they will use the event as an excuse to entertain lavishly. They will also meet, over the space of only a few days, more new, potential customers than they could reach in several months of cold calling. Even if they don't make any firm sales, they will make contact with unexpected future clients.
Visitors, too, will be able to absorb more about innovation, new ideas and technology than they could watching hundreds of hours of television, catching hundreds of trains or opening hundreds of mail shots.
Time marches on. Things change. But there's still no alternative to the face-to-face contact of an event like Hotelympia.
FORBES MUTCH
Editor, Caterer & Hotelkeeper
