We thought everyone in the electronics industry had bought into the mantra, “No one in the UK goes to electronics shows any more.”
Apparently not! A new show, National Electronics Week, is planned for June 2008. The show will be held in Earls Court, which will be a popular choice with exhibitors, but will there be any visitors?
At Napier we really hope this venture works. There isn’t an electronics trade show in the UK, although we have several successful small events. Despite predictions of the internet killing trade shows, electronica and Embedded World continue to grow in Germany, and engineers really do want to talk to real people about products that could solve their design problems. But in the UK trade shows are still thought of as “a bit of a jolly”. National Electronics Week itself is only a 3-day week! With engineers reluctant to “take a day off” to go to a trade show, the event will need a strong conference programme to get the credibility it needs to attract the prejudiced British engineers. ESS is a good example of what can be achieved: a conference that pulls in a high-quality audience who browse the exhibition booths between sessions.
The first step, however, will be the challenge of getting a portfolio of industry-leaders that will attract other exhibitors. For any show this will be tough, and the British culture makes the job even more challenging. At Napier we hope the event is successful – good trade shows are a valuable part of the marketing mix. We’ll keep you updated on the developments at www.NapierNews.eu
