ISC West Is An Industry Tax, If You Don't Exhibit Then You Don't Exist

I disagree generally but I think this is a very interesting point, so I made this its own discussion.

So any manufacturer who is dependant on ISC West for existing, or more broadly for reaching new customers, is a company who needs to do more on their online marketing.

It's 1 week out of 52. If you are spending $50,000 on that week (and most manufacturers easily do), how much are you spending online?

The richness of an in-person event is certainly going to be greater but the tradeoff is that the reach (thousands vs hundreds of thousands) and repetitiveness (once vs dozens of times) is far better online.

Agree? Disagree?

I agree that any significant player that misses or reduces at ISC West raises some concerns.  I would also say anyone missing for a few years would certainly lose customers.  If you aren’t taking care of them, someone is going to. 

Then the show strategy of acquiring the best placement follows the professional stadium ticketing system.  If you spend the most or pay the longest you get rewarded.  If you shrink or skip a year, they penalize you in placement. 

It has been said elsewhere, but what is also interesting to consider in this context is the dropoff of ASIS (excuse me GSX).  Manufacturers used to have two primary options for "big" broad-market shows, but many now see ISCW as the only major "investment" in North America.  That said, vertical specific shows (IACLEA, IAHSS, etc..) probably see more impact from the decline in ASIS.

Something that goes counter to the negative connotations "tax" of the thread, is the value in travel savings of sales reps.  Having many meetings/prospects come to you, versus the manufacturer going to them all over the region/country, is of value (at least in terms of quarterly visits/direct touch).  This value manifests both in saved travel costs and employee's time.  In terms of budgeting April or Q2 travel this can have a positive impact for some companies.

Our presence at ISC West is far more about reinforcing that we are partners in the ecosystem. We make a widget that is necessary for many in this industry and as such we have a role to play here. Of course we have our own social media and online messaging as well as year round face to face engagement with key customers.  

I remember listening to concerns and criticism about manufacturers who dropped out of ASIS 2017 and it continued for 2018. I feel that if a company already has some cracks in their image, or market position, the negative opinions amplify if they abandon a common show they have done in the past.

Their partners may not be aware of the strategic reason, the competition can easily point out the lack of their presence, and end users may raise eyebrows.

ISC West barely draws an audience relative to the size of those involved in the security industry in the US. Far more people sit ISC West out than attend it, from the perspective of potential buyers/customers.

Sure, if you skip out of ISC West, or ASIS/GSX, you are going to lose some exposure, and ultimately will lose some business, but it is very questionable if the lost business would outweigh the cost of attending, particularly if you put the ISC West exhibit money to something else instead (hire 2 more sales people, give a free sample of your newest product to your top X dealers, etc.).

It's the peacocks feathers of the video-surveillance industry; the bigger and more  elaborate the exhibit, the stronger the company must be. Naturally, it's not a sure thing - an "imposter" might put on a magnificent show, yet be in dire straits, but if you want to play in the big league, you better participate.

So, no, you're not "invisible", but some customers may think you're not as strong as someone who shells out $$$ for a nice booth, hotels and travel for a lot of staff to populate said booth (plus whatever parties you gotta host later in the day).

So here's the deal. I work with a lot of guys who aren't what I call computer savvy. Most of them can get their jobs done, but they sometimes need help for basic Microsoft Windows tasks. These are the guys the company is made up of and they are the ones who make the decisions.

They don't connect well through the Internet. They aren't just going to pull up IPVM and look through a directory. They have to talk to people.

When they want a new product, ISC West is their search engine. It's always, "We need to find something at ISC West". Maybe they'll put together a list of companies at ISC West that they want to talk to. But when they're really trying to find something, they want to talk to people face-to-face, and the easiest way to talk to all these people is at ISC West.

For us, it doesn't matter much what manufacturers do online. If they show up at ISC West and talk well and do a nice demonstration, my boss is going to come back thinking they're the bee's knees. If a company isn't there, we might consider them, but they'll be at a serious disadvantage.

That's what it's like for our company. No idea how common this is in the industry.

Im on the fence. If your goal is to achieve new customers, can the marketing dollars that you would spend on ISC west be better spent elsewhere? It also depends on what type of company you are. 

For larger manufacturers and companies, the big money to be spent at ISC west is probably trivial. For them, its probably more of a brand awareness thing to meet up with current customers, show off new products, etc.

For smaller companies, i think thats where it becomes "On The Fence". Ill take us for example. I figure it would probably take at minimum 20k to even have a small booth after all costs are considered. The problem with small booths like this, is they often get overlooked and passed by, especially if you dont have some outstanding differentiating factor that makes you stand out from the sea of other similar companies that are there. Im not so sure we would see a big ROI. If I had a choice to spend 20k on ISC west or Facebook Advertising for my company, I would choose Facebook Advertising. 

I think that's a little strong, but hearing a company doesn't even exhibit at ISC West makes me think that they're too small to be taken seriously. 

If Axis doesn't make it to ISC West next year, it wouldn't make a bit of difference to their bottom line, but if Hikvision doesn't make it to ISC West next year, IPVM would have a four inch blood red blinking headline letting everybody know about it, because  that will be a big, significant story. 

ISC West is an industry tax. If you don't exhibit, you're not very important.