Eight years ago Quality Digest published the article, “Suit Up, Show Up, Give Up: Are e-marketing techniques killing trade shows?” The premise was that electronic marketing was slowly diminishing the need for in-person events. However, until recently inertia has kept these sprawling shows alive as a familiar means of interacting with people, products, and services. But then came March 2020 and Covid-19. Trade shows, conferences, and user events dropped like dominoes, and all of us had to innovate.

In the same way that many of us have turned to online collaboration tools such as Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams for communication at work—55 percent of businesses globally now offer some capacity for remote work, and 99 percent of remote workers want to continue it in the future—we’re likely looking at technology replacing or at least augmenting the unique charisma of trade shows and conferences. 

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