Launching a new show is hard as hell for a variety of reasons. I’ll be talking about these reasons often here. The toughest part about a new tradeshow is getting those first few paying exhibitors and sponsors to come on board. It is the quintessential “chicken or the egg” problem. Each exhibitor asks, “Who else is exhibiting” and then tells you to call them back when you have more exhibitors. I refuse to lie or even stretch the truth when it comes to my exhibitor list – that sort of thing will come back to bite you every time.

When I owned the Online Trading Expo, we had two competitors pop up through the years. Both posted exhibitor lists that were complete bull. But unfortunately, when we brought it to the attention of the company who was listed, they were rarely concerned. They figured their name listed online with a link was good for the search engines so they weren’t going to make a fuss about it. Trouble is, they were using that exhibitor’s good name to attract other exhibitors – making our job that much harder. Both competitors had miserable shows and closed their doors.