The end of E3 as we know it is (new interesting analysis here from the Editor-in-Chief of E3’s Show Daily found by way of Sue’s blog) has been good food for thought for our small company.

The current (and past) thinking for tradeshow organizers was that when a show was launched, it was meant to live forever - to continually serve the industry in which it existed by constantly renewing itself with new content, new attendees and new exhibitors. But I wonder if that is truly possible. As I mentioned in my earlier post, show organizers are constantly trying to grow an event’s revenues until finally it becomes so expensive for everyone that it blows up - a victim of it’s own success. For this very reason, I’ve often considered launching my next event and trying this out: every exhibitor can buy one 10×10 booth - and nothing more. The software startup working out of a spare bedroom on evenings and weekends will have the same presence as Microsoft. Total sponsorship dollars would be capped each year for individual companies to eliminate the need to increasingly “out-do” competitors and previous year promotions. In other words, get away from “flashiness” and get down to business. Gartner is already doing similar things. This may sound ridiculous, but long-term it would keep the show from becoming a victim of it’s own success.

Yet another thought continues to pop into my head. Why do events need to go on forever? What if the model were simply to organize events that would run until they outlived their usefulness and then no longer organized? Yes that happens all the time, but no one launches a show now PLANNING on it happening. Launching a disposable show doesn’t have to be a bad thing, as long as it provides value to the attendee, exhibitor and show organizer for the life of the event. This would necessitate always being on the lookout for a new event to launch to replace the revenue from events that have outlived their usefulness.

In the case of the disposable show, “disposable” doesn’t necessarily have to mean “of less quality.”

Update: A friend of mine who is not in the tradeshow business, but an entrpreneur like myself, read my post and said that this is the dumbest idea he’s heard this week. He says the smart thing to do is launch a show to last, but sell it before it gets to the point of E3. Spoken like a true entrepreneur, but not sure that’s what’s best for the industry the show serves or the tradeshow industry in general.