What is everyone's opinion of trade show participation in this economy?

The most effective and conclusive way to determine if a Trade show is best for your specific needs is to gather valuable information, such as traffic flow, cost, time, energy, facilities, distribution and/or collection of relevant material, potential connections, quality of other venders, etc. It shouldn’t be difficult to acquire the knowledge necessary to make your own, informed decision.
www.brucehallcoaching.com

I agree with Jeff.

Another key factor: Last time I checked, the statistics said that the average business professional attends only one trade show OR LESS per year.

Shows give a lot of marketers a warm fuzzy feeling because they believe that they will get to physically press the flesh with all their far-flung customers and prospects. The actual fact is, they only get to see a small fraction of those people, and even then, typically only for a couple minutes each! Once per year!

Successful marketing absolutely depends on your being able to get your message in front of your target audience on a frequent, regular basis. There are other, better ways to accomplish that.

Al Shultz
http://www.alshultz.com/

I wonder how much longer trade shows are going to continue to be viable. My impression is the audiences increasingly include more vendors than potential customers. Customers have more cost effective ways to gather product information, such as Web and video conferences. Also, travel bugets are usually one of the first items slashed when the economy heads south.

The smaller regional meetings and association gatherings are a better bang for your buck.

Pretty much a waste of time and money. Find your ideal customer profile and find out what events they go to. Not your trade show? Then stay home.

Jeff Ogden, President
Find New Customers "Lead Generation Made Simple"
http://www.findnewcustomers.net