Sometimes the easiest way to promote your product is by taking advantage of trade shows. There are myriad reasons why trade shows are beneficial to any company, from generating leads, building brand awareness, and enhancing relationships with customers.
But how do you know which ones to choose? Well here are some of our pick of the best trade shows for you to show off your fancy new product to customers.
CES – Las Vegas
This is the big one. The big kahuna. The crème de la crème. However you want to call it, the annual Consumer Electronics Show, sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association, routinely gets over 150,000 attendees to trek to Las Vegas each year.
There are 30 awards given in a diverse range of consumer electronics categories – ranging from “Tech for a Better World” to “Sustainability and Eco-Design.” CES is the place where the next innovative consumer tech businesses are unveiled to the general public.
CES 2019 took place January 8-11 and featured a presence from powerhouse companies such as Google, Mercedes, and John Deere. However, before you’re deterred by the starpower of the event, the bulk of innovation was through smaller startups focusing on niche electronic B2C products.
NAB Show – Las Vegas
Vegas has gained a well deserved reputation for being a hub for trade shows – and definitely nothing else. If you end up going to a tradeshow in Vegas, make sure you bring a book because you may be hard pressed to find things to do.
All kidding aside, the NAB Show is the largest event within the specific niche of media, entertainment and technology. Taking place in the middle of April each year, the NAB Show exhibits the greatest innovation in broadcast TV, cybersecurity, CGI, and other areas mostly relating to media and audio to its 100,000 attendees.
This years event highlighted B2C products such as Tunevu, which gives an interactive experience to television viewers, and Omniscien, which provides transcription and translation services, among many others.
ITEXPO – Fort Lauderdale
Now we finally move away from Las Vegas to the other side of the US. Trade shows may mostly happen in Vegas but they certainly don’t stay in Vegas.
ITEXPO, catering towards IT professionals and companies, takes place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in February of each year. The 2019 version, the 20th anniversary of the event, had over 7,000 attendees and acted as a place where “donors and disruptors came together.” This included B2C products within the cloud, open-source, networking, AI, blockchain, and communications verticals.
InfoComm – Orlando
InfoComm, also taking place in Florida, is the premier stage for any company wanting to show off audiovisual products in areas such as audio, unified communications and collaboration, display, video, home automation, security, and VR.
InfoComm takes place in Orlando in June of every year. Even if you’re not totally confident of your product, use the excuse to take a company retreat to Disney World.
South by Southwest Interactive Festival – Austin
Texas hasn’t traditionally been known as a tech hub, but Austin and South by Southwest (SXSW) is definitely changing that.
Austin has been building itself up as a tech hub, and South by Southwest is a big reason for that. Taking place in early March of every year, SXSW recognizes and highlights the most exciting developments in the tech industry.
At the 2019 version of the event, 13 products were awarded as the most innovative in their respective categories at a separate awards ceremony. These ranged from an AI cognitive patient care assistant to provide automated insights to patient care to a visual interpreter for the blind – truly remarkable stuff that benefits society in a meaningful way.
IPC Apex Expo – San Diego
This trade show takes us to sunny southern California, where you should make sure to catch some fun and sun at the beautiful San Diego beaches. The IPC Expo is a leading tech B2C product tradeshow, with its 2019 theme being “Technology’s Future Comes Together.”
Taking place in January of each year, the IPC Apex Expo showcases the hottest trends in consumer electronics to its nearly 10,000 attendees. IPC Apex also runs professional development courses that allow companies to learn how to maximize their opportunities.
CEDIA Expo – Various Cities
CEDIA Expo is a leading trade show to highlight all the latest advancements in home technology. Taking place in different cities around the US every year around September, CEDIA is a place for companies to show off new and exciting connected technologies promoting connectivity.
In 2019, the expo will take place in Denver to over 20,000 total attendees. Companies attending this expo will be able to meet industry professionals, grow their skills, and add to the innovation of the home-tech industry, currently worth an estimated $14 billion.
GITEX – Dubai
The last trade show on our list is outside of the US. The Gulf Information Technology Exhibition is perhaps the biggest trade show of its kind outside of the US. Over 150,000 people routinely attend this event at the Dubai World Trade Centre in the United Arab Emirates.
This trade show is the international version of Las Vegas’ CES, with major announcements occuring at the event yearly – most notably Microsoft’s announcement of Windows 7 in 2009. But while many major companies use GITEX to promote their products, there is an equally large presence of small start-ups increasing their visibility and winning awards.
GITEX is a way for innovative minds outside of the United States to come together and promote their products in front of the right people. What better city than Dubai – perhaps the world’s closest equivalent to Las Vegas – for innovative startups to preview their products.
So these are our pick of 8 of the best trade shows where you can showcase your product and generate some great consumer tech PR. These events are, after all, great for building exposure and credibility, not to mention for building contacts and generating leads.
