Is there a trend?  Are the events crowded with excited folks looking to learn about new market opportunities and resources and eager to get some close up, hands on examination of products rare?  If so, does the current economic downturn get full responsibility?  Or does it seem that even before the recent business downturn in 2008, there had been a trend for fewer and fewer of the folks attending who would actually be responsible for designing systems with the products and/or purchasing, installing and maintaining them?  Is there something basic changing in the way B2B attendees experience and learn about products?    Or is it all have to do with poor management philosophy relative to training and education that no longer invests in the workforce in a reasonable way?   Are these events still vital?  What  do show managers need to do to make them so?

Why is this the case?  Is it a notorious executive mindset that refuses to look beyond achieving short-term goals and profits instead of long-term growth and continuing strength?  Is it a failure to understand the values of advertising and marketing as the result of poor education and lack of real world experience by the current crop of top managers?  Do marketing and sales management need to work harder to educate and lead within their own companies to change to a more effective and practical model for making budget decisions in hard times?  Are the media and media associations not doing enough to educate all their advertisers, future advertising prospects, agencies and business schools in the fundamentals of successful marketing and advertising?   What can and should be done?