When it comes to the success of a tradeshow, much depends on its timing. The recently concluded India Convergence 2008 & Airport and Airline Expo 2008 witnessed a low turnout as a result of Holi. Most of the people went on a festive mood and were seen less keen to attend the show. The same may be said about Office Today 2008 being held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from March 28 to 30, 2008. Although the show was well attended by exhibitors and visitors alike, the show was less enthusiastically taken as a result of financial year closing.

Organised by Buysell Interactions Pvt. Ltd, the show on the first day could gather no more than 2,500 visitors. The hope was high on the second day and the organiser anticipated reaching out a figure of 3,000.

There were about 93 participants in the three shows - Office Today, Sign Today and Frame & Album Expo being held concurrently. Office Today alone had some 25 exhibitors.

The show which is organised once in two years in various cities covered total floor area of 4,000 sq.m. in Hall No 12A of Pragati Maidan. As per the schedule, the next show will now be held in Bangalore in July 2008.

"The number of participants this time was less than the last one. We popularised the show by launching advertisement campaigns in newspapers, and through hoardings. So much so that our campaign team, which consists of 8 people, had visited corporate houses personally in various cities," said Narendra of Buysell Interactions.

Talking about the timing of the show being held at the end of the financial year, which exhibitors said was responsible for low visitors turnout, Narendra said, "We have been organising the show in the first week of March. But we couldn't get the booking date from India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) and had to settle down for the last week of March," Narendra explained.

The show nevertheless got some good business. Most of the exhibitors said they were  satisfied with the response they received at the show. "The response was good but the timing was bad as most of serious businessmen were busy in financial activity," said Sanjay Bindroo of Arrow Digital, a Delhi-based company.

Giving the show a score of 6 out of 10, Sanjay said that the show should have more corporate participation. "Our being high-end equipments with base cost beginning at Rs 1.5 crore, we needed some genuinely interested parties," said Sanjay. On the first day, Arrow received some 150 visitors and hoped that the number would touch 300 on the second day.

Rahul Bhavsar of Mehta CAD CAM System, a Ahmedabad-based company had some positive experience to narrate. "The reason we participate in the show is to be visible among our peers. We are into the business for the last 15 years and believe in working on data we receive at the show, once it's over," said Rahul.

With the minimum cost of his machines being Rs 6 lakh, the Company, informed Rahul, was able to generate some good enquiries. He however, had reasons to be concerned about. "This time around, some of the prominent companies belonging to the segment were conspicuous by their absence. Having all the companies under one roof help in understanding the business better," Rahul said.

A first-timer to the show, Paras Singh of Pioneer Polyleathers, had his own reason of participating in the show. "We were looking for a launching pad to announce our new product and the show provided us the right opportunity to reach out to larger section of relevant clients," said Paras. 

Talking about visitors' response, Paras said that the response on the first was lukewarm and it improved only on the second day. With the third day being Sunday, he hope that it will lead to greater participation from public and businessmen.

Vivek Shukla of Apsom Infotex said that the organiser should create a greater brand value and launch massive advertising campaign to reach out to targeted audience. He said that he was surprised to see few visitors from Delhi and more from other places. "It means that local businessmen were not made aware of the event," he said.

The bright side of the show was that it had some serious buyers who were enthusiastically interested in buying some of the products which were new at the show.