Penton Paves Way to IT Road Shows
By Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 5/3/2004
The Microsoft Security Strategies Roadshow, which began last Jan. 15 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and will wrap up May 12 in Nashua, N.H., is just one more example of the changing face of IT events. By the time it's done, the show will have lured thousands of IT professionals to the tabletop exhibits of 44 companies in hotel suites in 20 U.S. cities. While typically only 20 or so of the 44 company sponsors exhibit in any particular city, Microsoft and its two handpicked partners, systems patch management firm Avanade and anti-virus provider Network Associates, give presentations at every show.
Don Knox, director for Penton Media's Custom Media Group for Windows & .NET Magazine, which organized the event, said Microsoft chose those two companies as partners because security systems products are in demand.
Roughly 200 to 250 IT directors and IT firm CEOs attend each of the half- to full-day events. "It's not a typical tradeshow with thousands of exhibitors looking for attention," Knox said. "We have an intimate, captive audience." He explained that, by bringing the free event to bottom line-conscious attendees, more are willing to participate because they save on airplane, hotel and meal costs. "They're telling us that budgets are tight and their jobs are on the line," Knox continued. "To justify to their boss that they're going for a week to Vegas for COMDEX is not a reality any more. It needs to be relevant to their job."
Road shows are hot marketing tools, Knox said, with his group already committed to four more before the year is out. Not all of them will require the breadth of services Knox's team has provided for Microsoft, handling everything from marketing and promotions to speaker and content management. Nevertheless, Microsoft will play at least a small role in most of the group's upcoming road shows.
Penton's Custom Media Group began managing the shows in 2002 and really saw business take off in 2003. "This year we're maxed out," Knox admitted. "We're busier than we can handle." Already in the process of hiring two more event coordinators, Knox hopes to grow the current six-member group to 10 by year's end.
