For anyone who has attended a conference, especially a tech conference, you know one of the most fun experiences is the vendor hall. You get an opportunity to check out the latest and greatest tools to use in the classroom from software, robots, furniture, tools, and more. You get an opportunity to speak one-on-one with the vendors to learn about how their products can help change your classroom, school, or district. And, of course, there’s the swag. Who doesn’t love the free swag? Coming home with a bag of pens, tshirts, and do-dads is almost like a right of passage to show you attended the conference. 

I am not going to lie; there was a time in my life when I would attend conferences such as ISTE or FETC, and I had to make sure to leave half a suitcase empty just in case. The local conferences like IDEAcon were always easier as I just put the stuff in the car. But if you have been attending conferences as of late, you will notice something. The grandeur of many vendor halls has been shrinking. There are not so many companies to interact with, and there is for sure less swag, so the question is why? What is happening? Is it the conference not getting the vendors, are the vendors not getting booths, are the vendors just not into giving out the freebies anymore? What is it? 

I think there are several factors playing into this, and I think there are some lessons vendors can learn as well as attendees. Now keep in mind this is coming from a person who has attended conferences around the country as a teacher, Technology Director, administrator, and I’ve even attended a fair share of conferences as a vendor, so my insight comes from my own opinion.  But talking to many vendors over the years I think I have a good pulse on what is happening.

The first thing we need to look at is what is happening in the corporate world. The biggest thing is companies buying each other. This has been one of the biggest impacts when it comes to the number of vendors at the conferences. A few examples of this would be ParentSquare purchasing Remind, Kami and Book Creator merging, Sphero buying littleBits, the merging of Trox and Tierney Brothers and rebranding as Bluum, and don’t forget Trox bought up CDI years before that, and one last example that had a big impact was BYJU acquiring EPIC!, Tynker, Osmo, GeoGebra, Askash Education Services, and Scholr, along with several other educational companies. In most cases when these mergers happen, what used to be one, two, three or more booths at a conference is now down to one. So when you used to walk around and see each of these companies in a single booth and interact with them, you are now going to one booth to possibly talk about all these products at one time, but in some of those cases, they buy the company and then shelve the product, so that can happen and leave you missing the product you were looking for. As a customer, there is nothing we can do about these factors, but one thing we can ask of the vendors and that vendors need to be aware of is this: we need to know about these mergers and acquisitions and what they actually represent now.

I can speak from experience that there are many times when vendors just think we are aware of these mergers and know that they are now representing all these products. One example of this was a few years back when I was walking the floor at ISTE and I was near a vendor booth that I was not familiar with. It was a general IT reseller, Trafera, and I was thinking to myself, “Do I need to have another reseller calling me? Do they have something I need that I already don’t have?”  I decided, what the heck, why not. So we got chatting about what they had to offer, and it was the spiel I knew I would get.  But after trying to sell me on the company, I learned they had been around for a while as they just got rebranded from a merger of Trinity3 and Firefly Computers. Here is the thing: I had been working with Trinity3 for a while, even speaking on their behalf at workshops, but I had no idea they merged and rebranded. What was funny was right after this realization happened, the contact I normally worked with at Trinty3 came around the corner, and the lightbulbs went off. They had no indication as to who they used to be, but they should lead with that information to save people time and energy at conferences, as I would not have needed to spend that time learning about a company that I had represented not even six months prior at a workshop. So vendors need to help clue us in sometimes as to what is happening. This way we can keep supporting vendors that we might have thought have gone away, and it would help us know who to look for when at conferences.

The next major issue is the common explanation from vendors that they are not attending conferences due to budget concerns. I understand this as budgets can get tight and vendors do need to keep an eye on this so as to not negatively affect their pricing. This is important to them and to us as the customer, but a few things need to be asked of the vendors: who is making the call as to which conferences you are attending and why are you attending certain conferences over others. I think the second part of that question is the important one to dissect as I think many vendors pick their conferences incorrectly. There is this notion at times that a vendor needs to have a presence at a school board conference or a superintendent's conference as they feel it will make a difference. The reality is that it doesn't in most cases. Yes there are some vendors that those conferences are the right place for them. But for others it is not. There is no need for an interactive display company, a network solutions company, or say a laptop or Chromebook vendor to be at these conferences as those individuals do not make those decisions. Tech Directors and Curriculum Directors make those decisions. The superintendent and/or school board might have a final say on if these items are purchased, but that’s from a financial standpoint not necessarily an educational standpoint. That is what we are hired to do. Make recommendations based on our expertise for approval. 

From personal experience, when I worked for SMART, I was instructed to purchase a booth for a conference for superintendents because it was felt we “needed” to have a presence at the conference. I will not go into details as to what I actually saw at that conference, but the reality was that the superintendents were not walking the floor. The ones that did had specific targets, and that is where they stopped.  The only people I talked to were current customers or people I knew previously. I know there could be an argument of how welcoming I was in my booth, and that can be valid and is something I talk about later, but if anyone ever saw our layout, there was no mistake. The booth was inviting and screamed for people to come in and iterate with the products. Vendors at this conference were there to get a name on a list and not to drum up new business. 

The thing is these conferences are some of the most expensive conferences for vendors, and to be there just to be there is not a reason to attend. Vendors, you need to do the work to find the conferences where you will see people that are decision makers and can make an impact, not to be at a conference to be there. This goes for national conferences too. Many vendors feel they “need” to be at ISTE or FETC because of the scale of the conference and the prestige to say they attended a national conference. The reality is vendors can purchase a booth at multiple state conferences for the same cost for one booth at these national shows. And again, are the vendors getting the bang for their buck in regards to getting business? Now, if they have the new shiny ed tech tool to debut, I get it, I do.  But that is not the majority of the cases. 

Along those lines, vendors who claim they are not educational companies by nature but have a presence at the national conferences but not the state ones make no sense to me either. How can they claim they are not an educationally focused company but in many cases have the largest booths at the national level? It makes no sense. But when asked to be at a state conference, those same vendors claim there is no money or, again, that they are not really doing conferences as they are not educationally focused. And in some of those cases, the vendor can’t claim shrinking budgets when, as a company, they have taken steps to raise districts’ costs considerably even at a time when they know our budgets really are shrinking due to changes at government levels that we have zero control over. And this is all at a time schools need vendor support and people to talk face-to-face to understand these changes instead of talking to a chatbot to get the answers we need.

I know a factor that vendors consider is the ROI on the booth. How much new business was generated from being at a conference? I had to answer this question a lot. But here is the thing: there really is no way to know this answer. The reason I say this is, yes, a vendor might get the sale right away from a conversation at a conference, which is great. But what about that sale that happens six months after the conference because it took time to move that process along. Is that still considered part of the ROI on the conference, or was that just a sale that was attributed to other factors when in fact it was the conference? This is lost in many cases. 

Another factor is when vendors consider viable leads that they retrieve from a lead retrieval system and how many people buy. But here is the thing, how many booth staff just scan everyone so they can say they were engaging with people instead of just capturing the leads of the people that are truly a qualified lead? So a marketing person can sit there and say only 1%-2% of leads were converted to sales because the booth personnel scanned everyone, whereas if they had just scanned the true leads, that conversion might have truly been 20%-30% or more, which is a good ROI in many cases. The other question I would ask a marketing person or a higher up who questions if a booth is needed based on conversion rates is, did you get any feedback from attendees on how the booth was set up, staffed, or how conversations went? I have walked past so many booths over the years with booth staff with their noses in their phones or laptops or slouched in a chair with a grumpy look on their face. Do people stop for these vendors? No. So that is not a low conversion rate due to conference factors. That is the fault of the booth staff. 

Yet another one I have seen is when the booth staff shows up, sets up some flyers, some pens, and then leaves and is never seen again the whole conference. I get emergencies and things come up. But is the marketing department aware this happened? Is the reason there was a zero conversion rate due to the vendor going golfing instead of staffing the booth, or was it an emergency that they had to leave? Another bad habit I see is vendors who pack up early. If a conference posts vendor hall times, you need to stick to them as there are factors that some people just can’t make it in any earlier. In most cases, the most important reason to attend a conference is the sessions. So you might have a streak of good sessions you want to see, but by the time you get to the vendor hall, in some cases with a few hours left before the hall closes, vendors are already packed up and gone. I even attended a conference once where the vendor hall was packed and empty prior to the official end time for the vendor hall. That makes no sense as that impacts some people's time to visit. So staffing the right people can make a huge difference.

I have been questioning and critical of vendors for the state of vendor halls, but there is some responsibility to the conference attendees as well.  All too often there are attendees who are just “grazers.” They are there just for the swag and nothing else. The swag is nice, but attendees do need to respect the time and effort of many vendors to be there and should give them some of your time if you are going to take their swag. Now if the vendor is good with a grab-and-go, that is fine. But if not, talk to the vendors. With that said, also be honest with the vendors. If you are someone who does not have decision-making power, be up front and honest. The main reason for this is someone that might want to have a conversation with a vendor but can’t due to someone eating up time just to get the swag is unfair. One example of this is I have seen more than once a teacher chatting up a Rukus rep to get a stuffed dog and listening to their talk, having no idea what a network switch even is while a Tech Director is standing by needing to talk to a rep about purchasing equipment, and then they just leave because it is taking to long.  Again, chat up people if you want something, but be aware of people waiting to talk, especially if you are someone that has no interest or ability to do business with a vendor. Also, if you are attending a conference, don’t hide your badge from vendors. I know several people that will do everything in their power to hide their position with a district so they are not pulled into a conversation that they don’t want to have. The reality is you just need to be honest. If you don’t want to talk to someone, just tell them. Be polite; they are just doing their job. 

Another important thing to do as a conference attendee is to stop by your current vendors and thank them for what they provide you and the district and let them know that you are happy to see them at the conference you are attending and for them supporting the organization. I always let my teachers know which vendors we do business with at a conference we attend so they can thank them.  And honestly, for those that are swag grabbers, this is sometimes how you get the best swag.  Many vendors have “secret” items for current customers that they won’t give away unless they know you do business with them. Lastly, after a conference, make sure you tell vendors that you saw them at a conference or were introduced to them at a conference and are purchasing because of that even if it is a year later. When vendors know they are getting an ROI, they will want to return. When they know that people are nice, they care about their products and know they were noticed. It helps bring them back year after year. 

The reality of things is that money is getting tighter or at least a perception of tighter, and the global landscape is constantly changing and evolving, so there are lots of reasons for conference vendor halls to shift in size.  I am afraid to say I do not see them ever getting back to the size they were 15-20 years ago. I think what we are seeing now is the new norm. But it is the responsibility of everyone to make the most of local conferences. Vendors need to be ready to put on a show, they need to be honest as to what is going on, and really be making decisions based on decision makers and not where they think they need to be just to so they can be on a list. But attendees also need to be aware of their behaviors when iterating with vendors to keep them coming back, as attendee behavior plays a major factor, and years of not ideal behavior has made an impact.  The key thing to remember is without conference vendor halls, conferences cannot exist as that is where the bulk of funding comes from. So if you want to continue to get that great professional development or that opportunity to network, the vendor halls must survive, and vendors need to feel like they need to be there.