While social internet technologies do clog the amount of quality information that is prevalent, it is still information. And although people may have to sift longer thru that information, in the end they would prefer to see, and touch what their research has brought to them. Hence, the need for shows or even demos at brick and mortar stores won't go away anytime soon.

However, you do make a good point on the use of "virtual" technologies. In the late summer of 05, I launched a company that dealt in video editing products and software. Within 16 months I grew that business to 250K in sales with 37% profit margin. (Average profit margin for normal software and hardware dealer is about 8%) The sole contributing factor in being able to do so was my use of the internet and associated technologies. Namely, we did live desktop demonstrations of software to those who asked for them. We trained people how to use the software via remote desktop connections, and we held weekly to bi-weekly webcast seminars on our products. We even provided support services live and on demand via remote connection and did so better than the software manufacturers.

While this did increase and boost our profit immensely, the larger faction of customers still wanted to have hands on experiences that you cannot get from a virtual meeting.

I see this being the same case with gear. People may buy online but if they can see it or try it on at a brick and mortar, they will and because of that conventions and shows will probably still be with us for some time to come.

Edited by GrinchMT on 01/28/2009 13:57:01 MST.