You spend three or four days at a trade show, complaining about light traffic, standing around with nothing to do, and having few conversations that might actually go somewhere. And yet, you attend the same events year after year as part of your niche marketing efforts. According to Chris Chariton, vice president of marketing services and product management at GlobalSpec, here are the top reasons businesspeople continue to exhibit at trade shows — and what you should keep in mind:

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• We will be conspicuous in our absence. This is the typical keeping-up-with-the-Joneses mentality. But following the crowd can lead to mediocre or disastrous results.

• The show is small and the booth space is cheap. It’s probably not as cheap as you think once you take into account your time before, during, and after the event, as well as food and lodging and the cost of having your salespeople out of the field.

• It’s about meeting and greeting customers. That can be a truly valid reason to attend a trade show. Just make sure you are using the event to build stronger relationships.

• The head honcho wants us to attend. Recommend a new course. Approach the situation armed with facts — e.g., summarize previous results, capture comments from sales and other key show attendees, and offer an alternative. Your goal is to reallocate the resources to something that can deliver better results.

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