Nothing to add to what you have said, attendance at the shows has dropped and prices for booth space have increased steadily over the past 3 years.

Sponsors that used to have MASSIVE 50x50 booths no longer exhibit, and if they do, they tend to go for a simple 10x10, the type of 'webmaster' the shows attract these days are not even worth catering to.

For that reason, a lot of the money sponsors used to spend on glamorous show booths and amazing after hour parties are now spent on primarily invite only or one-on-one private dinners.

Im not sure what the costs for a booth are at Internext this year but a couple of years ago we had a booth (that we never even used) which ended up costing us $5k. That didnt include furniture ($300 for a plastic chair for 3 days, $1200 for a tv for 3 days), internet connection ($800 for 3 days), the list goes on.

Needless to say, you need to have something pretty spectacular to make having a booth worthwhile at an industry event these days.

Im actually looking forward to seeing pictures of the Internext show floor this year, as i predict that yet again, the floor attendance will have dwindled even more as more and more attendees are realizing the show floor is of no use to man nor beast when it comes to getting 'actual' business done.

Regards,

Lee