Expos tend to be an example of negative sum rent seeking behavior. Waste expo indeed.
Don Boudreaux
· 3 years ago
Why the contempt for Waste Expo? The event strikes me -- judging from its website -- as a place for suppliers and buyers of waste-disposal equipment and procedures to meet each other and to learn about the newest techniques and products available.
Rent-seeking takes place in Washington, not Vegas.
Half Sigma
· 3 years ago
I couldn't resist the pun. Sorry.
bbartlog
· 3 years ago
Certainly not rent-seeking. I think the question for Half Sigma would be - if you had an interesting new product in this space, how would *you* market it more effectively than by showing it at this expo?The whole expo phenomenon is fascinating. It represents a three-way compromise between marketers, buyers, and the employees they send. Buyers and sellers might both prefer a cheaper event (call it a seminar) if all that were involved were the exchange of product information. But this would be dull and few employees would want to go. So instead, a large element of entertainment is added and a venue like Vegas is chosen. As a result, being sent to an expo is usually regarded as a privilege or benefit (especially for employees of the buyers) and can be used as a reward by companies even as it provides benefits to them. It's also possible to assess the competency, stnading and product offerings of competitors in a way not possible elsewhere(did they get their booth together in time? Are their presenters good? How much were they able to spend on the booth space? Any surprising new products?).
I've never seen any method as good as a popular expo booth for generating qualified sales leads. At a telecom expo I attended a few years back I think we got about eight hundred business cards of interested parties - and this was for a highly specialized software product.
So don't knock it too hard. It may seem like a carnival but that's an essential part of its function :-)
Half Sigma
· 3 years ago
I said I was sorry, I just thought it was punny to point out how the expo was a "waste."
We live in a marketing economy, and companies prosper not by having better products, but by creating the PERCEPTION that they have better products.
John Pertz
· 3 years ago
Half Sigma said:
"We live in a marketing economy, and companies prosper not by having better products, but by creating the PERCEPTION that they have better products."
Ladies and Gentlemen, Ive discovered half sigma's true identity, say hello to Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein! If you could pull your head away from "Manufactured Consent" and "No Logo" you may see that G.M and other similar American firms are presently going out of business for reasons not due to a lack of advertising expenditures.
Chris Myers
· 3 years ago
I was also in town during the APEE conference, and one of the most intriguing stories I ran across while in Vegas was the Vegas Monorail (http://www.lvmonorail.com ).
Unfortunately, the managers lobbied for, and got, special tax favors, and are now looking for public funds to expand. Still, it makes for an interesting case study.
bbartlog
· 3 years ago
Half Sigma -
sorry, I missed your reply while I was typing and was too dense to realize you were just making a play on words :-P
All Comments
Expos tend to be an example of negative sum rent seeking behavior. Waste expo indeed.
Why the contempt for Waste Expo? The event strikes me -- judging from its website -- as a place for suppliers and buyers of waste-disposal equipment and procedures to meet each other and to learn about the newest techniques and products available.
Rent-seeking takes place in Washington, not Vegas.
I couldn't resist the pun. Sorry.
Certainly not rent-seeking. I think the question for Half Sigma would be - if you had an interesting new product in this space, how would *you* market it more effectively than by showing it at this expo?The whole expo phenomenon is fascinating. It represents a three-way compromise between marketers, buyers, and the employees they send. Buyers and sellers might both prefer a cheaper event (call it a seminar) if all that were involved were the exchange of product information. But this would be dull and few employees would want to go. So instead, a large element of entertainment is added and a venue like Vegas is chosen. As a result, being sent to an expo is usually regarded as a privilege or benefit (especially for employees of the buyers) and can be used as a reward by companies even as it provides benefits to them. It's also possible to assess the competency, stnading and product offerings of competitors in a way not possible elsewhere(did they get their booth together in time? Are their presenters good? How much were they able to spend on the booth space? Any surprising new products?).
I've never seen any method as good as a popular expo booth for generating qualified sales leads. At a telecom expo I attended a few years back I think we got about eight hundred business cards of interested parties - and this was for a highly specialized software product.
So don't knock it too hard. It may seem like a carnival but that's an essential part of its function :-)
I said I was sorry, I just thought it was punny to point out how the expo was a "waste."
We live in a marketing economy, and companies prosper not by having better products, but by creating the PERCEPTION that they have better products.
Half Sigma said:
"We live in a marketing economy, and companies prosper not by having better products, but by creating the PERCEPTION that they have better products."
Ladies and Gentlemen, Ive discovered half sigma's true identity, say hello to Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein! If you could pull your head away from "Manufactured Consent" and "No Logo" you may see that G.M and other similar American firms are presently going out of business for reasons not due to a lack of advertising expenditures.
I was also in town during the APEE conference, and one of the most intriguing stories I ran across while in Vegas was the Vegas Monorail (http://www.lvmonorail.com ).
While the monorail has run into recent trouble (http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Feb... ), its funding is an intriguing story.
The $650 million system was funded with private bonds by businesses fed up with congested traffic on the Strip (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=... ).
Unfortunately, the managers lobbied for, and got, special tax favors, and are now looking for public funds to expand. Still, it makes for an interesting case study.
Half Sigma -
sorry, I missed your reply while I was typing and was too dense to realize you were just making a play on words :-P