Tradeshows as commercial warfare

On day one of the inaugural Australian Events Expo, the organisers were touting a 40 per cent increase in visitor pre-registrations compared to the last Sydney on Sale, which the expo replaced. But as Robby Clark from ETF pointed out in his seminar, only half of pre-registered visitors show up. He also branded some recent trade shows as little more than "commercial warfare", offering competing companies a venue to "spy, try and buy".

Was this your experience of Australian Events Expo? How did the show compare to AIME in terms of generating business, and will you be back next year?