The End of DocTrain Conferences: The Beginning of New Opportunities

It saddens me to announce that I just received word that PUBSNET, Inc.—the owner of the Documentation and Training Conference Series—has announced they are shutting their doors and going out of business. As program manager, I worked hard to make this a quality event series and to help raise the bar for others in our industry. But, all things come to an end, and in this case, the end of PUBSNET is upon us.

As I am not an owner, board member, nor employee of the company—I was just contracted to market, set up and run the event—I am not privy to the intimate details behind this decision, but suffice it to say that due to the economic climate we find ourselves in today, conference registrations were nearly non-existent and sponsorships were down 60% from same period last year. I’d imagine that after careful analysis of the business situation they faced, PUBSNET made the decision they thought was best for them.

Here’s the official announcement I received:

Due to the strong economic downturn that has negatively and severely affected our conference business, all future DocTrain conferences are cancelled and the business is dissolving. We are sorry for the inconvenience this causes to our customers and staff; we tried our best to weather this storm, but it is clear we cannot.

It should be noted that conferences in general are doing poorly this year. There will many others that throw in the towel. I know this because I am on the advisory board for Meta Context, Inc. creators of Confabb.com, the world’s largest directory of conferences and a conference services provider for conference program managers and planners. And, a quick search of Google will provide you with anecdotal evidence that conference attendance is down 30-40%. Biotech events are down. Game developer conferences, too. And, that’s just the data available for the conferences that elect to disclose that information. I believe the decline is much steeper in most industries. We’re planning to survey the 22,000 conference organizers in the database to see what we can learn.

The real way to understand the impact of the economy on trade show type events is to ask event service providers. One Los Angeles event services company manager summed it up this way: “2009 really sucks for us. Last year, our biggest event needed 340 booth pods for their expo hall; this year, the same event needed only 60 pods. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that we’re not going to be in business for long if this keeps up.”

I’ve also had the privilege of getting a few banquet food servers tipsy at a local watering hole. After a few kamikazes, one server said, “If we don’t stop seeing cancellations, we’ll be the ones being canceled next.”

Companies around the globe are cutting back on non-essential travel. According to USA today, it’s a drastic cutback, not a minor reduction in travel budgets. Trade shows are often tossed into the non-essential category. The lower the employee is in the corporate hierarchy, the less likely it is he/she will be given approval to travel.

A The Content Wrangler of 500 technical communicators found that getting funds for training is just as challenging as for events. The survey asked:  In this current economic climate, how likely is it that you could get funding to attend necessary training classes during 2009? The answers:

• 4.% said: “No way, dude! – Obtaining funds for necessary training is not possible this year”
• 21.9% said: “Likely to be a challenge – Obtaining funds for necessary training is not likely this year”
• 27.9% said: “Maybe yes, maybe no – Obtaining funds for necessary training is just as challenging as obtaining funds for all other services”

Only 7.6% said “Should be easy – Obtaining funds for necessary training is easier than obtaining funds for some other services”; with 2.8% saying: “No problem – Obtaining funds for necessary training is easy”.

Technology industry commentator Robert Scoble predicted the demise of the trade show industry in a December 2008 blog post. He blamed social networking sites, blogs, and web-based video for the downfall. And, if you are an Apple fan, you know that Apple withdrew its support for MacWorld, the largest Apple event in the world. It’s happening all over. It’s a good and a bad thing.

It’s bad for obvious reasons. Trade shows help the economy, so every one that dies damages hotels, airlines, audio visual providers, printers, caterers, event decorators, internet service providers, and others involved in trade show production. They are fun and provide cubicle-dwelling knowledge workers with something to look forward to—an escape, if you will, from the daily grind. The help us network with our peers in social settings. They help us grow as professionals—and, for those who seek the spotlight—as presenters. These benefits are difficult to duplicate outside of in-person conferences. Difficult, but not impossible.

The good thing about the demise of the trade show is that it will prompt us to be creative. Webinar and online conference providers will be aggressively courting us, trying to get us to move to online meetings. Flash and web-based video training will take off. Webinars, too! And, those who struggled to get funding for in-person events will be able to participate in online events more easily, without missing work. Travel budget requests will not be needed. Training dollars will go much further.

On a positive note, I don’t want folks to read this article and think that trade shows are dying altogether. They’re not. But, the ones who are not strong, who cannot take money from other revenue sources and invest them into their events, may find it difficult to stay afloat. Events that focus on a specific product—user groups conferences—for example, will flourish and grow. These events aren’t considered “non-essential”. After all, if your firm just invested hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) in software or services used to run your organization, travel budget restrictions will likely not be enforced. I’ve attended three product-specific events this year, including last week’s MarkLogic User Conference, and each and every one was jam-packed! According to organizers at these events, their attendance has been up as much as 30% over same period last year.

While I feel badly that the event series I helped to reshape did not make it through the economic storm, I do feel a bit better knowing there are new opportunities on the horizon. And, I’ll take this opportunity to say that I’ve offered all of the sponsors and presenters that were on the roster for DocTrain DITA a complimentary slot in The Content Wrangler Summer School program—a free online education series that will feature many of the topics that were to be showcased at the conferences. Details to follow.

So, if you were upset because you were not able to attend the DocTrain DITA conference, you’ll be happy to know that you will now be able to participate in many of the free, web-based educational opportunities we have on the roster this summer. No management approval needed. No travel budgets. No expense reports. And, no waiting in line in airport security. Doesn’t sound so bad, after all.