Virtual Trade Show Survey Details

Virtual Trade Show Survey Details This survey consists of 13 questions (12 check list items where only 1 item can be selected per question) and 1 text comment question.

Two separate groups were selected to participate in the survey and were solicited as separate groups:

1. A list of 767 wholesale customers from Nancy’s Knit Knacks’ wholesale list

2. A list of 691 retail shop owners from Ravelry. Group name: LYS Owners (permission was granted by the Group’s leader – Carrie Pozza)

Actual Respondents numbered: 81 for NKK customers (10.5%) and 35 for Ravelry LYS Owners (5.1%) or a total of 116 (8%). I wish we could have had more respond but all samples of a population are normally representative of the overall population according to statisticians. You will also see that there was a high degree of correlation between these 2 sample groups.

There was no manipulation of any of the data that was collected. You are seeing the actual results. I am not affiliated with any company or organization involved with trade shows or their development.

List of Questions:

Within each group, respondents were only able to respond once to the survey. In the bar graphs that follow, the NKK Customer list is the uppermost chart and the Ravelry group is in the middle. The bottom chart is a Summary chart where both groups are added together. Bob Shroyer 3-19-2011 Management Summary of Survey Results

1. Question 1 – Current TNNA membership - 65% of all respondents reported that they were members of TNNA

2. Question 2 – Previous membership status for non-members – 20% said they were previously a member and 24% said they were not

3. Question 3 – Do they regularly attend the Summer TNNA Show – 35% said Yes and 41% said No (17% said sometimes)

4. Question 4 – Do they regularly attend the Winter TNNA show – Only 10% said Yes and 71% said No (11% said sometimes)

5. Question 5 – Main reasons for Not Attending shows – 14% “No time”, 51% said “Too Expensive”. 21% said they were not members. See other responses as well.

6. Question 6 – If a TNNA member, would they attend a Virtual Trade Show – 43% said Yes and 14% said No. 21% said Maybe and 23% needed more info.

7. Question 7 – If a vendor, would they attend a Virtual Show – 26% said Yes, 19% said No, 13% said Maybe, and 42% needed more info

8. Question 8 – Would you want to buy products or just get info at a Virtual show – 50% said Buy, 21% just get info, 28% need more info.

9. Question 9 – Would a Virtual Trade Show be a Good thing or a Bad thing for us – 48% said a Good thing and just 12% said a Bad thing. 40% needed more info.

10. Question #10 – How soon should a Virtual show be developed – 30% said this year, 29% said next year, 9% said Never, 4% said in a few years, and 28% said they needed more info.

11. Questions #11 – what is your principal interest in the fiber arts – 93% said knitting (see details)

12. Question #12 – What type of organization do you represent – 88% said brick and mortar shops, 6% said online or catalog (see details)

13. Question #13 – comments from respondents – please read them. I estimate that 18 were Pro Virtual shows, 12 were Con, and 7 were middle of the road. But you can decide for yourself since these are not scored numerically.

Summary – Shop Owners seem to want both physical and virtual trade shows and they certainly want more information about virtual shows which they have not been given.

Please review my Commentary about this survey. It follows after the end of the survey. Bob Shroyer NKK Customers

Ravelry LYS Owners

Summary for Question #1 – Are you a current member of TNNA NKK Customers

Ravelry LYS Owners Summary for Question #2 – If not a TNNA member, have you ever been?

NKK Customers

Ravelry LYS Owners Summary for Question #3 – Do you regularly attend the Summer TNNA show?

NKK Customers Ravelry LYS Owners

Summary for Question #4 – Do you regularly attend the Winter TNNA show? NKK Customers

Ravelry LYS Owners

Summary of Question #5 – If a member and you do not attend, what is the main reason? NKK Customers

Ravelry LYS Owners Summary of Question #6 – If a member, would you attend a Virtual Trade Show if TNNA offered it?

Summary of Question #7 – If a vendor, would you participate in a virtual trade show? NKK Customers

Ravelry LYS Owners Summary of Question #8 – Would you want to Buy or just get info at a Virtual Trade Show?

Summary of Question #9 – Would a Virtual Trade Show be a “Good” or “Bad” thing for the industry?

Summary of Question #10 – How soon should a virtual trade show be developed? NKK Customers

Ravelry LYS Owners Summary of Question #11 – What is your principal interest in the fiber arts?

NKK Customers

Ravelry LYS Owners Summary of Question #12 – What type of organization do you represent? Trade Show Survey

The following are the comments left by respondents to the survey. Two separate groups submitted comments to this survey: Nancy’s Knit Knacks’ Wholesale customers and the LYS group on Ravelry – LYS Owners These comments should be reviewed in conjunction with the bar chart data results from these groups.

NKK Customer Comments

1. I like the idea of virtual trade shows as it is much too expensive to travel to a physical trade show thousands of miles away. Also I am unable to travel out of town overnight as my husband has fairly advanced Parkinson's and I cannot leave him overnight.

2. I agree. I cannot afford to travel to the shows but want to know about the latest products.

3. Absolutely. Just think of all the travel costs and time savings members could opt for. You could even have 'virtual appointments' with selected vendors via skype where they could give a presentation to those at home. Those interested could then log on for the presentations they're interested in.

4. In this day and age I think a virtual trade show would be a good thing.

5. No I have no interest in the development of virtual trade shows. I do not believe this is the best use of Funds.

6. Our industry is a tactile and visual one. A virtual trade show would be useless to me as I want to touch each yarn and also see the true color. This can't be done over a computer. I will either buy from a Rep or at a physical trade show. The virtual trade show may have value to me only for patterns. Sorry, but I don't see this option as being viable for me.

7. I think this is a great idea. There are reps I don't care to see individually, but would still like a look at new products. We have attended the Columbus show in the past, but it is just to much for us to go to CA.

8. I think in the knitting world of tactile sense, a virtual trade show for yarn is the stupidest idea that I have ever heard.

9. I have mixed feelings about a virtual show. It would help those of us who don't or can't travel. But I find a 'photo' just doesn't do it for me. I'm increasingly distressed at the yarn companies which now send out photo color cards of their yarns. Simply can't deal with actual colors with them. I understand the reasoning behind a virtual show but it would not work for me. Anxious to hear the results.

10. A virtual trade show would not be something we would participate in. The show in Columbus is rarely an event we attend since we don't have a brick and mortar establishment.

11. A virtual trade show would allow those of us who do not regularly attend the normal shows an opportunity to see who is new to the industry and what they offer. If a virtual trade show was offered, it would be nice to be able to view only those companies relevant to a specific trade.

12. I think this would be a good thing in principle. My questions are -- what would it cost, and who would pay? Establishing and maintaining a site for this would be a lot of work. If vendors were to pay an 'online booth fee' to support it the online show not be as extensive as the other shows, which would defeat the purpose. And most businesses that are established enough to be at TNNA already have their own web sites, so they aren't necessarily going to want to pay a lot for an extra TNNA-approved portal. So maybe the approach should be to create a site with links to all the businesses that were at the shows -- inclusion on the site being a benefit of participating in the shows, and the links staying active until the next show. If such a think proves popular, it could be expanded. If not, then there wouldn't be a huge investment in developing and staffing costs lost.

13. I think it will be very helpful to those who are unable to attend. I don't think they can take the place of the actual show because of the tactile nature of fiber art and the camaraderie of friends. Thanks Nancy

14. No longer being a member of TNNA, I chose not to make a comment.

15. I would love to see a virtual trade show. Due to a small staff and budget constraints, I am unable to attend the TNNA shows.

16. I don't see how all the information learned at an actual market could ever be learned at an online show. The interaction between humans is lost. You can't touch and feel the fibers. The class room instruction is lost. While I understand the cost involved in attending an actual trade show I feel that money is an investment into my business and a way for me to recharge myself by interacting with others that might be in a similar position. There is no substitute for that.

17. Someone did a virtual trade show privately about a year ago. I'm not sure if it was successful, but it was well done. Is there a reason why TNNA would have to run this show, and would it accomplish anything more than what is included in their newsletters?

18. I think a virtual trade would be great. If the virtual trade show was available before the physical show it would give customers a chance to view the products prior to the actual show.

19. Yes I would be interested in the Virtual trade show, I haven't been to a trade show , I usually can't afford to travel that much to the shows so this would give me a chance to keep up on what is going on. I am all for it and would like to get on a list of the trade shows going n also so if there is one close enough I could go to it.

20. I consider shades cards, emails from vendors, and the internet to be an ongoing virtual trade show...I can't imagine that one on a set date would ever be any more convenient...

21. I think that would be fantastic. I have attedted 3 of the TNNA shows and have found several new products that do not have a rep. For the past several years I have not been able to attend because my husband has been ill. I really feel I have missed out by not being able to attend but it does not look like I will be able to do that again. Please pass my coments on. Thanks Linda

22. I think the individual vendors can develope virtual demonstrations of their products and make them available possibly through the TNNA website and their own wholesale account portals. They are the ones who want to benefit - they should absorb any costs.

What TNNA may be able to do is post wed seminars/classes that do not benefit a certain distributor or certain trade show vendor, such as business topics (financial management issues, inventory management,promotional sales ideas, customer service, how to deal with difficult customers, or display issues or employer issues, etc) or techniques. A small fee for these is an idea or a vendor could sponsor if that was made very clear....I don't want to pay for a class or take what I think is a class that is actually a sales pitch from a particular company. If I know this is about bison yarns for example hosted by Fibre Isle - then I would know going in what I would be shown...I don't want to be ambushed and I don't want to PAY for a sales pitch!

23. The only thing that I think TNNA needs to develop is videos of some of the classes at TNNA. The class offerings at Long Beach were fantastic but I'm not traveling from one side of the country to the other for TNNA so I wasn't able to attend them. I would, however, be willing to purchase, for a moderate fee, DVDs of some of the sessions.

Re: virtual trade shows. Not interested. Would much rather have vendors create a pdf of whatever they have new, send it to TNNA, and once a month TNNA would send out a newsletter to its members with a couple of sentences about what each vendor sent them that was new and links where members could go to see the pdf of the complete information from each vendor in that month's newsletter. It would save the individual vendors from having to maintain their own mailing list and their info would go to all of the TNNA members.

24. As a shop owner with no employees, it is impossible for me to get away to a trade show. Also the expenses, plane tickets, hotel and food makes it prohibitive. I do not live anywhere close to the areas that the shows are in, so travel is definitely a problem.

I had promised myself that I would go to a showt least once every 3 years when I started the shop. There just has been no way I could.

I think a virtual show would let me keep up on new things that I do not get from sales reps or research on the internet.

25. While I think there are companies in the needlearts trade who might benefit from a virtual show, I know that I would not benefit. Mine is a yarn shop and I need the live contact to see and feel the colors and fibres. If my merchandies was needlepoint or embroidery/crewel/cross stitch, and the fabrics and fibres were a known quantity where what I was looking for was new designs, then a virtual trade show might be useful, but as a yarn shop owner, I'm disappointd by the amount of stuff being offered to me via the internet instead of live. I can't feel fibre, or examine tools on the internet. I think the reason why more shop owners don't attend the trade shows is the cost, the timing and the inconvenience. Trade shows should be centrally located - Dallas, Memphis, Chicago, and Atlanta, but for folks on the East Coast, California is too expensive. And for those of us in smaller markets, flying anywhere is prohibitively expensive, so having the shows in major hub cities enables us to fly to them directly. I am goi

The following comments are from the Ravelry LYS Owners

Commentary about the Need for Virtual Trade Shows Bob Shroyer Nancy’s Knit Knacks LLC March 19, 2011 ______

Commentary

The attached survey data was collected during March 2011. I designed and administered the survey and compiled the results. Total amount of my time spent on project = approx 35 - 40 hrs and includes the time spent researching other forms of trade shows. Total cost to TNNA = $0.

The purpose of conducting this survey was to gather data from retailers within the knitting/fiber arts industry relative to their interest in having a virtual trade show developed by TNNA, or other entity. Based on information which I had previously obtained from many of my retail customers, I had a very strong impression that shops would like the opportunity to attend a virtual trade show, especially when they were unable or unwilling to attend the TNNA trade shows in Ohio and California each year.

To the best of my knowledge, TNNA has not queried either its membership or prospective members in this matter. In fact, in a recent multi-question survey that they commissioned Hart Business Research to conduct, not one question dealt with virtual trade shows. Yet, a need to do this has been mentioned to them over the past few years. The reason that this is important is that the current practice of only having physical shows fails to attract higher participation rates of both existing members as well as non-members at these shows. I estimate that these shows attract only 20-30% of the retail shops in the North American market. Hundreds and even thousands of shops never attend these shows and probably never will. See the main reasons in the survey for why they do not attend these shows – cost and time.

When the concept of a virtual, web based show being available to these shops is mentioned to them, they generally get excited about the prospect.

Our failure to offer a solution for all shops to gain the benefits of belonging to an association which brings everyone together both face-to-face at the physical shows as well as on the web, hurts all of us. The retail members do not get the latest data about new products or practices and the wholesale members do not get the sales that they should see from an association that attempts to utilize every available means to bring retailers and wholesalers together. If my estimate of a 20-30% attendance rate of all retail shops at the Columbus show is correct, then we should all work to increase that to 70-80% (or more). The only practical way to do that would be to offer a virtual trade show solution.

There is a better way to engage the missing retailers and increase participation than what is being employed. It is by means of the Web with virtual trade shows. Other industries have done this successfully and have found that it works. The “touchy feely” nature of yarn does not in itself rule out web based solutions. Other industries who have similar issues have worked around them and ours can as well, but only if we try. Rumor has it that CHA is now starting to investigate virtual trade shows. Their attendance has fallen off during this recession and they, too, must also look into better ways to increase participation. Last year, things looked so bad that they offered TNNA members almost free booth space if they elected to exhibit at their show. It is no wonder that they are now checking into virtual trade shows.

When will TNNA make this decision?

I will post the results of a recommendation that I recently made to TNNA management. They have never responded to my submission. This brief presentation of an alternate virtual show approach illustrates how simple and yet effective a small effort toward the creation of a virtual trade show can be.

My prediction is that within 3 years, TNNA will have a virtual trade show program and most of its members and staff will begin to wonder how they ever operated without one.

For more information, please check our webpage http://www.nancysknitknacks.com/virtual%20trade%20show.htm where we illustrate how a virtual trade show could work for us.

You may also visit our forum (http://www.nancysknitknacks.com/forums ) where we allow people and companies from this industry to openly discuss their opinions about this topic.

If you also feel strongly about this topic (one way or the other), please send an email to TNNA’s management company (Offinger) at [email protected] and tell them what you think.

Respectfully submitted,

Bob Shroyer Partner Nancy’s Knit Knacks LLC 800-731-5648 [email protected]