Look at that lonely peak and the emptiness that surrounds it above and make a wild guess what that is...Yes, you're right, that's the yearly web traffic for a B2B tradeshow. I showed this graph in a recent presentation I delivered at the Shanghai CEO Summit and sadly for our industry, no-one was shocked. (by the way, this actually is a real graph from one of our shows)

"What is digital?"
In a recent wave of presentations I've had the privilege of delivering around the globe, I defined "digital" as the new electricity. To us electricity is a natural part of how the world works. It's just there, it just works... Actually, without it nothing (except perhaps bicycles!) would work, yet we don't ever question its mere existence. (sort of a Matrix trilogy existential debate of man vs. machine)

It is unfortunately true that digital is confusing a lot of people in many industries, let alone the exhibitions and events industry. Thus a vacuum is created on what exactly to do about it, on how to handle digital transformation?

Last week I had the privilege to deliver the opening speech at the UFI Global CEO Forum. Among many other topics in my presentation, one seemed to become the new catch-phrase of the exhibitions industry: The Handshakes Business