So yesterday I was in Birmingham, UK, for the Channel Expo 09 event. This is yearly “trade show” event where Vendors and Disties come together to exhibit thier wares to the Channel.

This year, the show was the smallest I have ever seen, in the all the years that I have been attending . Could this be due to the downturn in the economy or just that there is no interest in this kind of show any more ? Although, speaking with a number of the Exhibitors such as Zenith, Kaseya and Ingram Micro, they all said how valuable the show was to them and how many leads they generated, despite it being small and very quiet on the second day.

One of the great things I enjoyed about the show being small was that there is a great oppourunity to really engage with the vendors and have a proper conversation without feeling rushed that you have to move on to the next vendor in order to get it all covered in the day. So personally I think that the smaller it is, the more value you get out of it

As well as engaging with Vendors and Disties, attending the show was a great oppourtunity to meet with my fellow peers in the SBS Space, some who I know well, such as Richard Tubb from Netlink-IT and Simon Aronowitz from Support Lounge

So if you have been wondering about these shows, I would say that although most of the updates are available on the Internet, and you can get the latest information from thier websites, nothing beats meeting the vendors and peers face to face .

Next year (2010) the show is moving to London, which I assume is to make it more central and easier to get to for people in the South .. If you have not been to the show before, this will be a good oppourtunity to visit for the day.