April 14 was supposed to mark the 20th anniversary of the ITEX office technology showcase. Sadly, the office technology dealership event, which encourages attendees to “Own the Office, Piece By Piece,” had to be shelved, for now, like many other aspects of our lives during this unprecedented global emergency spurred by the novel coronavirus.
Marc Spring, president of Evolved Office and the mastermind behind ITEX, who reacquired the show in 2016, took a few minutes to talk about the show’s postponement and a look ahead to life after COVID-19. Separately, Spring believes we might be seeing the genesis of a stronger evolution toward remote work environments. With many companies now compelled to operate in a remote fashion during the crisis, it may cause businesses to rethink on-site strategies once the all-clear is given.
Obviously, you held off as long as possible before deciding to postpone. As difficult as these events are to put together, it must be equally tough to call it off. Can you provide some perspective?
Spring: In the 20 years I’ve been doing events, I’ve never been in a situation where we had to cancel a show. A lot of it entailed talking to different people from a legal and logistic standpoint. It took us longer because we don’t have 20 events a year and legal counsel on staff – we had to bring all these people together to make the decision. There were a lot of people to communicate with, including our sponsors. It took us a while to figure it out, and all along, we were communicating with the vendors and making sure that they had their finger on the pulse of what we were doing. We didn’t want them shipping stuff to Orlando and making too many grandiose plans until we had pulled the trigger on what we were going to do. All along, the event was labeled as a go. But behind the scenes, we were discussing it on a day-to-day basis. We knew vendors were going to have to ship booths and make preparations. We worked hand-in-hand, talking with them to make sure that they knew what our decision-making process was. It was good communication, keeping the chain of emails and phone calls going as we led up to the decision. Our registration numbers typically pick up close to the event, roughly eight weeks out. The virus hit about 8-10 weeks out, so the registration was not kicking into high gear, which helped make the decision.
What has been the reaction from exhibitors, sponsors and attendees to the decision?
Spring: We have about 80 vendors, and I had one vendor complaint about wanting their money back. The event is going to take place; it’s just postponed. The event will end up being better than it would have been, with more time to plan and strategize new ideas. It’s not the opportune thing to happen, obviously, but the vendors were supportive. They were making social posts and sending out well wishes to us, and letting us know that they’re behind what we’re doing. The same thing with the attendees. There’s been absolutely no issues whatsoever. We’ve been doing this event for 20 years, and the people who know us, trust us. But there will be an event, and it’s going to be amazing.
As the lone independent show to the office technology dealer space, the loss of ITEX 2020 must be keenly felt within the industry. What message would you like to convey to those who attend annually and rely on ITEX to provide insight into the current and future path of business?
Spring: ITEX is still here and you can find a lot of information online. We will keep the industry up to date as we always have by staying on top of the latest trends. We are currently producing a webinar series with Keypoint Intelligence on the remote office and the opportunities that dealers have – and that some have missed because they have not adopted managed services as part of their product mix. I believe that this pandemic is going to change how businesses operate and we will never go back to the way it was before. More businesses than ever will adopt a remote office strategy and keep it in place after COVID-19 runs its course, as they have already gone through the hurdles of deploying all of the tools necessary to bring their employees up to speed and get them working remotely. Our industry can capitalize on this business evolution.
Clearly, we’re all at the mercy of how long this situation will take to play out. Are you optimistic about rescheduling for the fall? What factors will you weigh once we have cleared the pandemic?
Spring: I’m not looking at a time frame. I’m thinking about when people and companies will feel comfortable to travel again. There are websites that travel agencies and others use to look at hotel and airline capacity. I will start to watch the trends as hotels and flights fill up and look at rates. We’ll probably see a couple month period after the threat subsides for everything to flush out. Due to the economic impact of the pandemic, we also need to be mindful that people won’t have funds to buy anything or go anywhere as soon as this subsides. Businesses are not going to want to travel…they may fire half of their staff. You have to watch not only CDC and WHO, but the business owners as well. If their business just took a beating, they’re not going to want to go to an event that soon. I’m not going to put on a subpar event. We’re going to wait until people are ready to go to events and want to get on a plane. I’ve been in the industry for 40 years, and I’m not going to have my reputation tarnished by just trying to collect people’s money and not deliver a fantastic show. People need to be comfortable to travel, and businesses have to be financially ready for it.
