In the era of internet, do companies still need trade fairs to make business?

A feature on the sinergies between email marketing and traditional trade fairs as a business tool. First published in Infocity - November 2005.

INCIPIT
Trade fairs have always been an important marketing and commercial tool. Based on the possibility to meet potential customers personally and on concentrating business people operating within one sector in the same place and at the same time, have they perhaps lost in importance in an era in which virtual communication is common practice?
Nowadays, Italy's trade fair sector is particularly developed, with over 1.000 trade fairs of which 195 international fairs, 422 national ones, and 113 regional. This data means that Italy is in fact second only to Germany in the world trade fair market.
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Photo courtesy of Thorsten Epping