Has the Light Been Switched on at the End of the Tunnel?

Posted March 15th, 2009 by Karl

The recession continues to claim victims and headlines but moving into Spring there are now some clear shoots showing signs of recovery.

I had a turbulent time in Las Vegas with PMA 2009, the world’s premier consumer electronics show and enjoyed the atmosphere and vacation style-whirlwind while picking up a ton of contacts and potential customers to follow up.

PMA 2009 was not as heavily attended as previous years and it was also notable that many of the digital camera launches I normally associate with PMA were not present – for those who don’t know, I’m involved in the digital camera and consumer electronics market – but there are other reasons aside from cost-cutting exercises amongst exhibitors at work here.

First off, PMA is not having it’s crown remain in place unchallenged – PMA management and the event face very strong competition from overseas particularly the Far East and in the summer there will be a huge trade show in Australia closely followed by another in South Korea which reflects the dominance of the Far East in generating new electronics for the mass market.

Given most of the product launches normally associated with PMA are going to be bought in the Asian-Pacific market it makes sense that is where they get launched, not to mention it is also where most of these products are now made.

Still, there I was for a few days performing my stint and after the end of the show we had the final round up as the calls out to prospects and contacts has been concluded and we are up on our Like-for-Like numbers from the show last year – well before the recession actually struck.

Our increased success this year is due in part to a recovery starting to bud but also, we are gathering new business that has been left untended by our competitors who have withdrawn or restricted their activities in the market.

Only time will tell whether we are actually in recovery (certainly there are other positive indicators such as new home sales showing positive numbers) but at the same time, it is clear we are in an excellent position to take advantage of business that simply has nowhere to go to because so many of our competitors have done the swrong thing to begin with – cut back everything without thinking of the impact.