Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Trade Show Internet sees growth in low-cost show floor Internet access

By Rodney H. Brown

When Trade Show Internet was founded in 2009, its business model of offering a rental package of hardware and service for exactly what its name states — Internet access at trade shows — had people falling either on the side of smart idea whose time has come, or a product without a market demand.

Now, just two years later, the company that is run out of both Boston and San Francisco, is flirting with profitability and has enterprise customers knocking on the door to take advantage of the cost savings that come with Trade Show Internet’s cellular-based, “rent it when you need it” model for getting Internet access at whatever venue in which you might be exhibiting.

Holding down the local operations is president and co-founder Seth Burstein, a Yale University graduate who is seeking his MBA at Babson College. Co-founder and CEO Ian Framson keeps things running in the San Francisco office. One thing that has surprised Burstein and that is responsible for the company’s rapid growth is the interest from not just individual exhibitors but from the exhibit houses that service entire shows.

“We have a number of large clients and we have probably 10 percent of the Fortune 100 that are clients,” Burstein said. “We’ve also started to work with a number of exhibit houses that service multiple companies — they are the ones that coordinate all the services for these companies while they are at trade shows.”

What has primarily been the attention-getter for Trade Show Internet has been its cost savings. Burstein cites the example of the San Diego Convention Center, which charges $1,195 for Internet access with one IP address and $150 per each extra IP address. By comparison, Trade Show Internet charges $299 for three days for a 3G-based kit that allows connection for up to four computers, one of which can be connected via Ethernet, or all of which can be wireless. For an additional $100, that can be upgraded to 4G cell service, if the market supports it. The only other charge is $60 for shipping, which covers both shipping to the venue and the return to Trade Show Internet.

By teaming up with the exhibitor services houses, Burstein has eliminated much of the sales cycle of marketing to individual exhibitors, because having Trade Show Internet’s rental service and equipment offered as a service by the firm running the trade show carries an imprimatur of approval.

“Once it’s included in the kit, the exhibitors go on faith that the solution is going to work, and it’s a much shorter sales process,” Burstein said, noting it has become a major part of the company’s business. “We are doing 50 shows so far this year where we are included in the exhibitor services.”

One market where Trade Show Internet doesn’t have quite so strong a marketing play is with the convention centers in Boston, at least those run by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority - the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and its older sibling the Hynes Convention Center. Both of those venues offer free wi-fi Internet access across the facility.

According to Patrick B. Moscaritolo, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, that is a good thing for the attendees and the exhibitors at a show, but may not be a big factor for the organizers of such shows.

“We’ve never lost a convention and probably never will because of Internet charges,” Moscaritolo said. “I can’t say that we have won a major convention or meeting because of free access, but you can literally see the smile on people’s faces when they realize that it is free.”

Free or not, businesses setting up or exhibiting at trade shows today need their Internet access, Moscaritolo pointed out. “It is something that is almost indispensable, for the businesses.”

And that plays directly into the growth of Trade Show Internet. “This quarter, we are up over 30 percent from last quarter,” Burstein said.

The company is still just four people, however — the two co-founders and two more full-time staffers — but with double-digit growth from quarter to quarter that may have to change, along with the cost of keeping inventory up with orders. “There have been a few infrequent instances where we have had to turn down an order because we haven’t had the inventory to satisfy the demand,” Burstein said.

Even with that growth, Burstein said the company isn’t looking for any kind of venture backing, mainly because it doesn’t need it at current or even pie-in-the-sky growth levels.

“We have a great business because we collect money before we ship any product,” Burstein said. “As long as we don’t go from 10 orders to 10,000 orders, we’re in good shape.”