Today we announced that we are back again as a significant trade show company.

I guess trade shows are in my blood. I ran my first trade show in 1975. It was called the Library Microform Conference and was run in New York City at the old Biltmore Hotel near Grand Central Station. Interestingly the show did well financially and received extensive coverage in "The Talk of the Town" section of the THE NEW YORKER magazine - not bad for a first ever trade show.

Over the years I was involved with the trade show Internet World and most recently with the well known show Search Engine Strategies. I started shows in the 1980s on HDTV (way ahead of my time) and in the early 1990s had a hot show called Virtual Reality World.

Now we are pinning our hopes on the ISPCON trade shows and several new ones that have been announced or will be announced in coming weeks.

The new trade show concepts are exciting. I cannot go into complete details yet, but I do have high hopes that one of our three new shows launching this year will become a hit. Of course I cannot guarantee that any show will be financially successful, but I do have a track record of picking some winners. Trade shows are like new restaurants - many are started but few become profitable and long lived.

The trade show business has not changed much since the launch of my first show back in 1975. Other than Internet marketing innovations, everything is pretty much as it has always been. The basics in running an event are the same. Overall there is only one ingredient that is important - and that is a good idea.