Agency Expo 2008
If you’ve ever worked at a software vendor who services the Property/Real Estate Market, you’ll know that October was traditionally your busiest month. Mid October was the time when the whole market gathered together for the Property Computer Show.
The months leading up to the exhibition involved a flurry of planning and activity – mostly around deciding what gimmicks were to be given away. All leave was cancelled in the weeks immediately following the show, as there would (hopefully) be so many leads to follow up. There would also be the obligatory gossip following the show; who had moved from which company to another this year, and more importantly, who did what at the after show party! It was all quite an institution!
So it’s mid-October 2008, and I made my away across to the Business Design Centre in Islington to see what has become of this well known institution – Agency Expo. To be fair my expectations were not that high. The show has had a chequered history over the last decade.
Agency Expo 2008
In the early days, the show thrived in it’s underground home at the exhibition halls at the Barbican. In spite of the lack of natural daylight and the absence of mobile phone signals, the big names, Circle Systems, Trace Solutions, Caldes and Manhattan to name but a few, set up camp for a few days and showed their wares to visitors from across the property industry.
2001 saw some interesting changes in the world, and a somewhat controversial decision was taken to move the show to London’s Excel Centre – lots of natural light, a strong phone signal and unfortunately plenty of time to take any calls received, as property professionals seemed to be adverse to travelling over to Docklands! Less than six weeks after 9/11, far too many people were standing outside the Excel Centre watching the City Airport bound planes pass by Canary Wharf!
Equally controversial and possibly less successful was the decision to have a northern equivalent of the show, in Manchester the following year. In theory, this was a great idea – but another great idea would have been researching the dates and not having the exhibition coincide with the 2002 World Cup! Especially when that World Cup was happening in Korea and due to the time difference games were being played mid afternoon UK time, prime exhibition browsing time!
The last few years have seen the exhibition somewhat more successfully at home in the Business Design Centre in Islington – and visitor numbers did indeed improve. However, things had moved on in the industry in the meantime. The Internet going from strength to strength, meant that vendors could showcase their software every minute of the year. A booming economy was actually a drain on property professionals time, and going to a computer show was not necessarily high on their agenda. With this in mind the vendors, started exhibiting at property shows like MIPIM and Expo Real.
Agency Expo 2008
As it turned out, 2007 saw the last Property Computer Show. When I visited the Business Design Centre today, I found the re-badged Agency Expo. Gone were most of the Commercial providers, replaced not just with residential software suppliers, but also suppliers of other peripheral services to the residential property market – most notably HIP’s! (home information packs). A couple of names were recognisable from the old days, Caldes, Grosvenor Systems and Yardi – but the show was unrecognisable from it’s predecessor.
Whilst the reasons for PCS’ demise are understandable, one can’t help but feel there’s something missing from our Octobers – and an important part in our procurement processes. The opportunity to compare and contrast the software offerings one against the other has disappeared! It is unlikely that all the vendors would all appear at the same show, given the cost and time involved in travelling to MIPIM and Expo Real. So the already tedious procurement process will become somewhat longer I foresee. I cannot foresee that PCS will re-invent itself in it’s previous format.
Luckily for the industry, PCS, and the knowledge it spawns lives on the minds of some property professionals.
And those professionals are happy to help you with your property software procurement project.
Some of my thoughts on Agency Expo.
