I have a confession to make to all of K Exchange’s loyal readers. Before joining Knovel I was employed by a company that served the banking industry. As such, I’ve become fascinated by the differences between Engineers and Bankers. Aside from the obvious difference – Engineers work in Engineering, Bankers work in Banking – the subtle differences I’ve noticed are really what I find intriguing.
One of these perceived subtleties is on my mind right now, and I’d like to share that with you:
Trade Shows
Engineers may not be aware, but bankers LOVE trade shows. While economic conditions have certainly lowered attendance at these events, there are still an impressive number of banking and finance shows taking place.
Since joining Knovel, I’ve found that the same isn’t necessarily true for Engineers and Engineering shows. While this is probably a more extreme example because of the specific industry, a friend who works in Aerospace Engineering (who actually isn’t Craig the Rocket Scientist, oddly enough) had this to say about a recent conference he attended:
“The level of collaboration at these things is always really low. There’s so much competition for the same contracts, so nobody really wants to share for fear of spilling trade secrets.”
I’m wondering if that ends up being the impetus behind what I perceive to be a lower number of trade shows in this industry. Is everyone simply so secretive that they don’t want to spill any secrets about their work? The last banking trade show I attended featured CEOs and Directors giving speeches about best practices and a panel containing 3 bank presidents ruminating on how to survive the recession. Occurrences like these don’t seem especially likely in the Engineering space.
But what do I know? I’m more interested in what our readers have to say. What trade shows do you attend? What value have you gotten from them? What would you like to see done differently?
