Throughout the spring and summer, the promotional products industry has been clinging to hope that events and trade shows would be held as normal in 2021. But as the pandemic wears on, the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t getting any closer.

CES, the world’s largest tech conference held annually each January in Las Vegas, will be held digitally, according to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which hosts the conference. “With the growing global health concerns about the spread of COVID-19, it is not possible to safely convene tens of thousands of people in Las Vegas in early January 2021 to meet and do business in person,” the CTA said in a statement.

The CTA, which hosts CES, decided it wouldn’t be safe to hold the massive consumer tech conference in person next year, due to growing global health concerns about the spread of COVID-19.

Many see CES’s cancellation as the first domino in a cascade of postponements for the beginning of 2021. And while many major trade shows have kept their dates for now, others have already rescheduled – including the ASI Show, which moved its Orlando and Fort Worth shows to April and May. (This year’s ASI Chicago show, which had been rescheduled to October, was canceled, with a virtual Education Day, free for ASI distributor members, being held on Thursday, Oct. 15, from 1 to 4 p.m.). “It was a decision we struggled with, frankly, for weeks, trying to balance the needs of suppliers and distributors who’d told us they wanted and needed a trade show against the relentless march of the coronavirus,” said Tim Andrews, ASI’s president and CEO. “In the end, we knew only one thing really mattered, and that’s the health, safety and well-being of everyone in the industry.”

While distributors fear the oncoming wave of cancellations, Linda Milano has already felt the effects. The president of Sicklerville, NJ-based CFB Promotional Products, a Kaeser & Blair (asi/238600) dealer, says all her clients have either canceled or postponed events through the spring.

“Annual employee meetings and picnics, religious conferences and community fundraisers have all been pushed back or canceled,” Milano says. “Most of my clients are holding off on ordering promo items until they know for sure whether the event will happen. Orders are few and far between and the volume is so much less than previous years.”

Sandy Harrington, co-founder of Albuquerque, NM-based Screen Images (asi/322013), is in the same boat. “My clients have been postponing events until further notice, and as a result, they’ve put their purchasing on hold,” Harrington says, “except for one client, that is.”

That one client? The City of Albuquerque, which delayed its annual Bike to Work Day in August, but organizers still purchased promotional giveaways, including sling rePETe cross- body bags from California-based ChicoBag Company (asi/44811). That order was a big deal for ChicoBag, says founder and CEO Andy Keller, because custom bag sales have been down due to the dearth of trade shows and events. “A lot of events are going online, so there’s still an opportunity for giveaways, but bags are mostly valuable for physical trade shows,” Keller says.

Going digital is a growing trend for event organizers seeking an alternative during the pandemic. Even if physical gatherings are permitted, attendance will surely be lower than usual due to travel, safety and budgetary concerns. Taking events online eliminates those worries and allows more access for those interested in attending.

“A lot of people are questioning the value of trade shows and the investment they have to make,” says David Betke, principal of Do Better Marketing, a division of Canadian distributor Avatar Brand Management (asi/127901). “Virtual is here to stay, not necessarily as a replacement, but as an enhancement or as part of a hybrid style.”

Betke’s company specializes in trade shows, launching a series of apps to improve the experience for exhibitors and attendees. In June, he launched GreenShows – an app that hosts virtual trade shows – to help suppliers get back at their booths in some fashion. Two clients have already expressed interest in GreenShows as a supplement or complete replacement of their 2021 trade shows, according to Betke. “GreenShows has been our saving grace,” he says. “The only other event business we’ve been doing is printing T-shirts for festivals’ online stores, but the festivals are offering fewer SKUs than they would in person, so we’re not selling as many products. Plus, without physical events, there are no volunteers, so we lose out on printing shirts for them.”

While virtual events are on the rise, not everyone in the industry has given up on in-person gatherings. In June, a small group of sales reps from different companies, including Top 40 suppliers Polyconcept North America (asi/78897) and SanMar (asi/84863), organized a tailgate-style trade show in the parking lot of Philadelphia-based Spike’s Trophies (asi/569701). Abiding by CDC guidelines, the group limited attendance to 25 people per hour during the three-hour event.

“We wanted it to be cost-effective, so we thought about doing it in a park or mall parking lot,” says multi-line rep Ken Cecco, president of Exton, PA-based Kenneth Cecco and Associates. “We decided to reach out to distributors who offered award-engraving or other services that might help their fellow distributor as an incentive for hosting.”

Cecco estimates that 50 distributors showed up, all wearing masks and maintaining social-distancing measures. Everyone brought their own bags from home and suppliers with clothing racks were constantly disinfecting samples. “It was nice to just get out of the house and see people,” says Amanda Vories, senior account manager at Chadds Ford, PA-based Proforma Print Marketing (asi/300094). “You get so stuck in PPE purgatory that you forget about the other products we can offer. It made me feel very hopeful for the state of the industry.”

Cecco and his fellow reps have since held more of these mini trade shows throughout the northeast. As the seasons change, it will be challenging to hold these events outside. But for next year, at least there’s proof of concept. “I would absolutely go to more if they were controlled like this,” Vories says. “I felt just as safe as I do at the grocery store.”