While an uptick in exhibitors may be the result of new players in the e-CRM field, a rise in attendees over 1999’s levels at the DCI Customer Relationship Management show is primarily the result of retreating Y2K fears, according to DCI president Michael Colby.
Paid membership at the 2000 show in New York rose to 1,400, up from 1,200 last year. DCI saw similar increases at its Chicago and Boston conferences, which were held earlier this year. At the same time the number of exhibitors increased from 120 to 163.
Last year, according to Colby, companies were deploying a lot of resources to ensure that computer glitches caused by a string of zeros in the “date” functions of software did not affect operations. Those budgets, he feels can now be applied to future-looking endeavors, such as building up e-commerce platforms.
Colby feels that there has been an increased participation by business-to-business exhibitors that offer functions such as partnership relations and dealing with suppliers. In the upcoming year, he sees the conference providing additional focus on customer intelligence and analytics.
In addition, “people tell us that their companies have developed the CRM applications,” and are now ready for “customer-facing” applications, said Colby. But he noted that within a company individual departments often have developed their electronic applications independently departments, and the next step will be to draw them all together.
The DCI CRM show, which is being held at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York, ends today.
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