Paper not so necessary for business any more?

I started writing this post because of two events:

1. My time in the Euroshop 2008 show, that I document in photos in part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.
2. After the Euroshop 2008 show, I came across a very interesting article in ReadWriteWeb that more or less argues that paper is not necessary any more.

So let’s put things in perspective. In all shows I had been before, there were two choices to have documentation:

1. Get paper catalogues and leaflets of any kind from stands of interest in order to look at the relative information later. I have tried it and it has been very bad for my back… Also it has spoiled the experience of being present at the show, as carrying things around is not the most enjoyable task…
2. Ask an exhibitor to post the information. In this case, if the exhibitor did not smell business it was highly likely that anything would get sent, as it involved a considerable cost. In the case the information was sent, it was not necessarily useful and on top of the wasted paper -that had been unfortunately printed in advance anyway- the involved transport required energy, in plain words unnecessary pollution…

Luckily, the above problems have now been circumvented by web sites that are already there to check out, and emails that are sent after shows to remind visitors about what they have seen and talked about during their visit, in order to explore business opportunities.