premise: There are several possible reasons behind the participation in professional trade fairs - it can be an excellent sales platform providing an exposure to relevant customers and distributors as it is one of those rare occasions where customers actively seek specific products; it can be an image building expenditure aiming at strengthening a company's profile within a sector by showing novel products and a lucrative stall design; and it can be a good way to gauge your competition by accessing vital information about other products and to generally assess the direction the sector is heading. Trade fairs are extremely expensive especially as there are a number of important ones to attend every year globally and this often creates a financial burden on the minor "players". In many occasions the direct business impact does not seem to justify the enormous costs but as one senior manufacturer recently said "if you're not there you don't exist".
hypothesis: Professional trade fairs do not boost sales or strengthen a company's profile.