We all know the tradeshow and events business is competitive. Someone coins a new term in a blog somewhere and three weeks later a two-day conference pops up in San Francisco or New York. The trouble is, in a newer industry the speaker pool is very small. It’s a challenge to keep speakers to yourself. The speakers have their own businesses to build, so you can’t blame them for taking the exposure wherever it is offered.

We do ask our speakers that they deliver a presentation that has not been seen before at any other event. If we can’t have exclusive speakers, at least we can have brand-new content.

As expected a few competitors have popped up. I’m not about to give them any extra exposure with a link, but in looking at one of their websites, lots of text looks strangely familiar:

Our home page:

The 2nd Annual Podcast & Portable Media Expo is the only industry event that brings together influential podcasters, media, content creators and device makers to cover the complete range of business, marketing and legal issues for portable audio & video.

One of their pages:

[ABC Event] 2006 is the only event in North America to unite podcasting and interactive media evangelists with Corporate America to discuss the opportunities, challenges, and next steps ahead for podcasting in the business world.

Now, I’m fine with competition - every penny a competitor spends promoting the word “podcasting” helps me too. I’m just not sure when that benefit begins to be outweighed by so much copying of specific sessions and overall theme that it begins to dilute our own message and value….