May 2006
4 trends for corporate events
Events continue to become a more vital component of corporate marketing strategies as companies grow more savvy about events and how various types can be combined to meet their goals

By Nancy Mann Jackson

Events continue to become a more vital component of corporations’ marketing strategies. In fact, according to a recent study by the George P. Johnson Co. and the MPI Foundation, 93 percent of corporations surveyed said that the importance of event marketing is increasing or constant. And in 2005, 90 percent of respondents maintained or increased their budgets for events, up 10 percent from the previous year.

While corporate executives appreciate the value of face-to-face marketing, staging their own proprietary events is only part of the equation. In fact, more and more corporations are developing expertise at determining how to utilize various forms of face-to-face events to help meet their goals, including traditional industry trade shows, corporate-sponsored shows and road shows.

“Chief marketing officers certainly recognize the value of face-to-face events, and I believe they’ll continue to learn and explore how they can better utilize events,” says Jeff Quade, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, for GES Exposition Services (www.ges.com), which produces hundreds of corporate events for a number of clients, including NAPA Auto Parts, Sun Microsystems and Sanofi Aventis. “They’re making more educated decisions about which shows best meet their marketing objectives, and they’ll get smarter about which ones they need to invest in. They’ll understand that their objectives can be met in a variety of ways.”

As corporations grow more savvy about events and how various types of events can be combined to meet their goals, a number of trends are emerging. EXPO talked with corporate event producers to find out what trends are emerging from this year’s corporate shows. Here, these experts discuss four top trends in the field for 2006.

Trend #1: Most corporations will expand event participation in 2006.
While events have become commonplace, even fundamental, elements of many corporate budgets, they no longer seem to threaten the existence of the traditional trade show, at least for most industries. Instead, as corporate marketing executives have grown to understand the value of face-to-face events, many are utilizing their own proprietary events in addition to, not rather than, industry trade shows. As a result, private corporate shows are finding their place among traditional industry events.

“We’re not seeing that corporations are eliminating trade shows; in fact, they’re doing those more than ever, but they’re increasing face-to-face overall,” says Dan Hoffend, Vice President of Sales, Corporate Accounts, The Freeman Cos. (www.freemanco.com), which produces corporate events for many Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft, McDonald’s, SAP and IBM. “They’re looking at a corporate event as a more focused experience: ‘Now I can zero in on the exact customer I want to reach; I can create an event for that specific target audience. If that’s the case, do I need to go to a big show with lots of different companies who each have a piece of the market, or should I produce my own event?’ It depends on the company’s budget, but many are finding that both types of events are necessary.”

For instance, if a startup company wants to introduce its new product, a traditional trade show is more effective because it already has a built-in attendance base. On the other hand, when established companies have developed their own customer relationships — or in the technology field, user groups — holding a private event to further expand those relationships can be successful. “More and more corporations are allocating part of their face-to-face budget to their own proprietary events,” Quade says. “For instance, companies like Oracle, Intel and Sun Microsystems are creating proprietary events around a new product line. Traditionally, they would have introduced these products at another industrywide event, but now they’re more often holding their own events to augment that.”

Such proprietary events may often even be held in conjunction with a traditional industry show. For instance, Caterpillar Worldwide recently exhibited at the MINExpo in Las Vegas and, during the show, also staged an event for its own customers and prospects at Caesars, as well as a demonstration event in the desert, Quade says. Such examples reveal the current approach to events by many corporations — executives seem to understand that face-to-face events are valuable, and there’s room for various types of events to help meet the organization’s varied goals.

While Nth Degree Events works with one company, RSA Security, which sponsors an industrywide trade show for the information security industry, it’s a unique situation that does not meet the goals of most companies, says Robert Lowe, Vice President, Event Architect, Nth Degree Events (www.nthdegreeevents.com), an Atlanta-based event marketing company that plans about 25 corporate events each year. “Since taking over the RSA event, we’ve had other companies come and say they want to turn their user conference into an industry event like RSA,” he says. “But they don’t understand what that means because if you become a true industry event, you give up the benefits of a proprietary show — you must exhibit right next to your competitors and protect the privacy of attendees, even from your own salespeople. It works with RSA because the show started in a developing industry, but with a mature industry, it doesn’t meet the needs of the corporation.” 
 
Trend #2: Corporate events embrace new technologies.
More than ever before, corporations are using technology to enhance — and control — the experience of attendees at their proprietary events. “If you’re going to control the environment by hosting your own corporate event, you also want to control the messages that certain people hear,” Hoffend says. “That’s why we’re seeing specific educational tracks designed for specific types of people. There’s technology out there that can custom design a schedule for each attendee, so that they get online and it will say, ‘These are the five sessions that we suggest you should attend.’”

While attendees still have a choice, Hoffend says most will attend the suggested sessions rather than make their own decisions from dozens of available sessions. As a result, the scheduling technology allows a sponsoring company to have more control over the precise experience of each attendee.

Other corporate shows are using RFID to keep up with attendees. “We just used it at a corporate event to track entries into food-and-beverage events,” says Cynthia Hornketh, Vice President, Northeast Region for Conferon Global Services (www.cgscompanies.com), whose office plans 125-150 corporate shows per year. “With 18,000 people at the event, it was helpful to know when people were going to eat.”

Hornketh has also seen corporations use RFID tracking devices on the doors of meeting rooms so they can keep track of who attends each session, which is especially helpful for employee training events. “One of the biggest objectives for corporate events is to get inside the head of the attendee — and capture whatever they’re thinking, needing, buying,” Hornketh says. “PDAs, kiosks, lead-management systems, including RFID and audience response systems, are useful in this endeavor.”

Finally, corporations are more frequently using technology to enhance networking among attendees. Hornketh has seen some companies use badges that look like small PDAs. “It picks up signals from other badges, and when you meet someone for the first time, the badge will display your answers to three simple questions, like your favorite TV show,” she says. “That starts to stimulate conversation and aid in networking. The badge can also have your schedule built into it so it tells you where to be at any given time. You can load it up with your schedule, exhibitors’ information, and other data.”

Some events are taking the networking a step further and utilizing technology to start the process months before the show takes place. One tool that aids the process, CGS’s SmartEvent, allows each attendee to build an online profile, and then matches each individual with other attendees and exhibitors with similar business interests. For those who opt in, the software will facilitate online meetings with like-minded individuals and will schedule in-person meetings to plan ahead for networking while on site. “Events need to have a bigger life cycle,” Hornketh says. “Tools that help extend that life cycle and expand networking opportunities are very good for corporate events.”
 
Trend #3: More corporations are taking their events on the road.
While road shows, or mobile marketing events, have long been a part of some corporate marketing strategies, they’re becoming more popular — and larger than ever. “In the past, if you had 15 to 30 people come to a road show, that was good,” Lowe says. “But now, our corporate clients are drawing 250 to 500 people at road shows; they’ve become mini-events on the road. Companies are just trying to play the numbers game — the more people who come into contact with you and your products, the more likely you’ll be to get a sale.”

At Nth Degree Events, Lowe and his team work with Intel to produce road shows at special locations such as baseball stadiums. Because Intel is targeting consumers, their events have naturally grown in size, Lowe says. “Their philosophy is, ‘If we have more room, why not try to get more people to come?’” he adds.

But even for companies that aren’t targeting consumers, road shows have become a popular method of introducing products to potential clients. “With mobile marketing, you’re just outfitting a trailer and taking it to where your customers are,” Quade says. “It’s still a proprietary event, but it’s not in a traditional location.”

Road shows have become one more piece of the face-to-face pie, and corporate marketing executives must determine for which situations it works best. “If you’re trying to sell products to Wal-Mart, would you go to the National Retail Federation show and exhibit, would you host your own event in San Francisco and try to get buyers to come, or would you take a trailer to the Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, AR, and try to get them to come out of their offices and see your exhibit?” Quade asks. “Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each could be the right solution at a certain time or to meet certain goals.”

Trend #4: Corporations are designing events to meet internal needs.
While a number of corporations still hold events to develop relationships with their customers and prospects, a growing segment of the corporate events industry includes events that meet an internal need. “We often work with companies that produce events for their distributors or franchisees, to keep the brand consistent; their events are often not for customers,” Hoffend says. “We’re finding that corporations are more often holding events to meet internal needs, and in those cases, they’re having much higher success rates. For instance, a chain restaurant may find that a corporate event is very useful for educating its franchisees. More corporations are using this as a tool to promote consistent use of their brand and more consistent education.”

For instance, GES recently helped produce a store managers’ conference for NAPA Auto Parts. While the conference allowed for networking and education, it also offered a platform for the company to unveil its new service and repair business to its managers. “Traditionally, the company would have introduced these new services at an industry event, but now they’re holding their own event to educate their people and build excitement about it,” Quade says.  

While events such as the NAPA conference usually hold inherent motivation for the intended audience to attend, “events that are focused on customers may have a hard time building attendance,” Hoffend says. “However, there are definitely corporate trade shows where they’re inviting customers; when the focus is more on training about their products, especially in the technology field, they can pull it off.”

But even for corporate events that address internal goals, there can be attendance challenges. “Usually, internal events are still optional, so if they don’t feel it’s valuable, they won’t come,” Hoffend says. “There’s a challenge to create an experience, and it has to be new and fresh every year. You have to have the right blend of exhibits, education and networking, and that’s very unique to each industry.”