For years, IPC, the Association for Connecting Electronics Industries, has struggled to get exhibitors to promote their own presence at IPC APEX EXPO, the organization’s annual conference and exhibition. To help, organizers launched the IPC Midwest Challenge, a friendly competition among exhibitors to motivate them to invite their own contacts to the show. Every registration that resulted from an exhibitor’s invitation earned points for that exhibitor. A number of prizes were available for exhibitors who netted at least 10 registrations, including the grand prize, a $3,000 travel certificate.

For several years, IPC postshow surveys had showed that exhibitors who actively promoted their own presence at the show experienced a greater return on investment for the event. “Sure, we have to do our part to promote the show to potential attendees, but exhibitor customer databases include prospects that we don’t have access to — who need to be at the show,” says Sarah Martino, Exhibit Operations Manager at IPC. “The IPC Midwest Challenge gave exhibitors the chance to become more of a partner, with the intention of getting more attendees onto the show floor with the added incentive to win valuable prizes.”

First, IPC asked its registration vendor, CompuSystems, to create an enrollment site for sales reps to enroll in the Challenge. Once enrolled, exhibitor reps received an e-mail confirmation that included their own invitation number, which they needed to give customers in order to get credit for their customers’ registrations. IPC also provided participants with a customized link that went directly to the show’s attendee registration page, with the exhibitor’s invitation number embedded in the link.

To kick off the Challenge and explain the rules, IPC held a free luncheon for all exhibitors. Twenty individual sales reps participated in the Challenge, representing between 25 and 30 percent of the show’s exhibitor base, Martino says. Those exhibitors who attended the luncheon proved to be the most successful in the Challenge.

The Challenge invitations that were converted to registrations represented almost 10 percent of overall verified attendance.

While the overall rules for this year are similar, IPC has made a few changes to ensure greater success. When the enrollment site launched, all exhibitor contacts received an e-mail with their custom link and code, as well as a message encouraging them to use the codes in their promotions. In January, IPC invited all booth staff from 2009 to enroll in the competition. “This increases awareness of the need for pre-show promotion to all staff involved in the event, not just the main contact for the show,”Martino says.

IPC also simplified the invite process to make it easier for exhibitors to invite customers. “These passes will undoubtedly help those exhibitors who are spread thin and don’t have time and energy to devote resources to developing a pre-show promotional piece,”Martino says. “Now all they need to do is input their logo, message and contest code, and send them off.”

IPC’s Strategy

GOAL: To encourage exhibitors to promote their own presence at the IPC APEX EXPO and encourage their own contacts to attend.

STRATEGY: Launch an exhibitor competition to encourage exhibitors to get their own contacts to register for the show.

RESULTS: Between 25 percent and 30 percent of the show’s exhibitor base participated in the competition, and registrations resulting from the competition represented just less than 10 percent of overall verified attendance.