Hosted buyer programs, which group together prequalified buyers and sellers in an intimate, often upscale setting, are gaining traction with many show organizers looking to get face time for exhibitors with those C-level executives who might not hit a show floor.

Here’s how it works: An association or organization brings in a small group of buyers to meet one-on-one with a small number of vendors. Appointments are arranged in advance and typically run 20 to 30 minutes — with about 10 to 12 appointments during the course of the event. Both buyers and sellers can have input on who they’d like to meet.

Attendees — the buyers — are “hosted” on the organization’s dime; hotel, air, meals and transportation are covered in order to overcome those barriers to attendance. In return, attendees are required to attend all their scheduled appointments. (Some hosts even require attendees to pay back their airfare if they miss any appointments.)

Exhibitors are typically charged much more than a standard exhibit fee — often as much as $40,000 to $50,000, depending on the industry. They don’t bring an exhibit — just a laptop on which to present their materials.

The event usually lasts two or three days, and peppered throughout the event are other elements — usually a mix of strategic-level keynote and conference sessions, networking opportunities and social functions. Buyers like it because they’re usually talking to a C-level executive from the supplier firm — and it’s also a product or service they have an interest in. Sellers like it because the audience is prequalified, they’re meeting with the decision maker and the ratio of buyers to sellers is small.

Are hosted buyer programs in your future? EXPO talked strategy with three industry vets to get key takeaways about what works for them.

KERRY GUMAS
TITLE: President and CEO
COMPANY: Questex Media Group, www.questex.com
EXPERIENCE: Worked on a number of hosted buyer programs, including Incentive Travel Exchange, a partnership with SITE, which took place last month at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Why do you think a hosted buyer program is a good fit for the incentive travel industry?
This was an event that was launched at a time when there seemed to be a bit of demand in the marketplace for an alternative to trade shows in the incentive industry. At that point in time, here in the United States, the way these companies went to market to meet with incentive travel buyers was through a traditional trade show format. In some international venues, there had already been established hosted buyer events. We did our research and saw that there was a demand for this.

Why did you choose the venue you selected for the program?
Venue selection was an integral part of the planning on our part. The venue is ideally suited for events like this. The rooms we used are suites — they are already set up with a small meeting space or meeting room that’s attached to the sleeping room. You can actually execute at the hotel very efficiently.

What are the benefits for buyers and sellers? Why do they respond so favorably to hosted buyer programs?
For buyers who are extremely busy, this is a very efficient platform to see a lot of suppliers, meet new suppliers, see new products, accomplish a lot of objectives that typically they would do otherwise at a large-scale trade show or maybe cruising the Web. In our view, the hosting isn’t the key element of this. It’s actually the qualification of the buyer and seller that happens prior to the event. When the buyer and seller arrive at the event, they already know that they’ve got a schedule, they know who they’re meeting with and they know they’ve got an extremely efficient way of conducting business.

What’s the on-site experience like?
The meetings are about 20 minutes each and everybody starts off with a set of prescheduled appointments. It’s very much a mix of different kinds of activities. First, there’s education and business information being delivered in a traditional conference format. Then there are networking and hospitality functions that get people together in an informal kind of way.

What advice would you give show organizers looking at hosted buyer programs?
The key here is that it’s a different business than the trade show business. This is more of a one-to-one marketing format rather than a mass marketing format. Don’t run it from the perspective of the trade show and the trade show organizer. Don’t start adding things to it that would make it more like a normal trade show. It’s quite a separate kind of activity and that’s important to both the buyer and seller.

BOB MIKULAS
TITLE: President and CEO
COMPANY: Controlled Marketing Conferences, www.tradeshowappointments.com
EXPERIENCE: Organizing the National Lawn & Garden Show, which has been executed in a hosted buyer program format since 1995.

How do you sell a hosted buyer program package to vendors?
We sell it on a basis of guaranteed preset scheduled appointments with buyers. We talk about the benefits — much higher ROI, the efficiencies of not having to ship booths and have drayage costs and no uncertainty of attendance.

How does the qualification process work?
We wrote some proprietary software — which is available to other organizers on a licensee basis (check out tradeshowappointments. com for more info). It was written over 10 years, and we constantly modify and update it. It works based upon matching product categories between the two parties, and the software does all the calculation, assignment of appointment times and location of appointments.

Why do you think buyers like this format?
Buyers like it because the exhibitor comes to them, and pitches them in a very relaxed but businesslike atmosphere, versus the buyers physically running up and down aisles looking for specific products. We’re also able to bring companies to buyers that they may not have found in a traditional booth-style show.

What advice would you give organizers looking at hosted buyer programs?
Know your industry, research your industry and do a test.

PHILIP MCKAY
TITLE: Senior Vice President
COMPANY: World Market Center, www.lasvegasmarket.com
EXPERIENCE: Worked on a number of hosted buyer programs, including the Vision events during his tenure at Gartner, and a hosted buyer program as part of the Architecture, Engineers and Contractors (AEC) Show.

With the AEC show, how did it work incorporating a hosted buyer program into a larger event?
What we were looking for in attendees for the hosted buyer program was a high-level person who fit inside the larger show community. We were looking at the very, very highest breed of that community, and we flew those people in but gave them almost a completely separate program. We gave them their own content, and we gave them more of a VIP, white-glove treatment.

What advice would you give to show organizers considering hosted buyer programs?
It’s not just a two-and-a-half day event. You have to make it a yearround community. If you want these things to be successful, you have to be in contact with these people more than before and during the event, getting feedback on what works and what doesn’t. The relationships we build with these people are more than a marketing piece. They become our focus group and the reason we make changes. It’s all about the community.

Producing a Hosted Buyer Program: The Nitty Gritty

Thinking a hosted buyer program might be for you, but need more details? Scott Goldman, President of Eaton Hall Expositions, gave us the breakdown on how his company handles hosted buyer programs. Here’s a quick peek at some of the factors you might consider when putting together your own program.

THE EVENT
• Opt for a resort location to emphasize the high-end vibe
• Plan on a two-day event (from opening night dinner on Day One through lunch on Day Three)
• Plan for about 30 to 40 vendors and 50 to 100 attendees

THE EDUCATION
• Make the programs very strategic-level
• Sign up speakers early as they’ll help encourage attendance
• Schedule time for roundtable discussions on specific topics so execs can share best practices with one another and ask questions of their peers

THE MEETINGS
• Provide the computer and presentation materials
• Have the one-on-one meetings in a large ballroom. Our vendors sit at tables and attendees move according to a schedule they’ve been given — but some have the buyers sit and the vendors move.
• Be ruthless about everyone being on time. If someone runs late, your house of cards can fall.

MANDATORY ATTENDANCE
• Attendees at our events book and buy their tickets and email us the information so we can confirm they’re coming and schedule their limo (which is sponsored)
• We prepare checks made out to each attendee or their company to reimburse them for their airfare, but we don’t distribute the checks until after lunch on the final day
• Attendees need to understand that attendance at everything is expected and is a condition of reimbursement
• Make sure everyone supplies their cell phone numbers in case someone doesn’t show
• Have limos pick up vendors, too, so people can informally meet-and-greet on the way to the venue

ON-SITE GUIDE
• We publish a guide with one page per vendor and a bio on each attendee
• Collect all of these details online during registration

GENERAL TIPS
• Have 10 or 15 attendees confirmed before selling sponsors
• Ideally, you want 30 to 40 sponsors
• Ten to 15 committed attendees will back out at the last minute, so confirm more than you need
• Send attendees the list of vendors in advance and ask them to rank who they want to see (expect about 50 percent compliance)