Exhibitor expectations are pretty high these days. The reality is that most exhibitor budgets have decreased dramatically over the last few years. Reaching the right buyers and controlling costs are top of mind. Exhibit managers are feeling the pressure from executive management to produce results, which means sales or proof that they’ve accelerated the sale. Despite decreasing attendance at many shows, most exhibitors agree that they’re reaching quality buyers at trade shows. They just need to reach more of them.

When it comes to costs, exhibitors aren’t complaining about booth space pricing, as most show organizers haven’t raised prices in the last couple of years. But they are criticizing increased costs in other areas. “Show services continue to rise 5 to 7 percent annually, but our budgets continue to go down, as much as 10 percent,” says Glenda Brungardt, CTSM, Tradeshow/Event Manager, HP Imaging and Printing Americas Marketing, who personally manages 17 trade shows and consults on 60 to 70 other shows. “The gap is getting bigger.”

To make up for the gap, exhibitors have reduced booth staffing, square footage and show sponsorships. In addition, exhibitors have gained savings through efficiencies in shipping, lighter materials and fewer promotional giveaways. “Our budgets have been slashed over the years, but we’ve been able to make up some of the money by becoming more efficient,” says Suzanne Martin, Senior Director of Marketing, Home and Networks, Americas and Asia, for Motorola, which exhibits in hundreds of trade shows worldwide, from tabletops to an 80- by 110-squarefoot booth at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). “There’s not much more that we can trim. It’s like squeezing blood from a turnip.” So what do exhibitors want? EXPO went to the source.

1. CUSTOMIZED SPONSORSHIPS “Give me something that’s not on the list,” says Scott Jameson, Senior Manager of Trade Show Marketing, Bosch, whose company exhibits in 150 events annually. “We’re not looking to spend money on things like our name on a Web site or logos on signage.” When exhibitors like Bosch are dealing with decreasing budgets, sponsorships are the first to get cut — unless they help exhibitors meet specific marketing objectives. For example, Karen Zunkowski, Director of Global Event Marketing at Symantec, says her company used a unique sponsorship to promote its partnership with the “Iron Man 2” movie at a recent event. Instead of a traditional lunch box sponsorship, the company provided attendees with an adult happy meal in a reusable bag with two free movie tickets and a comic book.

2. MORE ATTENDEE DATA Sure, third-party audits of trade shows would be helpful, say most exhibitors. But they would also be happy with other data. “It’s really hard to show a return on investment,” says Zunkowski, who manages about 20 shows annually for her company. “More data would help to close the loop on that.” For example, attendee research on buying cycles, objectives, budgets and trends — to name a few. “When it comes to evaluating shows, I’d like to see the registration list for the last five years,” Jameson says.

3. TO REACH A SPECIFIC ATTENDEE SEGMENT AND CONNECT WITH NEW CUSTOMERS Usually each exhibitor is only interested in a small portion of attendees at each event. How can show organizers help them connect with the buyers they’re looking for? Zunkowski says a pre-show e-mail blast to a specific audience would be useful. “Our customers want to reach specific audience segments at the show, and they’re looking for help to develop relationships and connect with these buyers,” says Gordon Stake, Global Account Director for Nth Degree, who works with a number of technology companies on their trade show programs.

4. HELP PROVING ROI “On the spectrum of marketing tools, I would rate trade shows on the least-measurable end,” says Martin with Motorola, who manages her division’s entire marketing program. “Direct marketing and interactive are highly measurable.” Besides leads, ROI for other marketing objectives can be more difficult for exhibitors to measure. For example, CES is Dolby’s most important event, but it’s not looking to generate leads because attendees aren’t buying Dolby’s technology directly from the company. “We’ve had a hard time proving ROO and ROI,” says Erin Dare, Senior Manager of Worldwide Events and Trade Shows for Dolby, which exhibits in 14 domestic shows and about 30 worldwide annually. “We’re not focusing on badge swipes from attendees. We look at the number of meetings our salespeople set up, a rough estimate of how many people attend our audio theater, how much media coverage we get from print, TV and blogs.”

5. HELP CONNECTING WITH ATTENDEES YEAR-ROUND There’s no question that exhibitors want to reach attendees throughout the year, but determining how to deliver those buyers most effectively and efficiently seems to be more elusive. “I’d like to see more offered,” says Zunkowski. “Several years ago, we saw a lot of virtual events with limited success, then they sort of died off, and now we’re seeing some resurgence. I think there’s a way to use virtual events or Webinars or something else entirely as an extension of the show, but we haven’t seen a really great alternative out there.”

6. MORE USER-FRIENDLY LEAD-RETRIEVAL DEVICES AND TECHNOLOGY “I wish there was more standardization from show to show,” Zunkowski says. “The devices are getting better but not compared to what they cost.” While there may never be a solution that fits every exhibitor’s needs, most complain about having to manually manipulate the data to get the leads into their customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

7. VENDOR SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES “Our clients want to be seen as thought leaders in their industry,” Stake says. “And they want to partner with show organizers to provide relevant content.” For example, one of his clients offered to provide free content and free speakers for a conference track at an event. “Some show organizers want money for this opportunity and some don’t,” Stake says. Many exhibitors are willing to pay for this opportunity through sponsorships. For example, Dolby has had success with sponsored sessions at the CEDIA EXPO, produced the Custom Electronics Design & Installation Association. “We want to communicate to customers who use those products that we’re a major player in that space,” Dare says. In addition, she’s worked with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to develop a surround audio track at NAB and an audio track at the Game Developers Conference.

8. TO ACCELERATE THE SALES CYCLE “What we’re seeing and hearing from our customers is pipeline acceleration,” Stake says. “The tech space has matured. So it’s not about branding; it’s about selling and up-selling their products and services. It’s about closing deals.” That’s why some exhibiting companies are turning to partner and proprietary events to augment their trade show schedules, he says.

9. INCREASED ACCESS TO INDUSTRY PRESS, BLOGGERS AND ANALYSTS In addition to buyers, exhibitors want to connect with industry media, bloggers and analysts at trade shows. “We want to extract more value out of the experience and get as much as we can out of those few days at the trade shows,” Martin says. “One way we can justify value is to capture other things at the show.” For example, last year Motorola launched a Web site, (http://sharetheexperience.motorola. com/) for its broadband mobility events experience. The Web site, which has been used for five events, features video with customers and analysts, product demos and information, a show blog and a Twitter feed that users can access before, during and after the event. “It’s been extremely successful for us,” Martin says.

10. QUIT TRYING TO SELL ME A BOOTH AND FIND OUT WHAT I NEED Each exhibitor has unique marketing objectives, and even the same company often has specific objectives for different divisions. “Our clients want show organizers to understand their businesses,” Stake says. For example, last year Microsoft invited show organizers to meet with the company’s marketing directors to listen to what they were trying to accomplish. “They asked show organizers to come back with some creative options,” he says. “They weren’t looking for off-the-shelf solutions.”

11. PROVIDE ME WITH OTHER THINGS BESIDES A BOOTH AT YOUR SHOW “Some shows organizers have come to a point where they see exhibitors aren’t looking for a cookie-cutter solution,” Zunkowski says. For example, as a global partner to Gartner Events, Symantec has hosted a theater on the show floor, hands-on labs, and on-site luncheons and breakfasts in conjunction with its exhibit space. But global partnership comes with a high price tag. “If you spend enough money with them, show organizers will be more flexible,” she says.

12. TRANSPARENCY OF COSTS “We all know that drayage is a big black hole,” Brungardt says. “What does it cover? We know it pays for everything else that show management wants, like aisle carpet, signage and registration areas. But how much time are attendees really spending in these areas, and are all these things really necessary or can they be scaled back to cut costs?” She wonders if package or flat pricing is one way show organizers can make the process more palatable for exhibitors. “Some shows are getting it,” Brungardt says. “Print 09 realized that attendees are there to see new products, but exhibitors didn’t have the budgets to bring in all this heavy equipment, so they charged a flat fee no matter how much we brought in. It was groundbreaking.” (See EXPO, October 2009, p. 15.)

13. DON’T NICKEL AND DIME ME When it comes to costs, one of the biggest pet peeves is all of the small charges that quickly add up. For example, gas surcharges, Internet and WiFi services, staff passes, logos on Web sites, overtime labor set-up. “It’s amazing how much we’re charged for Internet and WiFi, especially when it’s free in so many places,” Zunkowski says.

14. FLEXIBILITY WITH PAYMENTS “Many companies are holding on to their marketing dollars and distributing funds quarterly instead of annually, so they need some options when they sign up later,” Stake says.

15. A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD AMONG EXHIBITORS “Many shows seem to cater to the larger exhibitors to the detriment of other exhibitors,” says Dare, who has been a member of several exhibitor advisory boards throughout her career. “I’d just like to see more even-handed treatment of all exhibitors. It seems like some shows are really beholden to the big guys.”

16. EASED LOGISTICAL CHALLENGES Make it easy to order and meet deadlines, especially for exhibit managers who may be new to the industry. “There are so many little details and deadlines to deal with, and it differs from show to show,” says Carrie Crogan, Assistant Trade Show Manager for Under Armour, which exhibits in 67 U.S. trade shows annually. Crogan, who has worked in the trade show industry for about 15 months, says she spends a lot of time trying to get a handle on tactical concerns, like shipping and insurance, rather than on strategic issues.

17. IMPROVED LABOR SERVICE AND COSTS Exhibitors get frustrated when they’re required to use and pay for labor to accomplish simple tasks. “The biggest issues we have on-site are the jurisdictional issues,” Dare says. “What we can do and what we can’t do today is vastly different than when I started in this business in 1994.” While show organizers often have little control over jurisdictional issues that vary from city to city, she says the NAB show in Las Vegas has responded well to exhibitors by working with the contractor and unions to allow exhibitors to do more in their booths than they could even a few years ago. But the relaxed rules can lead to push back from union workers. “We’re long past the days of handouts and payoffs, but now instead it just takes double or triple the hours,” says Dare, who doesn’t have these same issues at international shows in places like Japan, China and Europe.

18. MORE RESEARCH “During recessionary times, unfortunately, measurement is the first thing to go,” Stake says. “We’re seeing exhibitors cut back on this extra spending in order to execute programs.” She says it would be helpful to get this type of information from show organizers, who could survey attendees about which booths they visited and why, for example.