Best Practices
While some shows were just learning how to use Twitter last year, Salesforce.com, a cloud computing solutions provider, was leveraging Twitter and other social media platforms to meet marketing goals for Dreamforce, the company’s annual conference for users, developers and partners.
When Planview, an independent portfolio management solutions provider, polled customers and found that the regular attendance of about 200 at its annual customer conference would drop significantly due to tight travel budgets, organizers decided to hold the company’s first-ever virtual conference last October.
Two months before the Produce Marketing Association’s (PMA) annual Fresh Summit Convention and Expo, held in Anaheim, CA, in October, organizers realized they needed to do more to address the industry’s most pressing current challenge.
Cheat Sheet
Savvy show organizers are getting on the bandwagon, using online matchmaking and social networking technologies to help their Web portals move from just content and contacts to community and commerce.
Event Technology
With the growing popularity of e-readers such as Amazon’s Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook and Sony’s Reader coupled with increased efforts to go green, now could be the time to consider leveraging this technology for your show. Take a cue from the Society for Neuroscience (SFN), which worked with its online abstract management system provider Coe-Truman Technologies to make the 16,000 abstracts it received for its annual Neuroscience meeting, held October 17-21 in Chicago, available for download on Kindles, Readers and iPhones.
Thinking about using mobile technology for your show? Consider Mobile Concierge from ConnectMedia Ventures. For organizers, the service provides a mobile show landing page, third-party mobile registration, a text notification platform and the ability to generate revenue through sponsorships.
Looking for a way to enhance lead retrieval? Check out PRMconnect’s Leadature solution. The software as a service (SaaS), which runs on touchscreen kiosks, laptops, wireless tablets and other devices, lets attendees choose the product information they want to receive.
Now that I’ve produced my first virtual show, I have definite opinions about the technology. As a content delivery tool, I found the virtual environment to be excellent. As a sales vehicle for exhibitors, however, I think we still have a way to go.
EXPO Plus...
Coming to America – International influences are ingrained. Sriracha (rooster sauce) is the new salsa, which replaced the old ketchup. Vietnamese Banh Mi is the new ham & Swiss; and Middle Eastern spices and spreads go mainstream as pizza makes way for pide. Forget chicken noodle soup, it is pho; pho sure.
Boston - FELT. Next door to the restored Opera House theater, and steps from major hotels like The Ritz-Carlton and Hyatt Regency in Boston’s Ladder District, FELT is a four-floor lounge that offers a little something for everyone, including pool tables, a nightclub and two private function rooms.
After you’ve defined your social networking strategy (EXPO, October 2009, page 20) and selected your platform (EXPO, November/December 2009, page 24), this last installment of EXPO’s social networking series will focus on the final — yet perhaps most important — step: audience engagement. Unfortunately, the “if you build it, they will come” mantra doesn’t apply here.
Want to set a green example for your exhibitors? Take a cue from exhibitor Joey Roth, who constructed his summer 2009 New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF) booth exclusively from materials discarded during the Fair’s two-day set-up phase.
Feature Articles
New year, new strategies. Yes, 2009 was a tough year for most shows, at least in terms of attendance. And as we enter 2010, it’s clear we’re not out of the woods yet. So, if your plan of action has been “to wait it out,” it’s time for a new strategy. And EXPO’s here to help. We talked with show organizers who are bucking the attendance trends to find out what strategies they’re using to market their shows in 2010.
On Dec. 15, EXPO hosted the industry’s first virtual trade show and conference on event technologies. Powered by InXpo, EXPOTECH Virtual was a full-day event with keynotes and breakout sessions, an exhibit hall, a library chock-full of content and a networking lounge where attendees chatted about the industry’s hottest technologies, the pros and cons of social networking, mobile applications and more.
During the last decade, cellular phones have evolved from a luxury and a curiosity to a ubiquitous necessity. Today it’s not just early adopters using their phones to completely organize their lives — it’s a huge segment of the population that lives and dies by a tiny mobile device. That’s where you come in.
Openers
Whether they’re using a virtual platform to complement or replace a live event, organizers worry that their attendees won’t sign up, won’t show up or won’t know how to participate once they get there.
These days, chances are a number of attendees at your sessions and keynotes are going to be plugged in — either to a laptop or to a smartphone — while the speaker is giving his or her presentation.
Sales and Marketing
Q: We lost a lot of exhibitors over the last year because of the economy. This year, we’d like to lure them back in, but I’m not sure the same sales approach we’ve been using for the past few years will be enough anymore. Any tips?
Every search matters, which is why Steve Riegel, Co-Founder and Director of Search at digital agency Faction Media, knows the value of online presence. Riegel offers four essential, inexpensive (if not free), but often overlooked methods that get the most out of search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
Selling exhibit space to a live event is hard enough, but what about in the virtual world? As virtual gains steam, more and more exhibitors and attendees have become comfortable with the platform, but that doesn’t mean that the sales approach you use for live events will directly translate to virtual.
The Buzz
At press time, the industry is abuzz with news that Chicago’s Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority was proposing legislation to the Illinois State Assembly that would essentially turn union workers at McCormick Place into public employees and prohibit labor strikes.
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