Lots of campaigns focused on near-field RFID with badges or wristbands.  Big push to register for event via Facebook and thereby have access to the full Facebook database on the registrant, as well as ongoing links back to their page to push updates to their network.

Favorite new tool (see below):  Sifteo.  If you Google one thing from this post, check that out.

Books: 

Phil Simon: The Age of the Platform (Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple as case studies for thinking beyond a product to a suite of products that constantly evolve)

Carmine Gallo:  The Power of Foursquare

Foursquare is much more broadly interesting than I gave it credit for.  Big trend now is to implant branded location-based “tips”.  Interesting potential for associations to provide almost a tour of the city they are in, particularly for shows with outreach potential, such as AIA assigning AIA-branded tips and points of interest to all the interesting architecture in the city they are in.

Cheap Useful Tools:

1. Prezi. Replaces ppt.  Free for basic version.
2. 99Designs.com.  Crowdsource design proposals.  Only pay for the design you use.  Starts at $295.
3. Yorn.  Combination of audience response system and Twitter.  Pretty useful way to use a Twitter-like platform to add another level of interaction at a session.  Starts at $450.
4. Ustream.tv.  Let’s anyone produce ustream video.  Free with ads or starts at $99.
5. Heywatch.  Converts video from one format to another, easily, cheaply.
6. Animoto.  Set a photo montage to music.  Free or $39/month for Pro version.  Professional way to create post-event “video” case studies, as text can be included throughout.
7. Zentation: Syncs video and ppt after the fact.  Free for YouTube version.

For my use, Yorn and Animoto seemed to have the most potential.

Cool emerging tech for engagement tool

Sifteo:  1” LCD video cubes that “sense” positioning (gyroscopic), proximity, and can act as push buttons.  Use for interactive games in exhibitor or association booth. Reposition cubes to solve puzzles or word games, for example.  $150/set.  Totally addictive to play with.

Social Media Aggregation

Twitter walls, etc are examples of “social proof”: you’re more comfortable doing things you see others doing.

1. CrowdReel:  Twitter photos.  Use to encourage attendees to post photos on Twitter and create a photo Twitter wall.  Or aggregate photos from the event on web site, etc.
2. Feedmagnet: Twitter moderator tool

Twilio: API to create apps that create SMS or voice messaging, inbound (customer service) or outbound (alerts).  Walmart uses to automatically convert their “Deal of the Day” tweets into SMS texts.

VanguardID makes near-field RFIP badges, wristbands, tabs.

Access Pass&Design…cool looking badges, etc.

Digital crowdsourcing

Incredibly powerful, but requires very large, rabid base.  Distinguish between core fans (actively communicate) and fans (passive), and assume only 20% of core fans will participate.  Then apply geographic screen for local events.  Requires Community Manager.

Key trends in consumer case studies

Starting promotions online and/or locally that culminate at the national event.  Use Facebook/Twitter/YouTube to build competition, fan base, accept submissions, crowdsource voting…  This works as well for b-to-b events as for consumer…see “Generation Green” YouTube video campaign for GreenBuild.

Register for consumer event using Facebook…all Facebook data moves with registration into your database.  Participants willing as it saves time registering, and they continue to be linked to Facebook:  use nearfield RFID chip in their badge or wrist band to interact with games, to get their photo taken and automatically upload to their feed.  Could be done just as easily with bar codes.  Does this work for b-to-b?  Just in its infancy, but you’re starting to see some events allow registration using Facebook or LinkedIn, and apps like eventSocial to use social media to reach out to friends after registering.

Here’s an interesting study I ran across in the Boston Globe, though the abstract below is from PsycNET. People are motivated by feeling like they are part of something larger.  Even for tasks that are not team-based, like solving math problems. They showed that the sense of belonging is easily created: by reading about a social group, by sharing a birthday, by being assigned to an arbitrary group, or by having something unrelated in common.

Even more important, the extra boost of motivation continued for several days after the initial exposure to the social cues.

Four experiments examined the effect on achievement motivation of mere belonging, a minimal social connection to another person or group in a performance domain. Mere belonging was expected to increase motivation by creating socially shared goals around a performance task. Participants were led to believe that an endeavor provided opportunities for positive social interactions (Experiment 1), that they shared a birthday with a student majoring in an academic field (Experiment 2), that they belonged to a minimal group arbitrarily identified with a performance domain (Experiment 3), or that they had task-irrelevant preferences similar to a peer who pursued a series of goals (Experiment 4). Relative to control conditions that held constant other sources of motivation, each social-link manipulation raised motivation, including persistence on domain-relevant tasks (Experiments 1–3) and the accessibility of relevant goals (Experiment 4). The results suggest that even minimal cues of social connectedness affect important aspects of self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)

You could argue that an unconscious but compelling reason people come to events is to get this stimulating social “high”.  And, as event organizers, we can work these basic social interactions into the learning environment.

Mere belonging: The power of social connections.

Walton, Gregory M.; Cohen, Geoffrey L.; Cwir, David; Spencer, Steven J.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Oct 24, 2011, No Pagination Specified. doi: 10.1037/a0025731

A major area of attendee marketing challenge is the “Hard-to-Reach Attendee”, a topic that IAEE asked me to talk about at ExpoExpo next month.  As I worked with my co-presenter, Dan Darby of Surf Expo, on this challenge, we came up with four primary versions of Hard-to-Reach attendees, each with their own solution set:

1.  Hard-to-Find Prospects:  the needle in the haystack problem.  The prospect attendee for this show is not one specific industry or one specific job function.  They are prospects because they are interested in this topic.  American Telemedicine Association:  any medical professional who is interested in remote access to patients.  Digital Signage Expo: anyone in any field that is looking into usage a digital sign…for their gas station or bar or school or ?

Once you’ve rented the lists and advertised on the websites that are available to you, the core to this issue is outreach: make it easy for them to find you (SEO, webinars, social media, white papers, etc).

2.  They aren’t listening: the other definition of “reach”; you aren’t getting through to them.  Particularly a problem when you know exactly who should be coming to your event, because you have the definitive list of left-handed purple widget-buyers, but they aren’t coming.

Its not going to help to send more messages, more often, on more media.  They know your event is there and they are ignoring you.  Why?  They don’t see the value.  For events, value is defined by time more than money, so lowering the price probably won’t help either.

Hopefully you have a kick-ass event, and the solution is improving your messaging so that the value and benefits are more apparent.  Otherwise, your attendee marketing issue may be a content issue:  How do you transform your event into a must-attend?

3. VIP Buyers: every event has them…CFOs, Purchasing VP, Hospital Administrators.  They send their team but no longer come themselves.  Oftentimes these senior buyers have grown out of your conference content, and they mostly like to get information from each other.

For these buyers, what you need is a different event.  One that is exclusive; allows them to hang out with each other, gives them high-level strategic conference sessions, exclusive opportunities to meet with key individuals in their field, efficient ways to hold exactly the meetings they want to hold.  Once you’ve designed that meeting-within-your-meeting tailored specifically to the needs of your unique senior buyers, all you have to do is send them an engraved invitation.

4. Young People: some events care more than others, but I find most associations want to see more young professionals at their event.  Don’t worry: their absence isn’t a new trend to blame on social media.  The truth is, young people have always been hard to get to events.  It has more to do with their professional life-cycle.

I find there are two solutions.  The first one is similar to #3 above:  give them an event within the event tailored to their needs…their own reception to network, badges for booth staff that cater to young professionals or students, indicate the most appropriate sessions within your conference, or give them their own track, provide mentoring opportunities, either one-to-one or at a breakfast setting.

The other solution is to recognize that most people do not send themselves to events…their company sends them.  And companies tend to send middle-management.  Many associations have found that a targeted campaign to teach the bosses why they should send their staff really work, especially when combined with a strong young professional program.

The key take-away is that half of the solutions above are not traditionally the domain of the Marketing Department; they involve changes to the event itself.  The most successful shows have great communication and a feedback loop in which not only is Marketing promoting the show that exists, but it recommends changes to make the show the one their segmented attendees need.

1. Stir up the crowd waiting to get in.  As soon as a group started forming in front of the general session doors, Photoshop World put a gregarious member of their team on a small platform at the front to start working the crowd.  Chatting, joking, pulling people up on stage to do the macarena, quizzes, trivia, leading songs…generally whatever it takes to get people talking, laughing, and engaging with each other.

2. Keep the doors closed as long as possible.  Yes, opening the doors early makes for an orderly flow, and keeps people from getting impatient in the lobby.  But impatience is a form of energy you can work to your benefit.  If you wait until 10-15 minutes before the start you have a good crowd formed:

• they will walk quickly to the front to get good seats (more energy)
• you can more easily herd them into the middle of each row to fill all the seats (more energy in the front of the room)
• you eliminate that long wait after people sit down, while energy dissipates

3. Use lighting to create energy.  Photoshop World immediately pulled me in with a darkened room with a powerfully designed, dramatically lit set, with several disco balls creating a sense of party atmosphere.

4. Fill the time before the keynote begins.  Tease your event theme as people walk in with the stage set, messaging, and lighting.  Don’t just run a boring loop of Powerpoint slides of event activities: instead run a fast-paced video of the association’s work over the past year.  Or present trivia questions or a game related to the theme of the general session.  Photoshop World also started throwing T-shirts into the crowd as soon as an area of seating filled up.  Not from the stage, but from various places along the side.  Everyone wants a T-shirt, and as soon as the Staff member is spotted with shirts the audience starts standing up and waving for shirts.  Just like a ball game?  Yup, great cross-over idea.  Another T-shirt distribution break woke people up between two presentations from the stage, and again at the end.

5. Have a great theme.  Photoshop World is known for its well-produced openings, and the general session is a don’t-miss activity.  And yet they don’t pay for a name-brand speaker.  This year they opened with a riff on the reality TV show, Project Runway, with Project Photoshop.  A set of fashion designs based on Photoshop buttons and tools were solicited from the local design school, with the “designers” all culled from association luminaries.  The video tying these “designers” into the fashion show was hilarious, and led directly into the opening speech from the association president (the winning “designer”). The theme was fully integrated into the event, with the designs displayed in the exhibit hall, and a contest for the best photo taken of the runway show, with those awards presented at the closing general session.

By the time the real keynote speaker was on stage, top product management of Adobe presenting new features, the crowd was totally jazzed and receptive, and the crowd that flowed from that room into the exhibit hall was fully engaged in the event.

Next thing you know every session is a “panel” of three speakers, each giving a 15-minute powerpoint presentation.  Mind-numbing.

Great content is more than good, relevant material presented by a good speaker.  To actually enjoy 8 sessions over three days the human mind requires variety and engagement.

Here’s my laundry list of the top 8 session formats you can employ at your next event to mix it up:

1. Panel Discussion:  Three speakers taking turns presenting a powerpoint deck is not a panel.  A true panel involves a moderator, three interesting people, a controversial topic, and real discussion, no slides allowed.  You see them on the 24 hr news stations:  A liberal, a moderate, and a conservative actually arguing.  Great entertainment and gives your audience something to discuss through the rest of the event.          Alternative version:  Let each of the three speakers (yes, three is a magic number) have 5 minutes to give an opening monologue: their case study, their opinions, the results of their research, then open it up to a moderated discussion across those positions.
2. Debate:  Every industry has topics worth debating and people willing to do so.  Good debate topics include policy, standards, best practices, current events.  Debates are excellent key notes, if you have a high-level topic of broad interest and a couple of influential industry members willing to discuss it onstage.  But they also make great sessions.  ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists) scatters therapeutic debates  throughout the program, with great attendance:  ”Is Anticoagulation Intensity Monitoring Needed for Therapeutic Heparin?”            Add some drama:  go ahead and set clear debate rules, a have a specified, and time-limited, Point, Counterpoint, Rebuttal, Rebuttal.  Get the audience involved:  add a timed segment for audience-generated questions/rebuttals.  Let the audience vote on the winner!
3. Interview: A great way to feature your association president as an industry expert, interviewing key players about a current trend in a keynote.  Also a great way to feature an iconic figure in your industry who isn’t a great speaker…by interviewing them you present a shy but influential industry leader in their best light.  Also works well for more focussed or niche topics in regular sessions.  Every industry has journalists you can also tap to be the interviewer.            Think intimate:  Every session shouldn’t go for the big numbers.  Perhaps a topic would best be presented as a fire-side chat, creating a truly memorable experience for those involved in that topic discussion.
4. Lightning talks:  a series of short presentations run back-to-back.  Lightning talks vary from a 5-minute to a 10-minute limit (strictly enforced).  Pecha Kucha is a variant that enforces a 20-second per slide, 20 slide limit (automatic advance).  Some try to emulate the TED Conference, in which the speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can.  For me this is the point:  short presentations, grouped by topic, and the heightened drama from being short.           Go for drama:  True Pecha Kucha rules, a panel of judges, and a competitive set of presentations around a theme–a great way to handle product presentations (they have to core down to the features and benefits, and the audience gets to compare), but also works for comparing therapeutic practice or monetary policy.        Or keep it simple:  ASHP calls these “Pearl Sessions”, grouping by topic several speakers who each present “one idea, concept, or fact that has been useful in day-to-day practice, and may not be widely known, understood, published, or taught.”      Consider three 20-minute keynotes instead of one 1-hour presentation (perhaps in different formats).  You wouldn’t do this for expensive speakers, but industry speakers usually don’t need an hour.  When I told our LinuxWorld (IT event) keynoters (industry executives) that I was shortening their sessions to 20 minutes, every one of them thanked me.  One said:  ”I only had 20 minutes of material anyway.”
5. Whiteboard sessions:  Remember back in school when the teacher wrote on the black board (now white board)?  Wasn’t that more conversational, intimate and engaging than powerpoint?   Would some of your expert presenters be willing to forego ppt and try simply teaching for a change?  Perhaps this is also a smaller room, set chevron, and tight to the stage.
6. Phil Donohue style:  You remember, he was before Oprah, and was famous for working the audience with his hand-held mike to solicit questions for the guest.  Put an industry leader on the stage, and let them talk a bit, but then put the moderator in the audience to stimulate a true room-wide Q/A and discussion.  Much more engaging than simply having microphones the audience has to walk up to, and key to this approach is the moderator, guiding the conversation, asking their own questions, and engaging the audience.
7. Workshop: There are a lot of ways to do workshops, but for me what they all have in common is the focus on the attendees as participants.  Engage the room in a full-room discussion around:  a hot industry topic, a hot industry challenge to solve together, a list of key concerns that the group starts by creating, public policy, etc.            Solve a problem:  Pose a key industry challenge with a short briefing from industry experts on the nature of the issue.  Divide the room up by table, and let each table work up a solution.  They each present back to the room, and a winning solution is presented to the association board to act on.                   Engage in learning:  AIHA (Industrial Hygiene) has great sold-out lunch & learns that present the facts of a real industrial hygiene issue case study, and let the room ask questions until they solve it. Fifty people in that room, and every one of them participated.
8. Demonstration: From demonstrating the technique/product/technology in the front of the room to hands-on learning, there is no more engaging way to educate your attendees.  By definition, these sessions are more expensive, as they require equipment to be brought in, so be creative!  The materials do not have to be one-per-attendee…divide your participants into groups. Some demonstrations can be done through computer simulations, so perhaps they bring their own laptops?  Best: get a sponsor to cover the equipment costs.          Virtual demonstrations: Technology to live-stream a remote demonstration into your event has come down dramatically in price, especially since it is now down via the internet, not satellite, and video is so much clearer and faster than it was even three years ago.  Whether a medical event streaming from a hospital or an engineering event streaming discussion of large equipment from a work site, this technology can create an extremely compelling must-attend session.           Field trips:  Don’t shy away from taking your attendees to the action.  AIA (Architects) always sponsor a series of extremely valuable, certification-credited tours of the important local architecture of the city around the event. IT events have been known to take attendees to visit a state-of-the-art datacenter located nearby.

Hey, many sessions really should be a talking head with visuals…maybe half of your sessions.  Enliven these sessions by encouraging speakers to use alternatives to powerpoint, give them a wireless lavalier microphone and no podium and make them move around, and perhaps give them a hand-held mike to walk into the audience to get their questions.  Work with your room set and AV team to ensure that the speaker will be under a light, and the screen isn’t.  !    They don’t do this on their own.  Really.  And the result is rooms where you have to turn off the lights to see the screen, but then you can’t see the speaker.  Deadly.

Cheap trick:  Make every room set different.  Five tracks?  One is theater, one is classroom, one is chevron, one is horseshoe.  And yes, set one room is set on the diagonal.   Refreshes the mind and gives a different perspective.

Most associations and media companies that put on events have a larger organizational mission to educate their community, to assemble people using content, or, at least, to help grow the industry they serve.  The show floor is a great way to do that.

1.  New regulations that affect your industry?  How about an interactive learning area on the show floor to help attendees fully understand the new ways of doing business?  Probably there are exhibitors who would like to be affiliated with that content = sponsorship opportunity.  Plus a great reason attendees will feel they must attend your event as the best way to keep up in the industry.

PCBC created a very successful pavilion to explain the new 2010 California green building laws.  In addition to considering it a requirement to provide this information to the construction attendees, they found it to be a great revenue opportunity as six companies with technology to help obey the law sponsored the area.

2.  New technology being launched in your industry?  Attendees need to understand this type of technology, what it does, and how they might benefit.  THEN they can decide which vendor to buy it from.  Help grow your industry by providing the demonstration of the new technology set, and include a buyers guide to how to choose a vendor and a map of these vendors…extra bonus points if they jointly sponsor the objective education area, or put their booths around it.

3. New product category being added to the event?  Again, attendees will need an overview of this new product set and its benefits, and guidance on who provides these services.  Perhaps this is done in a pavilion for this new area, and include a small presentation theater the various booths can share.

4. There is always news being created throughout the show, from new product launches to debates about policy.  Key figures who are speaking to interview.  Create a recording studio with seats for a live seated or walk-by audience.  PCBC did this audio-only for an online radio program or other events like TCT, GeoINT and PCMA used video recording to run on the internet, archive for on-demand viewing, and to play on plasmas strategically located throughout the event.  Don’t be afraid to put the studio on the show floor…microphones and recording engineers are great at focusing on the right sound and filtering out background noise.

5. What learning would benefit from a live demonstration?  Dental conferences perform live dentistry illuminating the latest advances.  Medical devices can be demonstrated with hands-on training areas.   ASTD (Training and Development) used the show floor demonstration area to show live training techniques, including one featuring miniature horses.   TCT included a Hands-On Hearts area, featuring a dozen preserved human hearts with various documented conditions and devices implanted that attendees could pick-up and study.  Just like medical school.

6. Does your industry feature a set of different products that work together?  What about creating a simulated environment showcasing the latest products, probably by invitation and pay-to-play?  The dental office of the future at Yankee Dental Congress.  The teched-out medical office at HIMSS.    This is must-attend content you can’t get anywhere else.  Interop features the InteropNet: the showcase of all the latest networking and data center technology all integrated into one corporate network.

7.  Have some fun with community building.  Attendees love to get inspired, and use conventions as a way to remind themselves why they love what they do.  AIA included an opportunity (sponsored by a media partner) for each attendee to get their photograph taken holding a white board saying why they love architects. WINDPOWER used a green screen photography booth to have your photo taken in front of a wind farm or on top of a turbine.  In each case the attendee’s contribution was added to a display showcasing all the responses, and the attendee not only got a memento, but was gently nudged to think about and articulate their thoughts on their industry.

8. Spread out your key messages.  A passport program helps move people around the show floor while engaging them in a fun activity.  Usually the stops in the program belong to sponsoring exhibitors.  What if instead the locations belong to you, the show organizer, because you have spread out the information you usually cram into one association booth or Town Square all over the event?  Optometry had six different stops that each highlighted an important area of what they do as an association…with a giveaway like a t-shirt from that division of the association.  Many more attendees experience everything that Optometry had to offer than would have visited every pod in an association booth.

Exhibitors appreciate every effort you make to get more attendees to the show floor and hold them there longer.  Attendees view your content, industry news, demonstrations, technology overviews and engagement areas a crucial reason for coming to the event.  With a little creativity, most can prove to at least break-even with sponsorship revenue.

• Networking
• Education
• New products

The order depends on the industry and the event, but these are always the top three.  So what are you doing to call attention to all the new products at your show?

Featuring new products is a win-win-win-win.

1. Exhibitors love your efforts to focus on their product releases
2. Attendees love to see what’s new and different and love that you made that easier
3. Promoting new products in attendee marketing campaigns helps bring more attendees
4. Exhibitors love more attendees

Here are five ways to celebrate new products at your event:

New Product Showcase

Invite all exhibitors, for a fee, to include any product released in the last year in your plexiglass display cases.  Plastic Surgery had free-standing cases spread out in the lobby area.  Pet Expo displayed them all on tables in a designated Hot Spot near the back of the hall.

Sweets & Snacks had 2500 feet of display cases just outside the show floor.  Attendees started there by picking up a scanner at the TMI check-in desk, then strolled past all the new products, scanning the ones of interest.  When they were done, attendees return the scanner at the desk and receive their own customized list of the products they want to see, organized by booth number!

Car Care allowed self-scanning at the product showcases for lead retrieval post-show using the regular lead retrieval scanners attached to each case.

New Product Presentation Theater

Generally on the show floor, though occasionally clearly marked as vendor content in a special track as part of the conference sessions.  My tips for making these successful:

• Keep them short: no more than 20 minutes per company
• Keep them intimate: use a small room, or, on the show floor, set for 12-15 stools with some standing room
• Keep them focused: new products only. or certain product categories by time slot

Better yet–make them competitive.  At the last PCMA they grouped speakers by product category, so in one hour an attendee (shopper) could experience the key products they care about (this might not be limited to new releases).  Present to a panel, American Idol-style.  Let attendees vote on best product of the set.

Want even more excitement?  Try Pecha Kucha (lightning talks).  20 slides automatically advancing after 20 seconds.  (Yes, that’s a total of 7 minutes.)  The key is the automatic slide advancement.  Forces the presenters to practice, and gives a little edge to their speaking style.

Docent-led Tours

Recruit the experts in your industry to lead 45-60 minute tours of the show floor.  Speakers, editors, bloggers… I’ve never seen a show try this and have any trouble enlisting volunteers.  Each tour focuses on a product category, emphasizing what is new in that space.  Each expert chooses his/her own topic, and customizes their own tour, keeping it intimate and personal.

Pre-Event Newsletters

Once a week, for six weeks before the show, issue a content-filled newsletter about what is new in your event.  In additional to a couple of your own paragraphs, include sponsored listings from exhibitors.  You can set any rules you want to, including new products only.  As you send the newsletter to both pre-registrants and your core prospect list, excitement builds for the event, in anticipation of seeing all the new products.  You can do this yourself, or hire a company like Industry Connect to do it for you.

New Product Lists

Display your event’s new product list prominently:

• Website
• Pre-event marketing
• Show Guide
• Meter Boards
• Wayfinding Boards
• Smart phone app screen
• Hand-out list for reference
• Ribbon, rug decal, or starburst each exhibitor can attach to their booth

Having trouble getting exhibitors to give you the information pre-show?  Usually that is because they do not see enough value.  Once you make it clear how prominently you feature these products they will scramble to make sure they are included.

One question is always what you do primarily as a tool for attendees and attendee marketing and what you do primarily as a revenue-generator, making exhibitors pay to participate.  From the above list, generally the Listings and Docent tours are “editorial” and free.  The rest usually are pay-to-play.  But this depends so much on your industry and your needs.

Beware of focusing on exhibitor revenue to the point that you fail at creating a great experience for attendees.  Very little you do is more expensive than attracting attendees:  forgoing some revenue to save some attendance cost or increase attendance may be a very good deal.

They love to contribute to the industry.  They love to talk with others.

Lets put this underutilized resource to work!

First of all, they are probably already speaking in your conference.  Some are on your board, or your advisory council.  Some are key executives at your exhibitors.  Some are journalists or bloggers.  You know them.  They want to help.  Tell them what to do.

Here are 10 ideas for ways to make full use of the experts at your event:

1. Promote their attendance at the show to their own database.  Give them a template for the message to send to their community.  Ask them to tweet that they are speaking.  Give them a link to post to their Facebook or Google+ page.  Provide a widget they can help make viral.
   

   Docent Tour at Interop

2. Give tours of the show floor. Ask in advance who would be interested in leading one or more groups of attendees on a personalized tour of the show floor.  Let each expert plan their own tour based on their own interests and favorite subjects. Recruit experts specifically by product category.  Make sure these are editorially driven…the expert chooses the booths visited, no sponsorship influence.
3. Participate in the campground. Set up an area in a major lobby space or in the back of the show floor of groupings of 6-10 stools around a white board.  Conference speakers can invite session attendees to continue the conversation. Sign up any experts to give a well-promoted 1/2-hour time slot for an intimate discussion or Q&A. A research-oriented field?  Create round tables to discuss recent breakthroughs with the scientists.
4. Mentor younger attendees/members. Often done over breakfast, invite young professionals to hear from the established members of the field, one expert per round table.
5. Consult, on appointment, at the Experts Bar. The Experts Bar is usually populated by the consultants in your industry.  Promote well ahead of the show who will be available to consult on what topics, and allow attendees to sign up for 1/2 hour increments.  Sometimes these are held at small rounds in the association booth, sometimes a full Expert Bar is created in the lobby.  Sometimes these session fully answer the question…other times it leads to a paid engagement for the consultant.  Definitely worth their time and provides a real service to your attendees.
   

   Knowledge Bar at GreenBuild

6. Tweet during the event. Some will anyway, but many more will if you ask them to.  Teach them how.  Discuss the campaign to hold discussions over social media ahead of time and many will follow through.
7. Invite post-event participation on your social media site to continue the discussion from their session. Easiest if your association has its own social media site or blog, but also can be done on your Facebook page.  Speakers can start the conversation before the event and continue it afterward.  Discuss with the speakers which sessions are most appropriate, promote the opportunity, and remind them to talk about it at their session.
8. Incite a debate of a current topic in an ad hoc session.  Every industry has a controversial topic currently in play.  Or a problem defying resolution.  Something that at least a few people can get passionate about.  And you have at least 2-3 experts who are willing to passionately debate it in front of an audience. Make it really exciting…have the venue ready to go for the second day, but determine the topic and speakers based on what happens at the event on the first day.*
9. Attend the event “salon”. Create a salon at your event.  Maybe start small and have it only be open for an afternoon.  Invite your experts to hang out there to chat with each other and attendees.  Set it living room style…multiple small groupings.  Maybe a small stage-like area for a couple of experts to chat in front of a group. For attendees who are passionate about their industry and meeting the subject matter experts would make their year!
10. Mingle at networking events. Give your experts big expert badges and tell them to mingle at events.  And not just with each other; give each a goal for how many new people they meet and interact with.

The experts will have a great time and the attendees will come away with the most exciting event experience they could imagine.

*My favorite event memory:  I was only in high school, a budding flutist, and attended the National Flute Association annual conference in SF. Really.  At some session, the speaker, an academic, talked about the interpretation of a particular issue in Baroque music.  A professional musician in the audience disagreed.  Afterward it was the buzz of the event, and only promoted through word of mouth (this pre-dates cell phones or any event technology), that these two would each give a competing demonstration of their point of view in a newly created session in a previously empty room.  Standing room only, and something I remember fondly decades later.

An event is perceived as “must-attend” when the rest of the year people are saying were you there when…?

As a Champion employee, I recently collaborated with our client, Pri-Med, to create a webinar for their exhibitors about best practices in exhibiting.  While it is specific to medical events (with their requirements to comply with industry and government regulations about appropriate marketing), it applies to any industry.  We frequently give these webinars, but I think this one is particularly useful, including some great recent exhibitor marketing research and a lot of examples.

So I thought I would share it with you.  You can find the recording of the full webinar at:  Exhibitor Success:  How to Maximize Your Time and Thrive in a Convention Environment.  And the pdf of the slides is also attached.  Pri-Med Champion Exhibitor webinar

Some of what I consider to be the key take-aways:

• The top three reasons attendees remember your booth:

1. Product Interest: So make your signage really clear about what you are offering
2. Well-Known Company: So make your look and feel and key messages consistent with the company marketing strategy
3. Product Demos: So use demos! Whether it is in a theater, on a plasma, on a counter.  The booths with crowds are ALWAYS the ones with demos.

• Pre-show promotion: email, direct mail, website, social media.  And have something specific to announce or invite prospects to.  Why should they visit your booth?
• On-site promotion: use the appropriate sponsorship opportunities for your goals (awareness, leads, etc.). Use presentation theaters. Speak in the conference.
• Draw attendees by creating engagement in your booth.  Meet customers’ needs by providing education, interaction, or participation.
• Make giveaways relevant. Consider using better/more expensive ones, but making attendees earn them. Result: greater interaction, more qualified leads.
• TRAIN THE BOOTH STAFF. In the company messaging, in the promotions/products being offered, and in boothmanship.
• Boothmanship is so critical.  Set company standards for:

1. Being proactive in greeting
2. Key qualifying/engagement questions
3. Conducting a successful conversation
4. Capturing key data for follow-up
5. Etiquette:   give staff sufficient breaks so they aren’t tempted to eat, drink, use their cell phone or sit down in the booth

• Get out beyond the booth: encourage staff to interact throughout the event: meals/breaks, in sessions, at parties, taking clients out to dinner
• And, most importantly, follow up on the leads.  70% of leads still do not receive any follow-up post-show.

It doesn’t require a larger budget to be more successful as an exhibitor.  Just a little more advance planning and coordination of strategy.

Why don’t more exhibitors ace their trade show strategy?  Is the person responsible for planning the trade show strategy fully empowered?  Is running the trade show activities considered logistics instead of marketing? Are the different departments involved within the company fully coordinated?  Does Marketing assume Sales follow up on leads, but Sales thinks the leads aren’t useful?

These are bigger issues than our webinar could handle, but worth thinking about.

Research footnoted throughout, by Champion Exposition Services, Pri-Med, and International Center for Exhibition and Event Marketing.  With permission by Pri-Med.

[I don't love the sample size, but we'll work with what we have.  Online survey to 415 smartphone users in February 2011.]

• 65% had seen a QR code
• Of those, 49% had used one at least once

I seem to recall that about 70% of business people had a smart phone.  So, doing the math, that’s about 22% of a typical show audience who have used QR codes.

While I wouldn’t replace my current systems with QR codes for 22%, that’s definitely not fringe anymore.

QR codes have gone from “what?” to the funny papers in about a year.  About 10% of the shows I’ve attended this past 12 months have started experimenting with them, generally on agenda boards, or as a way to download the smart phone app.  The occasional exhibitor is using them in their booths.

What if the trade show industry started using them to download pdf collateral materials?  To share contact information?  For interactivity and involvement devices, like passport programs and games?

At the just-finished SuiteWorld 2011, all attendees were invited to participate in a contest for an iPad.  Each exhibitor gave out a card with a QR code.  Attendees who downloaded the QR reader app scanned the card themselves.  But if they didn’t have a smart phone or didn’t want to download the reader, they could take the card to a reader kiosk.  Some cards then said “You won an iPad!.”  Most directed the attendee to another booth or event activity, to pick up the next card.  All in all, it was fun and very well received.

A few other tid bits from the survey:

• Evenly split between men and women
• 52% 35 to 54 years old
• Highly educated

Sound like your attendees?