Optimism and advice on events during the recession

There is some optimism and advice in a new whitepaper from Exhibit Surveys called Looking past the recession: Exhibition strategies for the interim (written by Skip Cox).

Optimism:

• Sustained audience quality levels
• Enhanced perceived value of exhibitions as a marketing tool
• Hints that a turnaround may start late this year

Of course, results vary by industry, with automotive, financial and construction events expected to take longer to recover.

The attendee data is actually excellent news, that were summed up as:

…while budgetary pressures within organizations will naturally reduce travel…the reductions so far would appear to affect mostly lower tier attendees.  Key people in the purchasing and specifiying process who truly value and utilize trade shows are still being sent to them.

On the exhibitor side, the worry remains that we have not seen the worst yet, as budgets for 2008 were set before the downturn, and we’re only beginning to see the effects of budgets written during the downturn.

When will it improve?

CEIR historical data shows that as national GDP improves the exhibitions industry will improve and will regain its vitality, albeit with at least a six-month lag.

Advice:

“Truly make your exhibitors your business partners”

For example,

• Make exhibiting less painful
• Act as a partner in sharing information and working on solutions together
• Work hard at preserving attendance–and certainly audience quality

“Truly provide value to attendees”

• Content, Content, Content

I’ve only skimmed the surface.  Do read the entire white paper, as it is packed with useful information.

 

Audience segmentation within events

A lot of the attraction of industry events is that attendees can see everything under one roof. The umbrella event.  All things to all people.

Oops, maybe that last sentence goes too far…and a good thing becomes a bad thing.

Its important to frequently think about the event in terms of each audience that attends.  Maybe you cater a bit to the largest groups, or to the most qualified/most attractive to exhibitors.  But there’s gold in other segments as well.

Robin Raskin created a new show within a show at CES by targeting aging boomers with the Silver Summit.  As reported in Expo’s May 2009 issue, she promoted the concept to 25 companies that had products for people over 50, created specialized content, and partnered with AARP.  Audience tracking was woefully lacking, so unfortunately we cannot tell how many people came to the event (though it was packed), or how many people came to CES especially because of this new area (though half of the 1500 survey respondents said they did).

How many key segments can you identify within your event that deserve special programing and focus?  [Boomers aren't a bad place to start!]  The benefits are enormous:

• A segment of current attendees that are even more devoted to the event
• New attendees who come specifically because of the new area
• Incremental revenue, both from new exhibitors and from second booths from existing exhibitors
• New sponsor partnerships
• Keeping the event vital and recharged
• Extra press attention
• Eliminating one more opportunity for a competitor to create a show that leaches off your audience

 

Making the world a better place

Most people attend events to learn at the conference and compare products at the trade show.  And network.

We do not generally expect to receive a transformative experience. But isn’t that the goal? To set the bar a little bit higher and help our community achieve something they could not have done without this event?

Some events, like GreenBuild, have a tradition of leaving a lasting mark on each city their conference is in…encouraging attendees to participate in building a home, for example.

Some find other ways to give back to the community, like the Installfest held at LinuxWorld 2008, where old PCs were rescued from recycling to be refurbished with open source software and donated to California schools.

Another, perhaps simpler and more direct, way to let attendees get directly involved in helping their world is in brainstorming sessions as part of the conference.  First off, anything to help sessions become more interactive! But even more importantly, picking a challenge to let the regular people in the industry solve together is inspiring and uplifting.

I posted about AIHA (Industrial Hygiene) taking this approach recently.  Now I see how the PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association) put together a Think Tank of 3 dozen event industry professionals to figure out how to “convince the outside world of the value of face-to-face events”.  Unfortunately, this is a one-off event, not part of the annual PCMA meeting (perhaps in the future).  But on the plus side, the results were published in the May 2009 issue of Convene, making them available to all.

Even better, Convene published quotes from the participants, highlighting the value of the session in terms of a real opportunity to connect with peers, encouraging a different way of thinking, and contributing back to the community.

“When you stop for a day and put industry veterans in a room to work together and share ideas on how to improve our profession and/or specific meeting tactics, it is an amazing experience!”

“Learning from your equals through the exchange of ideas, large and small, is the best, in my opinion.”

“It was very helpful in encouraging me to think differently and focus more on the industry rather than the specific events that I normally work on every year.”

 

Put herd mentality to work for you

People care what others like them are doing.  Sometimes it is to get a sense of belonging.  Sometimes we compare ourselves to others to compete.  Sometimes it saves us time to know what others have tried or recommend.

In any case, this fact is really helpful to marketers.  Lots of exhibitors base a decision to enter your event based on whether their competitors are there…either consciously or unconsciously.  Your attendees do too, which is why many events let you see if not names, titles and company names of other registrants on their website or emails.

Look below for a great example of using information to change behavior as studied in the utility field.

Studies in Norway and Finland found that when customers received neighborhood comparisons, together with frequent electric bills and meter readings, they reduced their energy use by 5%-10%.

–Home Energy Magazine Online, May/June 1997

What if you received 10% more registrants because you announced who else was coming?  Or used audience segmentation to tell your CIOs what classes other CIOs signed up for, and to tell your purchasing department managers what other purchasing department managers did?

Having trouble getting people to travel?  Tell the prospects in California how many other Californians are planning to attend.

 

Attracting and engaging VIP attendees

The very most qualified attendees at our events are the ones invited by our sponsors: their customers and prospects.  Our sponsors have lists we don’t have access to, and a relationship that enhances response from them.

The trick has always been, “How do we entice, exhort, encourage, enlist our sponsors/exhibitors to invite their customers to our event?”

Certainly the first step is to create a comprehensive kit to make it easy for the exhibitor: banner ads of various sizes, email templates, “I’m exhibiting at” web and print ad tiles, postcards, etc.

I haven’t seen contests that reward this activity work (tell me if you have!).

The best I’ve done is provide my best offer to my sponsors/exhibitors, so that they are offering their customers something of value.  “Because I am inviting you, you get a better deal than anyone else.”  Make your client a hero.

But here is an even better idea, copied verbatim from Travis Stanton’s editorial in the June issue of Exhibitor Magazine:

TechTextil The highlight of this event for the industrial-textile industry was a VIP Buyer’s Lounge with refreshments, meeting spaces, etc. All of the show’s exhibitors are encouraged to nominate their top clients and prospects for this special status, and show management selects and alerts the VIPs of the amenities they are thereby entitled to at the show. What a great way to make big spenders feel extra special on site.

I would simply tweak TechTextil’s program into an attendee marketing promotion.  Simply include these benefits in the templates you give the exhibitors for their invitations.  Limit how many people each sponsor can bring into the program.  NOT because you want to be exclusive, though you might.  But because by appearing exclusive, you add value to the program, and more sponsors will participate.