Tradeshows & Events 4.0

I believe we all have heard the phrase Web 2.0 and sometimes now you will hear people refer to 4.0 basically skipping directly from 2.0 to 3.0.

Now what version of the tradeshows and events are we working within? I'm sure that will vary per group, as some are still using some basic principals that they have been using for the last 10 years or longer. Just with some new colorization or tweaks.

Now don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with sticking to the fundamentals, of our business but I do believe you need to have some adaptability in improving the product for our customers.

Example Revenue, is some basics, exhibit booth sales, directory ads, flags, banners, etc. Well in the 4.0 version where are those Revenue opportunities. Can you measure the success of a banner, flag or window treatment? Can the purchaser of the product make that determination?

There are all kinds of revenue opportunities that we are leaving the table that will become part of the 4.0 version. Many of these vehicles will be in hybrid formats. Promotional pieces in print and in digital.
Access to the attendees in different forms that have not been done on-site for your events or pre and post event time.

Customized Exhibitor Promotional Packages from the point of sale. How many people are looking at that? Social media, is anybody making money on this tool yet? There is money to be made. Hotel revenue programs of where the attendee is staying. I'm not talking about just drop of show dailies, but a targeted promotion to the groups that are staying at various hotels?

The connection of the supply chain and more value added networking programs. Meet-ups, Unconferences, Industry Sector Tailgates, HQ places within the city you are using for specific groups.

Educational programs, but on a 4.0 version, use of smart phones, text messaging. New ways to communicate during the off event time. If your an association as well you have many opporunities to engage in the new 4.0 world of tradeshows and events.

Are we accessing all of the power tools from our vendors, should our vendors be working with show management and the planners to create better tools, are they ready for the 4.0 or are they playing catch-up and shoestringing it all together so that no one really gets that one product they need.

4.0 is global, yet local, vertical yet horizontal. 4.0 is new way of doing things and can be alot of fun for your staff to push the envelope and change the rules of engagement facilitation for the industry. 4.0 is tactical, data driven, targeted and mass produced as well.

The attendee doesn't just buy and search and resource at your event. The exhibitor does not rely on your event for sales, brand promotion and marketing. They both are out their everyday selling, searching and buying. While they are doing that in the 4.0 version are you there to facilitate the connections or just a bystander sitting on the sidelines as connections continue to happen.

The 4.0 version should put you in the middle of the opportunities to engage. You will need to invest in technology, invest in personnel and invest in the building blocks for this model which will continue to evolve and will require some new ways of thinking.

The f2f model is not over nor is it irrelevent it has changed and 4.0 knowledge will be good to have to allow you to put out the best vehicles for your customers.

Hybrid is key to 4.0. Networking, facilitating, data, technology and understanding the new rules of engagement are essential to the 4.0 model.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments

Data

We live in an ever growing electronic age. Technology and the need to capture vital data is becoming more important in this b2b world.

There are several data capturing points in the cycle. If you have a printed magazine, or digital newsletter/magazine you have the opportunity to have them join in or subscribe.

Tradeshows collect data via the registration process. You can also capture data on your website, and also by holding virtual events and webinars.

You can capture data by placing widgets in the forward or share functions of your website or email programs. New registration programs such as Social Clix also give exhibitors and attendeed the opportunity to collect data by searching their database to determine who from their database is already registered for the event. You can collect data in social media platforms. New smart phone apps, allow you to make contact with an individual and immediatley upload.

Now we all may run into people of different view points on data collection. Some will say who will want to answer these additional  questions? Some will say well what are you going to do with it, when you get it and what value will it have.

Next you run into the problem that most people have in collecting the data the software, and the people power to manage this database. We invest in many things for tradeshows but how many of us are investing in the resources of data collection.

Ok we know how many people said they are CEO and that are coming to the event or managers etc. We know how many people come from a particular country, state, or province.

Do we track what they did when they came to the event? Do we follow the attendee around the show seeing where they swiped their badge. What was the CEO looking for, what was the manager looking for at the event? Are we collecting the history of these searches and allowing for a place for the attendee to save their searches. Do we create a pop-up of when they go to the save search with recommendation for other products from different companies that they may have missed at the show?

Do we collect the data of the conference participants the people that attend the educational programs. What is their background, what did they attend. Again a historical to make of what they attended will help you hi-light items that will be of future interest to them. Conference attendees what if you compared the education they chose to the products they searched for on the exhibit floor or online to check for the correlation.

Do you track what shows and locations they attend. Does the company send at least someone to your event everytime it is held? If not do you know why not? 

Do you track which hotels your attendees stay in and determine some history to guide where they will want to stay in the future? Do you track which social media platform they belong to?

Credit card companies can track your purchases and send you coupons of items that you would like to be aware of. Do you have the ability to feed the attendee new product information or new versions from the exhibitors based upon their search from the previous event? Do you know when the attendee registers, do you have history of the registration?

How fresh is your data and how accurate is it? Data Mining and understanding data is a very powerful tool in this business and we need to know how to harness it and make it deliverable for our exhibitors as they become more data driven in their needs to determine whether to exhibit or not in your event.

Data collected can also aid you in the determination of whether your event products is still relevent or competitive and in sync with the current marketplace. It will allow you to stay ahead of the curve.

There are hundreds of areas that collecting the correct data will be important to your event. Try to step outside the box and think ahead of what you may need down the line. If you can do this you will have a better understanding of how data will help strengthen the events industry.

What is that phrase there is no bad or dumb question well in the world of data I believe that is true.

Find the correct people to assist in the data collection, the software you need and a good staff to ask the write questions and collect the history to be used from an attendee and exhibitors. You need great data on both it will assist you in closing the exhibit sale and also generating attendance.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to more conversation on data

Fundamentals

Everywhere we look everyone is talking new technology for the industry and new ways to do business. So my thought is has anything really changed other than the tools. Are we not here still on this earth to connect buyers and sellers to hopefully engage in a business transaction?

The fundamentals are still in place and most of the old guard would like that to remain the same. The reality is technology has changed the way we engage and interact with our customer groups of attendees and exhibitors.

Now the question is how do we keep to our core beliefs and implement these new techologies that are unproven such as social media.

We have to remember that our job 1 is to connect buyer and sellers. How we do that doesn't matter as long as we accomplish the goal. Direct mail, Advertising, Electronic Promotion, website promotion, you name it we need to do it to secure our customer base.

Our exhibitors and attendees do not rely on us for their sole source of rescource information or lead generation. They are interacting throughout the year.

We need to be willing to participate in their needs to connect with the resource guide and the ability to reach customers.

How are we going to do that if we don't embrace new technology. We won't be able to do so without a sacrifice to our committment to our core groups of customers.

Also we need to understand what people percieve to be the fundmentals. We also need to be aware that an email may not work. We may have to actually make contact with our customer base of attendees/exhibitors. We also may need to understand if we are fullfilling their need from a source standpoint and sales point.

Do not ignore the fundamentals at the same time embrace the new techonlogy that will help your business.

I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Are you Hungry?

Guess what even in today's diet world we are still hungary looking for the revenue buffet.

Wasn't great when they just bought everything and you didn't have to worry about because the money was flush and they meaning the exibitors were flush with dollars to spend on your marketing promotion programs on-site that had no tangible results.

You say no we have results we track the looks to the banners, flags etc. We actually use the previvous lead generations from previous on-site sponsorships to determine their uptick roi. Ok if you do that great for you as you should use that metric to see if these companies that bought these products experienced and ROI positive by buying these on site opps. If not you have a problem because they will now want results based upon their comittment of thousands of dollars supporting your program offerings.

Also in todays internet world the upsale is gone because you really are pushing them to go online to purchase the products with no involment with the sales staff.

Is this a good thing? I say no, these exhibitor already purchased exhibit space and you are telling me that your exhibit sales team has no time to engage them in this processs. It's quite sad when you think about it.

I will try to write another blog on this matter at another time. However how many calls meaning telephone calls does your sales team make to your exhibitor base with these offering?

How many of the x amount of exhibitors do you see f2f to explain not only the exhibit space but your offerings as well and how you will deliver the audience with their help.

One of my point is do you hav sales people that are afraid to pick up the phone and do you think you might need to replace the order takers with real sales people?

Think about it and also think about how are you motivating your sales team. Also don't let the sales team believe the excuses of the industry you serve. Also do not punish them if the effort has been made and results fell short.

You need to be on top of this don't just let them email, take the call ins, make them engage the people to come in.

A call report stilll matters. At the same time don't drain them with reports let them sell. But again if the outbound phone calls are not happening you are in trouble and have lost out on income

Keep it real, sales still requires phone calls

The Internet

The Internet has taken down several large groups such as publishing. Can the internet take down or hinder tradeshows and events? The question is out there and I'm not sure anyone has a true answer and I doubt there are any good analytics to support it positively or negatively.

The reality is the internet is here to stay and I also believe tradeshow are here to stay.  Now how do we co-exist and capitalize on the tools of the internet?
Does someone out there have the master plan? I'm sure someone does or is working towards it. There is always an answer to every challenge the industry faces.

Now I need to ask are we getting the information that we need from all of our resources to succeed in this enviroment? Are we all on the same page moving forward from our vendors, venues, show management, exhibitors and attendees?

That is to me the holy grail how are we moving forward as a group. Not everyone of us is a big organization where we can continue to buy technology that works. Also how many of these technology offerings are really that good and how many of them will still be around when we need them?

I have alot of questions on the technology subject because we are being judged and challenged by it. Some industry sectors more so than others.

Ok how many of us have content managers, web designers. and I don't mean people that do it on a temp basis but people that are constantly working on our websites and our b2b online electronic programs. My guess is very few of us. We rely on what we have and ask our staff to do it while they are doing multiple jobs.

How many of us have hired a internet guru to work on our content, social media, e-newsletters, digital products, online offerings, seo, and more?

Again my guess is very few because you never see those jobs listed online. Which means I would assume that they don't exist.

Now I want to ask you another question for those that belong to IAEE,PCMA, MPI, ASAEetc. What tools and education are they offering you? Also how many of those groups are offering them at a cost instead of an added value?

I know with exhibitors many of us are offering added value programs for now to keep them in the show as we move more hybrid offfline and online. We do these at minimal cost or no costs to increase our value to our exhibitor base.
Now are the groups we belong to doing the same? Not so much from what I can see but I may not be reading everything from them.

I would love to start a group like I did on linkedin.com which is called exhibtions and events incubator group. I would also like to start a marketing, operations, etc. groups to keep us all connected on how we can help each other.

There are some programs out there Sam Lippmans Large Show Roundtable, IAEE events

I'm not trying to replace them as they are important but I want to find away to engage with my peer in a more informative way. I look forward to any suggestions on how we can go about doing that. If you look at the last tradeshow week lists of shows it's amazing the number of f2f events that exists and my guess that is doesn't cover every event in the USA let alone the world.

So utilizing the tools we have today how do we get all of us interacting in a mutually beneficial exchange.

I look forward to your thoughts on this subject because I believe we need to embrace the internet for all of the positives that it offers. We need to take advantage of it and see how it can benefit us the most. We use it everyday so we understand the importance of it. We just need to figure out as an industry how we can capitalize on it to make our f2f events stronger and more engaging for our customers attendees and exhibitors.

It's to late to fear it and to fear webinars, virtual events etc. we need to figure out how to make those tools part of our program. We also need to figure out the best practice to engage our customers online and in this internet world of offerings.

I look forward to your thoughts and how we can do all of this together

Empower your base

What does that mean? We have an incredible group of customers who we need to empower to make the most successful event that we can for our shows, associations, exhibitors and attendees.

Well we've always had these groups, so what I'm saying above is nothing new the problem is what are we doing to empower them to engage?

We have multiple channels of empowerment. Now is the time to tap into those groups in a different way.

Empowerment does not come easy, and it comes with upsides and downsides however I believe the upside is more of powerful opportunity.

Social media well that is the obvious answer, let's get them all to engage online. Ok Facebook, Twitter, Linked, Xing, Plaxo, Ning, or whatever tools you have in place. Ok but who is going to keep the pulse alive on all of these networking links of social engagement?

We need to identify and empower leaders from our customer groups exhibitors, media, trade associations, and attendees to engage these communities. We also need to be there to stimulate the group when needed and facilitate the conversation.  Well you got some people bailing on social because they where is the ROI well you know what it doesn't come fast and it will take time.

Empower your attendees to create videos via youtube on why they go to your show. Let them spread the viral word of mouth. Empower your exhibitors to utilize video to convey there message on why they will be at the show and what they will be showcasing. Empower the media and trade associations to talk up the value of the event.

How do we do this well we need to engage, we need to interact with all of the above groups and get them involved. This doesn't happen overnight. You need to work it and expand upon it and continue to do what we do at a show. Network and engage.

Market research engagement and empowerment. Engage your groups in research which will further develop the industry segments you serve along with your event. Find the pulse of the industry and serve it, but let the bottom-up come thru to guide you for ideas. Your customers are your empowerment to continued growth. They will also be your salvation during difficult times and your properiety during more improved times.

Sound it out reach out via personal engagement emails or phone calls to your base of customers. Let them know how you can this engagment can lead to more empowerment.

Empower them in the educational programs, new programs, show layout, information you put out to your groups and future growth opportunities.

Empower them and Empower yourself and your organization to be in a proactive mode to engage your groups. They are the foundation and the reason you exist.

You need to determine the appropiate tactics to do so. Reach out to an industry sector of what you serve. Find out why they come, find out why they would come more often.

Next let your audience of customers promote your event and the value. Give them the tools to engage and be empowered.

Explain the big picture and admit your failings and address that you want it to be better for all of your customers. Get to the root of it. Believe it or not they want to be engaged and feel they are part of the process.

You have an opportunity that technology allows online, on the phone and in person to engage them. This engagement will not only empower you but also empower them to help you create an event that will be remember because of the value.

Also exhibitors hold events, media hold events, tradeshows hold events, tradeshow associations hold events.
How about the empowering the attendees to hold events?

Also why not look at all of the other groups that hold events and determine how they can better be empowered to to hold sucessful programs and networking functions?

The status quo needs to change? Get ready it has but are you ahead of the change?

Thanks for reading and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

What took us so long

It's interesting all of the panic that is going on within the industry about saving their events.

Ok when revenue was good like the dotcom and the mortgage business nobody cared. Also were people as upset about the costs of doing a tradeshow pre-economic failures? The answer is they didn't like them but there were not completely freaked out as they viewed this as the cost of doing business and probably never evaluated the return.

Now we are being judged on what we bring to the table and our trust factor has been questioned as well as we all try to move forward. I cannot speak for everyone in the industry as what we can work on to reduce costs for our exhibitor base. I also know the forgotten element in all of this pr war is the attendee and there costs to come to a s show. Remember they are committing their time and money to come to your event.

How many exhibitors can say the can access people that are willing to spend their time and money to come to their office. Not many I'm sure less than 5%. So that is one of our values that we need to continue to build on as we move forward.

We need to reduce costs where we can for our customers whereever that is possible and we need to work in unison with show management and our vendors to do so. What is best answer for that, I can only say open engagement with all of the paricipants. I have always felt that we need to work in partnership with everyone to provide the best product possible. We are only as good as our last event remember that for all parties that can sink the ship of success.

The fact is we are a marketing vehicle and we need to remember our core as we move forward. Our responsiblity is to market our exhibitiors to their customers.

Next we are a faciliator. We need to to facilitate involvment with our attendee and exhibitors. We will talk about this in more detail in another blog.

The reality of what I'm saying above and below and now is why did we wait for the economics of business to get us to think about improving our products.

The answere is we didn't have to. You know what that is not a good answer as we should continue to improve our product and be ahead of the curve.
How many of you are ahead of the curve? How many of you can say it didn't take us long we were already there?

Look forward to your comments, thoughts and suggestions.

An industry moving forward

The economy has hit our industry hard, and it has left no stones unturned as we have all braced for it and are now digging out of the impact of one of the most difficult times we have ever faced.

We are a marketing organization we are set out to deliver a product that creates matchmaking, networking and engagement along with business transactions.

In good times it all comes together and everyone is not concerned as much about freight charges, fed ex delivery or the price of water or a coffee at a tradeshow.

The reality is it's my belief that this economic storm is a good thing as it makes us make changes and become better at what we do to bring people together. If we are an event, association or whatever we all need to think smarter about how we can improve our model of existence. Social media will not replace all that is f2f, the internet will not replace all in person transactions. We know that, we know people are social and people want to engage in some way with another human form.  The reality is some of the those benefit social transactions are now occuring online, via text or email. Let's not be in fear of it but let's embrace it.

You should not fear technology you need to understand how to harness it to one's benefit. I think we all are moving ahead.

Also I think these new times of business that we all live in has made us all more social or interactive as well with our network of business associates and vendor, venues and destinations. We now realize that we have to work harder and better together to complete the puzzle and deliver the best possible product for our customers.

Were not moving at warp speed and we are not on the final frontier nor are we Iron Man. Iron Man 2 debuts next weekend. Great movie and sorry for the digression but the point of that movie it's energized and we should be and will need to be as we move towards the future.

Also it's spring and you know what happens in spring we all get a renewed outlook as everything begins to bloom.

Hang in there and continue to reach out to your resources of ideas and new tools. Now is not that time to say no to anything now is the time to listen to everything and than filter what will work for you.

We need to keep moving forward and there are alot of good ideas and thought leaders out there. Whether you agree with them or their ideas or not, is not the point the point is you need to at least listen to the prosposition or the idea.

Were moving forward and we will continue to do so. It's not a space ride nor is it a carriage stroll in central park so get ready. As the time is now for change and movement in a forward direction

Re-write the script for tradeshows and events for todays world

The Oscars and most award shows are over. We have seen all of the glamour and jokes and gowns and suits for the year. Now if we could go back in time which we can due to google. We can see how much the way the information and the way people are communicating and enagaging has change over the last few years.
Everything you see now has follow us on twitter, friend us on facebook join us here and link-up now.

So the script has changed as we all should expect it should. We are now living in a google, facebook, fliker, twitter, droid, blackberry, iphone, tablet world. And yes linkedin in as well. Another one blogging.

So when you are thinking about the new script think about this. How much does it cost your customers now to engage? The cost continues to go down with every new evolution of technology.

We cannot however rely on strictly digital because of the sheer magnitude of the filtration systems to deliver our message. We need to balance our new script with current practicalities and balance. For most events there is not one medium that can deliver the results we need. We still need to be involved in all marketing vehicles. However paradigm shift has happened and we need to move with it.

Our vendors and suppliers offer new products and we need to embrace some of them and encourage them via direction to make better products.

Another part of the script that has changed is the media. Who is the media. The blogger, the b2b magazine, association? Probably all of the above. What that means is we need to engage them all to ensure coverage of our events.

Part of the medium is the influencer he or she has a big impact on their reccomendation on whether or not to attend your event. See like it, digg it, thumbs up etc.

It's all changing and we need to come up with a new script. Just like hollywood adds new character, hd, or 3d we need to be ready to do upgrade our events as well. Hopefully we can do a better job of just recycling old ideas, but instead come up with new lines. Yes we need some new lines and special effects, buzz, sex to draw our groups.

Remember barnum bailey, now see circus olea (spelling) You get the point. Revenue has shifted due to a lack of understanding that the script needed to change along with an updated version of characters.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments or suggestions.

New Technology

Is it time for  us now to embrace new technology that before may have seemed like somthing we didn't need? I don't the answer I only know that there are alot of tools out there that we need to explore and research to determine if they can work for our programs.

If you know of a technology please let all us know. Sorry for the quick blog but let's look at all of the options.

I have a follow-up to this blog and that is why do the suppliers not work with management to create the technology that we all need? Maybe they do and I just missed the boat on all those ideas.

Also we should be the leader in incbuation for ideas on services. I have not yet met one company that has the crystal ball for the future of our needs. Nor have I found any willing to the  r&D on us.

Hope you enjoy and look forward to your comments. Remember technology drives all industries.

Face to face

This is what we do correct? We bring the f2f together, we connect people we help make it happen to propel the industry correct?

To the beginning of time the f2f has existed and there is nothing better in life than putting people together to engage. This is our mantra and we need to keep this moving along as we feel this is the bases of our revenue existence. There is nothing in this world more valubable than putting people together that have paid x amount for exhibit to reach the y attendees.

The exhibitor wants to reach every attendeee that is possiblity for their product. Now the reality is that is going to hapen.Not everyones product that we have on the horizon is a perfect anectdot for improvment and survival.

So they are buying from us based upon the f2f, we need to make sure that happends. No matter what the size of your show conference, meeting planing etc. the key is you need to put buyers and sellers under one format.

We continue to udertand the requiments of f2f how ever we need you to undertand the aprace coninutue the race to reach opoeple

Social Media?

It's interesting here is a link to a video I always find interesting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

Now cleary this pro social media. Ok so you take the term and you break it down to Social. Ok networking with friends, talking about where you went to eat and when you had a glass of wine or went on a good trip is all very social. People like to tell you all kinds of things on the web about their daily activities.  Now is that kind of like the movie Ed TV or a reality show yes but in a more easy to digest form.
Now let's look at the word media. How does media come into play? I don't know exactly but I will make an assumption because of blogging, and discussions this can become an informative form of media in a more diverse way. Media because it plays online and can be transported to print and television media.

Now how about social responsibility. Ok this can be media as well as it is very p.c. and develops a good ethical standard for everyone to operate by. Viral Social, well that is where the stream of tweets, blogs, message boards, chats,  texts, are all spread throughout the world in nano, seconds.

Social engagement, this is when you engage your network in discussions of topics of common interest, politics, the economy, manufacturing, jobs, marketing, operations, events, education, some common thread for all to jump on.

Social take-away. What's in it for all of those engaged in the discussion, what is the take away that will make we want to engage, drill down and come back for more and also spread the word for others to join in or follow as well.

Social watch; This is where we are not engaging but we are watching from and paying attention to the discussion and possibly gaining a take-away without engagement. It's also the learning curver where you observe and come to an understanding of the environment before you jump in.

Social freight train, to me this is when you are pushing your agenda with a lack of concern for the communities such as over product promotion.

Social trust, this is what we get when we all participate and gain from the experience at one time or another and we aid our fellow online social members.

Social acceptance can be many things but it's generally when the member is embraced into the community.

Social incubation, idea exchange and exploratory discussion and analysis of either existing products or those that should be developed and maybe some R&D assistance on enhancements.

Social leaderships, read the book called tribes by Seth Godin very interesting take on tribes and leaders.

Social reach, the power of reaching beyond your borders

Social Relationships, the power of becoming comfortable and engaging and trusting to someone you have met online and turning that into hopefully a positive f2f.

Social past, going back thru your memory card  and reaching out to those that have moved, transitioned or you have lost touch with.

Social future, new engagements, new relationships net connecting points

Social testimonials, this is your reference your person that says you have what it takes or this community has what they need. You could combine that with social reference.

Social Chain, how your connect to other networks and people thru your connection chain.

Social sales,  well there is alway some for of sales, the connections will lead to that.
Social marketing, again this is something that is done and is beneficial if done correctly.

Social intelligence, maybe the holy grail what we can take away and implement in our life or business.

Social Community; This is a place a neighborhood, for all of use with many common interests to gather and a place for those that have limited commonalities that want to gather to gain more information.

Now you may be saying where did all of the social terminologies come from? I have not read about them, I need more details. I don't know maybe they exist in some book out there or in some online community, I just wrote my thoughts on what I think of social.

The fact is is much of this is in our everyday lives and it's in our f2f events as well. Now can we do better at these social aspect yes? Some people confuse social with being a party person. Well that can be true but were not in the dorms right now with this discussion. Social tells me something has changed or there is lack of social in our everyday life that we are going online to obtain this ability.

Now the question is how do we do Social Connection and remove Social Disconnection?
We need to understand why we are either connected or disconnected with our communities by doing so we will improve our outlook.  Your doing something right for those connected to you and something wrong for those that choose to not connect.

I hope this gives everyone something to think about and see how Social impacts you personally and in business.

Search in the New World

How do we all rank in the search world. Have you tested it? Also not just with just a show name or product and company name but your name as well?

How do we all show up? The world has changed and google continues to change the programing tool and respectable search placement.

Pick an item on the search engine and see how long it takes for you to become front-line news. It could take a while. Also in reference to your website I should ask do you have google in your mind when you connect the dots.

Now the next question is it search or intentions for decision? All of the groups claim they have a plan.
Now what if everything you do is tracking from your DVR and then the internet and direct mail and. Now everyhing come down to your team of consultants who say I don't need to be there.

The new online models are about search intention.  Google's patent expires in 2012.

Do we own the search in our programs? Generaly people have to deal within this business sector.

At the same time we need your help in promotions
Thanks for reading this alot more to come and always I look forward to your thoughts

Web Portals and Events

Web portals, what is that? Yahoo, AOL, Excite, Altavista, etc. are all web portals. How do they play in the tradeshows and events industry? The answer to this question will vary depending on your strategic plan for your association, or your event management or you b2b media product. All of this will also depend on your budget for online programs.

Can we create portals most definitely is that a goal we should have that will again depend on the size and scope of your events and your objectives.

You now need to look at how you obtain revenue online and also who you compete with online. Let's say you are the major vertical or horizontal event serving your customer base. You have a very solid f2f event.
It's growing everything is good,  or it's suffering. Either way you need to look at these online opportunities for your business plan. The print media has taking a beating. I'm not going to call anyone particular group out, but just look at the newspaper industry and the effect of online news and search has had on their business revenue.

Now could this play out in the f2f arena still remains to be seen. However this new economy which no one knows how long it will last is having an effect on marketers.  They want to reach their audience achieve a strong ROI at the most economical efficient way that they can.

Here's what alot of tradeshow and events have going for them as they explore the online model that they really should embrace instead of be in fear of.
1. We collect data
2. We serve and our recognized as a leader in the industry
3. We have two customers that pay to be part of our events.
5. We can take this f2f progam utilizing new techology and put it online.
6. Our customers invest their time and money for our events.
7. Our attendees are more qualified than any b2b product online.
8. We work with multiple groups in marketing and partnerships
9. Social media allows us to be f2f online.
10. How many models can say they have a f2f and a online matchmaking and search engine.

Search is huge, think Google, Bing etc. Do not underestimate search, seo, lead generation and online effectiveness. Also be very aware of how your demographics utlize tools such as laptops, wireless networks, smart phones and more. Also be aware of the next generation of buyers who live by the communication online.

If you think they are not ready to embrase go to youtube.com and search for a video on socialnomics. It's a little propaganda but the point is made loud and clear about online engagment.

Look at retail and see how much of that is now purchased online or researched online. Also do not underestimate the viral activity and potential of your group to encourgage others to engage you online and offline.

My point is portals are search, you need to play in this space for long term sustainable growth. If you cannot get their alone you may need to engage others to shoulder the burden.

With a portal I can be 365 for my customers. News, video, rss, search, education, R&D, white papers, social communities, sales, matchmaking, lead generation, seo, market penetration and more.

To me it's a no brainer. You can create a portal that can allow you to grow into ancillary markets, strengthen your markets and increase value and possibly offset the costs to produce by a new revenue stream.

Portals will take a commitment of resources staff and financial. However keep in mind you may see what you think is your competition out there now, but odds are you may miss out on someone that has the great idea and plan to access what your perceive to be your audience.

I'm not going to say it's going to replace f2f. Nor am I saying everyone should do it. I'm just telling you if you don't or cannot, mark my words someone may already be thinking about it.

Thanks for reading and I always look for input from everyone.

Portals

Portals what does that mean to you:? Have you thought about it?

Data Mining is in your plan?

Proper datacollection is it in your plan

Green is it in your plan"

It's time to know the new current world

Creating demand for your product

Creating demand for your product. Well what is the metrics for demand. X amount of attendees, and Y amount of exhibitors in a location that will bring both and in a destination city that is attractive to both audiences.


Now faced with online tools and an economy that is watching every dollar and is very sensitive to where they spend and what they spend it on. Ok we all get that I hope at this point as travel dollars are under alot of scutiny these days. So if we have had an event for a long time do we still need to create demand for our product?
I hope your answer is yes, because we always need to do so in good economic time and also during times when we are all under duress.

So we all get that this is a new economy or those that do get it will realize that we need to work even harder to create demand for a product that is being questioned during these times.  I'm not questioning whether you have a great product. I'm throwing out the question are you creating demand for your product.
I've already made one mistake to not include vendors, destinations, venues etc. in this equation as well because they need to create demand as well along with exhibitors and believe it or not attendees in their participation in this new supply chain.

It's interesting the web refers to web 2.0 and now up to 4.0. Well should all of us that are participants in the tradeshow model refer to our model as the 2.0 or the 4.0 model? No we don't have to do that but my point is we do need to upgrade our program to the current realities of doing business.

It's not an easy job to create demand from exhibitors and attendees. Yes it was easier but now it's much harder, not because your fighting off obstacles that you have never seen before. However these obstacles are becoming more unified and efficient.

The demand is not as simples as saying we have over x amount of exhibitor and we expect y amount of attendees. They want to know how much business opportunity will come out of this marketing vehicle. The attendee wants to know their take away and the exhibitor wants to know their take away. This not as easy as just saying we brought together 50,000 people in a global marketing showplace.
Both of your customers bases are going to push you for tangible measurable results. What does this mean?
Well what is means is you need to collect more data. You need to collect more intelligence you need to begin to evaluate all of your offerings for a measurable return.

Example if I buy a snickers, if I like it enough I will buy another one. If I buy your event and I like the satisfaction results I will also buy it again. This all goes to all of the other groups involved in events as well.

We need to become very pro-active in the way we gather data and I would suggest that we begin to understand and collect metrics on who our attendees buy products from and create a measuring stick going forward to continue to track this metric. This proves true ROI also you should look at collecting data from your attendees on their search process from every show they attend and collect that data to measure performance of the product and long-term ROI.

Exhibitors will give you the numbers that they want to hear. You need to collect more data then they are offering. Also in creating demand you need to understand your attendees wants and needs and their justification for attending an event. What is their take-away.  Also work with your base and see how they can help you get a better understanding of their needs from a attendee and exhibitor standpoint.

You might be surprised by the results and the direction the overall group gives you and the good part is they are going to give you the data you need for creating demand.

Hope all is well in your industry sector and look forward to you continuing to read this blog. Just like everything I mentioned above I need to see how a I can create demand for this blog and what topics and information people want to talk about. If I do this hopefully we can have a very engaging blog for the industry.

Do we chase the dollars or the customer/prospects ?

What a loaded question. Do we chase the dollars or the customers? Heck everyone is going to say the ?
Customers should be the answer but in reality do we chase the dollars. Now let me please clarify because I don't want to let any exhibitors off the hook and let's them assume they chase the customers.

Ok, yes some would say they are one in the same. Chasing the customers/prospects leads to dollars. Alright so were chasing dollars that is what everyone would like to believe that is anti-shows. Now everyone that is pro-show would like to say we are chasing customers. I hope so anyway.

Again if we look at in reality whether we are a vendor, show management, exhibitor or attendee we are all chasing dollars. Now I  would be glad to be corrected and be told that in the capitalist society we all live in that our primary purpose is not chasing the dollar chain.

So if that is the case then you say why is he even writing about chasing dollars, is he just trying to call us out and get us to admit were all in the game for the Revenue word.  No we all learned early in math classes about being positive in our numbers vs. negative. There is also a reason that debits and credits accounting is taught in high schools so you understand accounts receivable and payable. There is also a reason at a very young age we are all taught to understand currency and basic mathematics.  Now we all have went on to understand the higher standards of math as well. The reality is if you know basic math, division, multipliers etc. you are on your way to understanding the science of math. Again I have said this in previous blogs, math and numbers are they key to everything. Everyone I talk to I tell them numbers will provide you the answer to every problem. Scientist use numbers, doctors use numbers, theorists use numbers, generals and business use numbers as well.

Ok, so I bored you with Decartes, and Nietchie (sp) in reference to math. So let' s get back to the basics of the world of dollars or customers. I'm sorry I will touch on one more currency subject. Every empire that has desired to grow has done so based upon currency. Think about it all of the way back to biblical times. It's interesting if you look at history as well. How many conquerors would say they expanded their empire to expand their customer base? Not alot I suspect. How many of those conquerors and invaders can say they have had long term success based on that model. Most of the empires have disappeared or been engulfed by a new conqueror..

What does this have to do with the event business? Thanks for the historical but really come on does this have any value to my business?

Yes and Yes. See what is their meaning the conquering group or invader sustainability factor. Are they still in business, do they still control the world? Do they still control the currency of trade? Every group in history has been toppled in some form in their search for the holy grail of currency.

Now what if I was looking to expand my empire of customers? If I focused on the customer and not the dollars I could extract could I make more dollars. Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying events, exhibitors, vendors, or attendees are in all it for the almighty currency. I'm saying that if we focus on the customer first and deliver a product that our customers can benefit from that will lead them to better serve their customer than have we not achieved the dollars and not put our house in jeopardy by only going after the money?

My point is focus on the customers, not the currency. If you deliver them a product that enables them to benefit and serve their customers with a product that helps them pay it forward to their customers than have you not won and found the "holy grail" I say yes.

Serving the customer base is key to our survival. That is what will ensure that we don't become victims of extinction because we have taken the steps and understand that the customer base that we have if served correctly will lead to new customers.

We want as many customers as we can have that fit our business model. We want them to be succesful based upon our offerings and if we do we are creating a sustainable program. This is critical to our survival and growth and should not be short-changed.

Give this some thought dollars or customers? I bet and hope you will decide customers because if you serve them correctly the currency will not be a problem.

Again thank you for reading the blog,  I'm sorry for any typos or lack of a plan on this blog. I'm doing this to engage a group and really just put my random thoughts out there and engage or as I say facilitate a response.

Thanks again for reading and best of luck with your business.

Going Vertical Or Horizontal

Shows over the years have grown differently depending on the cycle. Some are very horizontal serving multiple sectors within their event. Others have had success in concentrating on vertical segment with more concentrated products, education, and networking programs.

Both have grown and some tend to do better during different economic swings. Now both vertical and horizontal are faced with some new competition online for marketing dollars. Now another question enters the online world is is better to horizontal or vertical. Can a tradeshow that has been very horizontal get more vertical in a f2f event. Also can they get more vertical in their online offerings? This all remains to be seen.

What's also interesting is the number of niche/vertical events that are trying to survive via co-location or horizontal expansion. So you have the horizontal and the vertical events heading to the railroad crossing at the same time. Now the question is who can better serve the marketplace? There is no easy answer to that question as it comes down to who is delivering the most effective ROI opportunity to engage the correct attendee customers.

Vertical is like pursuing your advanced degree in IT for example. Now you are no longer in the mix with the liberal arts people but you are networking with your advanced peers. So does the horizontal program deliver the advanced professionals. If you believe this to be correct. Let's assume the vertical is event that delivers the customer program, the earned credit program, the collegial feeling of higher education and networking. The horizontal is more mainstream connecting the nuts and bolts of the complete buying chain. But not quite a boutique feel. The vertical program give them the feeling they are not an after thought and this is the place where they belong, and they can just focus on their part of the puzzle. But in reality the puzzle requires hundreds of parts and a variety of people to deliver the attendees product to their buying chain.

Obviously vertical events do their job but in a economy pressed for justification for travel dollars will the decision-makers get a approval to attend a vertical event that is not in their backyard. Yes and No. The question than becomes can the horizontal program become vertical enough and develop vertical touch-points to serve these niche sectors, or decision-makers that are part of their overall concepts. Yes and No. They can if the buy into the necessity that these sectors needs to be addressed and enough ROI can be generated to justify the investment in energy, resources and allocation of facilities.

Obviously both vertical an horizontal can grow organically to the sector of their choice in my opinion. The question is how many of them want to do it and how many of them know how to do it? Also how many of them are willing to not-re-invent the wheel and find partners to service this sector in conjunction with their events. Next will they stay committed to it as things continue to move forward and not lose sight of the end goal which is attendee and exhibitor satisfaction.

This is what makes it all interesting. I don't want to take a side on this question as it isn't me that would be the one that determines which way is best however your customer base will make a decision for you depending on what decisions you make in reference to the pendulum swing of niche, horizontal vertical organic growth.

Both schools of thought will bring value and both have their place in the event business. However when times are challenged by economic decisions. Sometimes the plan is altered and where you didn't see a competitor you know have one. Now this is in reality is just not for the event business if you think about it your customers meaning exhibitors and attendees could be facing the vertical horizontal question as well for their business plan.
Thanks for reading and I hope you will encourage others to do so as well.

Exhibit Sales

Exhibit sales and the process is always going to be different with every company. I alway wonder how much up selling is still going on today. Well the company has been in the show for x amount of years and they always take a 20x20. They bring x part of their portfolio of products and they get y amount of leads.

So I'm sure alot of people just go with the flow and keep plotting the company in there for a 20x20 every show run. Or a 10x10 every show run. Now part of our job is to understand the exhibitors needs. Now don't get me wrong the size space they are taking may make perfect sense.

But let's consider a new approach to this let's look at what your exhibitors have been generating over the last three shows in leads if you can extract that information from your registration company.
Let's look at how they are setting up their booth how they are manning it, how much they have in the display area and whether it's crowded. Next let's look at what they are showcasing as their hook to get people into their booth. What is the product pitch. Next let's look at what product they say the have but they are not bringing to the show and may be missing out on the opportunity to use the hook to sell the other products.

Now they don't have the products there at the show so it may make it fairly difficult to close sale on something people cannot demo.
Consultative exhibit sales let's talk to them about their offerings their display and their leads and determine maybe how show management can assist them in making the show better. Now this could in turn lead to a slight upgrade in their booth space. Maybe not. But at least your explaning some options to them instead of just taking the standard sale.

Now don't get me wrong it's nice to see that application come in every year for x amount of the same space.
However because we are not being communicative with them, we are losing out on a potential opportunity.
So how much time do we have to talk to our exhibitors, well we should have all of the time in the world. We get the application in and you know we should call them and have a discussion, or better yet have one before they send in the application so you can discuss some options. Again get a feel for their current and future needs. This I believe will lead to some upgrade sales for your company.

Now what about the person that downsized well let's give them a call also before we just run the app thru and book em into their space. There is a need for this call, to gather some intelligence on why this happened and via discussions you may find a way to keep them in original size space before the downsize because you found out during the discussion that maybe if they had a spot in an area that better compliments them, this may enable to stay in a certain size space. Also during that process you can discuss how their company and products are going to be promoted and again maybe talked to them about their boothmanship and display.

What alot of this comes down to is pure conversations, let's have them with our customers. Let's engage and gather information. This gets back to an earlier blog as well, have an understand on what size space they are taking in other shows and evaluate if they are taking bigger space in that event, why are they not taking the same space in your event.
Again gather and collect information this will give you an advantage on helping your exhibitor customer succeed within your tradeshow platform.
Also relationship sales, it's good to work on that process. You will find that will go along ways if they have a relationship with you and trust your committment to making the show better for their company.

There is much more that can be added to this blog and I look forward to comments and suggestions on this topic and more as I'm sure there are plenty of you that have some great ideas, that you would be willing to share.

Sales Data Management

How well do you know your customers? How much information do you have on their marketing expenditures? How much information do you have on their target market?

I'm sure some events are knocking it out of the ball park with all of the data they collect.
However data is only as good as the collection process.

Let's look at the dollars and where are they being spent. Now if your doing your business correctly you have a good understanding of what media vehicles your exhibitor customers are using. Now can you get to the exact dollar on how much they are spending in trade pubs, online, private events, direct mail, data collection, list managment, social media, tv, radio, other events, your event etc.

No you may never be able to get to the exact dollar but you can get close. Now I may have to much big brother in me and I may believe in over collection of data. Whenever people say well you want to collect this data, but how are you going to use it? I may not always have the exact answer at that time. However data is there to be extracted when you need it. If you never collect it you will never know.

I believe we need to know where our customers are spending their money on marketing. We are a marketing vehicle. Now we also may not know how much of that marketing money is going to exhibit costs such as drayage, travel, food, entertainment etc. I know that it will be hard to get to an exact science on these numbers. However it's important that we get as close to these numbers as possible.

Ok, so if they exhibit at your show. We need to track as much as we can what it costs for them to exhibit at our event. Next we need to track where else they exhibit and come to some conclusion on how much they are spending on these events. Media spending, we need to track their advertisments, believe me I think it will be beneficial in the long term to have an understanding ofwhere they are spending their money.

I would track every show they exhibit in. I would track every month they advertising in a magazine by magazine. I would search the media online and see where they are buying online ads, banners etc. I also would track their co-programs with other exhibitors, individual open houses, e-promotions and more.

The point is we need to understand the money flow and where it's going and why.
Also we need to look for patterns to see if marketing dollars are decreasing in certain areas.
Example exhibit space. Have they been making decreases in your event but expansion in others.
Increasing ads in one pub, but getting out of another completely.
Are they spending more or less on sponsorships? Are they doing more or less direct mail? (Get on their lists for direct mail, you or someone should be on every exhibitor or media promotion lists. Also as a sidebar understand what they are pushing in these messages.

Also know which associations they belong to and how they are supporting them, and if they are opting out of them. Follow the money trail. Believe it or not if you put this information in play it will help you gather a better understanding of what is working or not working for your customer.

Track it by year and be able to see how the money is flowing or not flowing into various marketplaces.
They would be surprised to know that you are paying attention. Like I saw your banner at x or your ad in y.

These companies that are your exhibitor will make shifts you marketing allocation. If you have an understanding of where the money is going you may be able to position them into an opportunity to succeed at your event f2f or online with your website. Again I believe this data collection is important.
If you see them downsizing or stop exhibiting at shows these metrics in place may give you and idea why. Don't get me wrong you still need to speak to them you still need to understand what budget funds what. By gathering this information which many may do, which I doubt will give you the intelligence you need to offer a superior product based upon your exhibitor customers needs.

Well your saying that is alot of work to track their space at each show they exhibit at or there is information you just cannot gather, or your sales people just don't have the time to collect such data. Well you know what your losing out in the possible understanding of your customer and where the money flows. You need to make sure someone is doing. Heck right now it's vital as every dollar is being scrutinized.

This data collection may keep you ahead of the curve and provide your group a vehicle a tool to keep them from downsizing on you or spending less in your sponsorships or marketing ops programs.

Give it some thought You might find it works and is worth the time.

Good luck remember everything comes down to numbers and there is nothing better than good data collection and good information gathered personally or thru these means.

F2F exhibit sales

F2f exhibit sales. How much of this is still done in today's environment? I don't know I'm sure it varies from group to group and how much focus they put on the importance of the f2f.

Is it less expensive to email our customers or send them a direct mail piece or just have everyone go to our website and choose the space, pay for it and never have any communication with your sales staff? Sure but how effective is it in the long-term to not have any face time with your customer base unless you count seeing them at another show when they would rather be selling their products than listening to your pitch. Yes you need to be at the show that they exhibit in that are not your's don't get me wrong but how many people will say this is the only time you get f2f with your exhibitor customer execept at your event.

Now let's be honest, an email is quicker than a phone call. You can still hold out hope that the answer is yes and less painful than a sales call where the answer could be no. Or you need to work to close the exhibitor who all of the sudden has become reluctant of your products.

The fact is we think we cannot get f2f with every customer in a show cycle. The fact is you should have enough staff to make sure you at a min. talk to every exhibitor at your show and also at any events you attend where they are. Even if its' a quick handshake and hello you need to do.

Next the phone call needs to happen. If you want to understand their business and how your business model fits in with their marketing plan you need to communicate with your exhibitor customer. You need to do this not only to go for the sale, but also to provide customer service, and gather marketing intelligence on how you can best serve their needs and other customers that are similar. Also making this contact via phone or in person will aid you as they provide you with information that could possibly make your event stronger not only for them in particular but overall as well.

Do not ignore the gathering intelligence factor it's huge to serving your exhibitor base and your attendee base. They are out in the field working the industry they have information that is esssential to your event. Now they need to practice the f2f as well or at least the phone call the email program will not deliver all of your results even if it comes from them.

Now people sometimes forget the basic mechanics of the sales are still in place. Always be closing if your not they are. Probe, Probe, rebut and keep moving the rebuttal probe pendulum in your favor . Now what has changes we all have alot more information and data the question is who has more data and who will win the data, metrics, value proposition, ROI, ROO battle.
Well the answer will come in who has the most to gain and the most pain if they lose out on the opportunity.
Remember the word I will continue to use in my blogs, facilitate in this case the proposition.

Also keep in mind we are not selling a table, a chair, a computer, a suitcase, we are conducting a intangible sales proposition. Now believe it or not, not everyone can sell a computer and alot of people cannot present a intangible sales proposition.
Why do you say? Well you need to mix ideas, vision, fact and fiction and combine that into the perfect ambience of buzz and sales reality potential. You cannot close anything for anyone you can only put them in position like a coach. Be here and work on the fundmentals to make the play.

Now there are a series of steps in the sale process and I will think of the best way to try to do a blog on the rebuttal, probe, close and extension.

We all have an approach but my guess is everyone's team could use some reinforcement training. You know what it's hard out there but pitch the possibility and you are heading in the correct direction.
Now also please understand not everyone is made out for sales and some can be trained and others it may never work. However they need to find the game that works for them.

Also look at your sales team and ask how is their knowledge of the numbers. Now I don't just mean the reading the exhibitor manual how about the marketing data and stats, how is there rap for that? I bet not as good as you like, also I bet they don't come back and ask for more data if they don't have it.

Also this is for another day as well, but depending on your size of staff consider this. Give all of your staff enough information and real-time action to play in multiple fields within your organization. You may find your soon to best salesperson is not even in sales and your best sales person may become your best ops person.

Good luck and always remember someone is closing everyday.

360 Vision

It used to be good to have normal vision, then it was about good peripheral vision. Now it seems like you have to be 360.

Now what does 360 vision mean? Well we need to to envision and understand everything around us. We need to know what other events are doing. We need to know what our customer groups are doing. We need to understand all of their businesses.

We need to interact with the media, trade associations, other event within the industry sectors we address. We need to understand our vendors, what they can do and what they cannot do.

We need to understand the destination and all of groups that we will need to work with to ensure our events are sucessful.

360 vision also means we need to understand the global impacts of economies on our business, know trends, and understand how our events can be integral to all of these happenies.

We need to understand our fellow-coworkers and what their abilities are and limitations. We need to have a vision of this new hybrid world that is online and offline and how these new mediums will integrate with our f2f programs.

Next we need to be aware outside the sectors we serve whether they are ancillary to our core or if they are just events that are having great event years because they found some of magical gold dust.

Now can anyone person be 360 probably not, but it's good if you try to have a good grasp of everything that is happening around your epicenter.

It will take a team, operations, marketing, sales, development, support staff and industry connections to allow you to be 360 in vision when you may have only eyes for a 180.

The pace of the 360 world is rapid and if you don't stay on top of it your going to feel like you got hit by a bus as the tires begin to come off your firm grip of your events.

Association, make a list of all of them you work with put into your outlook once a month to look at their websites and get a feel for what they are doing. Engage them in conversation every two months. Media/trade pubs, look at their sites more frequently and engage them as well either via email or phone call to get a good pulse. Meet with your ad reps they are in the field gathering information that can be valuable to you.

Have you and your staff pick 20 events to lock in and see what they are doing. Sign-up for the shows get on their promotional lists. It will give you some good insight to what may work for them and might work with you.

Build a networking list of your peers and have your staff do the same with a good mix of marketing, ops, sales, etc. This group will become a good resource for you to view.
Go to other events when they are in your city, it never hurts to gather more information that could be helpful to you.
Give vendors a chance to pitch you, you may not buy from them but you will see what they have to offer. Now I'm not telling you to go into full RFP status but engage them.

Also get involved with a little R&D with your vendors help them build better solutions for your events.

Read the pubs for our business, get online in the communities that effect for your business.
Call your customers exhibitors and attendees, conduct some market research all of the above will move you from peripheral to to 360.

Also consider a smart if you don't have one, it will keep you up to date and get on the google alerts for information that you think will matter to you.

Understand data minining, metrics, hybrid, horizontal, vertical, purls, social media, f2f, electronic promotion, direct mail, pr, ops, logistics, ROI, ROO, cost value, added value.

Theres alot we need to know but some of it's fun.

How do we keep making it interesting for our customers?

I remember when I started in this business in 1992. I responded to a 6 month temporary ad. I hardly knew what a tradeshow even was at the time. My version of this was a county or state fair.

Which is quite a gathering of networking when you think of it. It's also probably one of the oldest forms of face to face.

Now talk about starting a job where you first know very little if anything about expos, next you are in charge of launching a new show within show for the Graphic arts/prepress industry sectors.

I had one good thing going for me phone skills I had learned running a telemarketing company during college. This was essential, because I was not scared to make a call, I had no problem with people's objections and I knew how to get thru the gatekeepers.

The guys I work for were former boxing promoters, and concert promoters and they would always say you were only as good as your last event. Well they were partially correct as you are guaged very heavily on your last event. The success of the event for your customers is essential to your events survival.

Now does that require Colin Powell type speakers or killer parties to make that event great. No it requires that the people had a good experience at your event.

They had a great time in the evening enjoying the destination, they had a great time networking with their peers, they had a great experience learning from fellow professionals at the educational conference, and they met with leaders who had products, ideas and solutions to make their jobs more productive and their company's business more successful.

Now all of these items are important, for sure. That address one side of ball. The other side is that the exhibitors enjoyed the destination, were happy with the crowds and the leads and met with people who had a genuine interest in their products. Also people that would eventually buy their products.

Now was the cost of shows anymore expensive than then now. I don't know we would need to get one of those movie guys who calculate all of these equations to come up with the fact that Gone With the Wind is still the highest grossing film of all time in real time calculated dollars. Or whatever metrics they are using.

Things that need to come out of show for you to know that you hit a home run. People are excited leaving the show and have positive outlook on their take aways and how it will impact both our customers businesses. They also should feel a little bit of a let down like we do as show organizers when we pour our energy and emotions into this event. They should feel a little let down because the buzz and the adrenaline of the show was incredible enough that the only reason they wanted to go home is because of family, work and a desire close the sale or implement those ideas and products into their business. Well they could have been tired of eating, lack of sleep and other things as well.

The buzz was their the energy was their and an optimistic future presented itself to entire industry.

Now do we really have that power maybe not but isn't it cool that as we look at this current economy to know that tradeshows may be what brings us out of this recession, moves us from recovery into a thriving economic good will story.

How do we keep it interesting well we keep it engaging, we keep the networking flowing, we continue to move the pendulum of innovation and facilitate the needs of our customers to engage. We don't know where the gold is at the end of the rainbow but we do know there is a good chance that the rainbow gold is found at an event.

To keep it interesting we need to constantly be in search for the ways to put our attendees and exhibitors together. If it's at a bar so be it, on the tradeshow floor so be it, in the classroom well that's great as well. Ideas shared are goals achieved.

We need to motivate and push our exhibitors to push the envelope in creative ways to engage their customers and we need to push our attendees to think future, think outside the box and to be willing to engage in a conversation that at the mininum they will come away with something tangible they can use in their business.

If we continue to do this , throw in some buzz and whistles guess what we kept it interesting. You know what if we do that business will get done. Whether we do this online or offline we need to put people together this is what innovates the world, conversations, and idea sharing.

Whatever you do with your event make sure you keep it interesting and make sure you keep your customers networking. Numbers are great and we all love full halls, but what is most important is that business is getting done.

Taking the Dive into Social Media for Tradeshows

I've read so many books that relate to new ways of marketing. You can check me out on linkedin Jim Wulfekuhle and see the books I've read. I've shared them with others. On linkedin it asks if you want to make a recommendation I have not done so. I think like movies I like people to check it out themselves and come to their own conclusions.

Now not all of these books get into social media and not all of them will be relevant to your marketing engagement plans. Now there are alot of consultants out there that will advise you on how how to get into social media, starting groups, blogging, etc. I've talked to a few of them and the more I spoke to some of them, I came to the conclusion that for me really to understand it I didn't need a consultant I needed to my own research. I needed to get out there and play with it, test it and build it.

I went out and joined many groups, that I felt would cover some of my personal interest and others that would cover my professional interests. I started with linkedin, plaxo, xing and some others. I looked at the connections that everyone had, and saw the numbers continue to grow.

I'm said to myself ok I would like to get to 500 connections. Well I reached that goal and my connections are a very diverse group of people.

Next I said let me take these groups I've started and grow them. Right now I have some of the bigger groups for the industry sectors I'm trying to cover. Goal Accomplished? No. Now my goal is how to tap into these groups and get them involved. Get them discussing hot topics, challenges and provide solutions for one another.

I started a group called Exhibitons and Events Incubator Group. Were heading toward 300 members, I think it should be around 2,000. The challenge with the group is we have maybe 10 people that are openly engaging and many others watching. Now I know you will always have the watchers, but I'm like don't they have something on their mind they want to put out there. Now to me that means I've failed I've not found the holy grail to get them involved.

There is one group that I put out the question "What keeps you up late at night" I posed it in other groups as well but this one became a huge thread so much that they had to move into another discussion place. So it's finding the hearbeat of your group. You have to throw somethings out there to see what sticks.

Now I tend to be very methodical, I don't have a grand plan for discussion any more than I do for this blog. However I will say one thing about social media. You got to get out there to understand it. If you want to test it, test it on something you know about, join a group and engage after you watch for a while. Next step start your own group and try to build it. It doesn't need to be about your tradeshow or event. Next step do it for your event.

Now do you need to talk about when you had a glass of wine or that your sitting at starbucks. You make your choice. If it's what you want to talk about than go for it.

Now with social media you need to get a buy in from your company, your company's decision makers. It's hard to be out on the island by yourself. The buy in will more than likely not come easy. So you will need to get out there and provide some metrics, meaning member allocation with good titles and people that would fit your exhibitor or attendee profile.

Next be very open in social media. Being a trust agent is important. Be careful of selling as this is personal. Remember cell phones used to be the personal device. Social media is there as well. I want to control my space.

Now the powers that be will want to know how time is this going to take. I don't know, sometimes its quick, sometime it's longer there is no time limit. The key is I can do this day or night. Be willing to invest some personal time not to take away from your day duties.

Next how can we measure linkedin, twitter, facebook. Well the first time you will need to add communities to your registration form, use codes for discounted registration. This will give you an idea of who's out there.

Next realize your not going to get everyone to the event, but social media gives you viral access, which is huge. Look what happens online when something goes viral. It's crazy. You need to monitor your show name, your name to see where it's being picked-up. Get on google alerts. You will be amazed at what is picked up online.

I've found speakers on social communities, and met some great new people online that led to some great conversation f2f. Now how can that be a bad thing.

Personally to reach so many people with a click of the mouse is amazing and I don't understand why any would not want to do it.

Introducing your event to those that have never come and getting viral testimonials from others telling others they need to go is priceless.

If I only added 100 people to attend an event I would be ok with it. Now if our event had another 1,000 checking it out online using hybrid tools that would be great as well. Hybrid now that is a blog for another day.

The best thing I can say is dive into it, you will be glad you did. Not only will you connect with people similar to yourself but you will find a new world of help from people you never knew existed. Next just think about your customers exhibitors and attendees who will also benefit by reaching those people that they never knew who are facing similar challenges. Nice story I think.

The other items is when you all meet f2f it's pretty cool how it all comes full circle.

You will see me say this in several posts or in groups. Facilitate, Facilitate, Facilitate. I want us all to see how we can facilitate ideas, and opportunities and networking online and offline.

Take the dive into social media, I think you will be glad you did.

Revenue Sales Teams for 2010 and Beyond

What happened to the good old days? Are they gone? Will they come back?

It's kind of like the stories you hear from those that start with you remember when?
Those stories are always good to hear and used to open some eyes and cause some chuckles depending on the story. However as we have become entrenched in this global economy that is making every go from watching every dollar they spend to scrutinizing every penny they spend.
Now don't get me wrong we all should look at expenses no matter what business we are in. What happened to the old phrase that has survived the test of time "You need to spend money to make money ?" Is it gone or misplace or forgotten or are the people that say you remember when not including it in their old wise tales.

Now don't anyone go crazy when I say, Do you remember when you would just say here are the dates of the show or I'm starting a show and usually you x amount of exhibitors that were ready to get on the bandwagon. You had x amount of attendees that would come to the show. Yes I know it wasn't that simple, many people would say well we had great marketing, fantastic tag lines, a great sales team, we were fundamentally sound from a-z and had our moment in the sun.

I'm sure many of us long for the day of tradeshow nirvana and all wonder what happened to all of that good karma.

Let's look at how we were selling before and how we should be selling in the future?
In the past we would pick-up the phone? Send a piece of mail, go visit prospects at other shows and close them at our events, while the iron was hot.
Now we still do many of these things and they are all vital. But sometimes we rely to much on email, to much on mail and lack the f2f that we all promote for our business to use for our closures.
Now what happened to the relationship sales techniques, the consultative sales, the r&d sales?
R&D sales what is it. Well it's when we probe our customers for information on where they spend their money, where they achieve ROI, find out their pain and come up with a way to turn their pain into joy.
Consultative Sales: What is it, more importantly what happened to it. It's in my opinion so vital to everything we do. We are supposed to marketers in this business, promoters, facilitators?
Our exhibitors are busy, juggling multiple act, multi-tasking, assuming new duties every day. Also they are becoming more conservative in some ways, meaning they don't want to put their job on the line for your event.

Now what is their skill set? Who do they work with and report to in their organization? How do they market their products? How are they measuring the results? What mediums are they using? What obstacles are they facing in their sales & marketing plans? What is their budgets for x, y and z. If the person your dealing with has the brakes on find out where the objective is and get with that person or heck get the team on the line. Use a phone call, go to meeting, whatever it takes to close the deal. ABC always be closing. Someone is always making the close either them to nullify the sale or you to get the sale.

I could go on but above is some of the probing questions that need to be done. You need to probe the questions and provide the answers and have them visulize the opportunity you present.

Are we doing this? Most of us maybe ask one or two questions?
How is our follow-up, good, fair, poor, heck let's go for excellent.
Also when you get knocked out on the sale, do you ever go to another team member and say here is what I did? I didn't get the sale and suggestions?

How often does your sales team work on their skill set? How many of them have become inbound sales? What about outbound sales? Also how many of your sales team professionals understand all of the data collection that you have collected from your attendees?
Are you collecting enough information for consultative sales? If not ask these probing questions to get your metrics up to date for this new economy.

How about some competition? Does your sales team compete for anything? Give it some motivation? Now in this economy have you limited your sales teams earning potential? Everyone knows sales need some incentive?
Do you need to look at your current sales team and determine if they are the correct team for the new sales model.
Also do they understand online sales, do they get all of the metrics to f2f.

I have a lot of questions in the blog today and you should as well as you look at your Revenue potential.

Also before I forget please look at your offerings, banners, flages, column wraps, is that really effective ROI. Do you have anyway to measure it. I would rather spend 10,000 for something where you deliver people with names that I get to meet either online or offline.

Just some food for thought.

That's it for now.
Jim

Why are we slow to embrace Unconferences ?

It seems like such a no-brainer that their must be plenty of loopholes on why you don't see more Unconference tied into the marketing plans for tradeshows/events/conferences.
Is it the lack of control of the program? Is it that the ideas would be generated from our customer base of exhibitors attendees? Is their the fear of carpetbaggers jumping on the bandwagon to seize the opportunity at your events.
Is is the thought that their is no revenue in these Unconferences? Is there a concern these Unconference could upstate our own programs?

I'm not sure if any of these questions warrant the avoidance of embracing a new medium for us to provide value to our customers.

Now the question I have not asked how many people are even familiar with what a "Unconference" is? That could be the bigger question.

I will give a simple explanation and others are more than welcome to provide a deeper description or feel free to look it up on wikipedia.
An Unconference is a program that is put together by people that have a common interest and desire to meet and learn and network.
Topic could be "Effective Marketing Strategies for attendee promotion. Ok so I say here is the general topic. Next I spread the word using email and social media tools and heck even telephone calls to fellow marketing professionals. Next I say here is a general topic I think you could contribute to this as well and maybe you would like to discuss social media, another person public relations, another direct mail, another data mining. I think you get the idea of it. Next we schedule a meeting somewhere for all of us to gather.

We send out invivations, post it on our communities and get the viral movement going for a Unconference. Now let's say we get 10 people or 50 0r 100. The number doesn't matter as much as the topic and the facilitation of ideas in a networking f2f program.

Now take that idea and consider your a vendor to the tradeshow industry and you have marketing products. Well guess what you have your possible sponsor or sponsors. This will offset some costs hopefully and give these vendor an opportunity to reach their marketplace. It will also allow them an opportunity to access market intelligence for their products.
To me that sounds like an effective use of time.
Now consider you have show. Show closes at 4 or 5. Why not engage some thought leaders pre-show to engage in a "Unconference utilizing those meeting rooms that are not in use after the end of show. Or engage your hospitality partners in your city for a private room. As I've said in an earlier posts it's my belief that our job is to facilitate. So why not? Let's say you have network engineers and over 100 show up for this Unconference don't you think they could find a sponsor or two? I believe they would.

Now let's take this another step. We all go to other events in other cities for shows that may relate to ours. Why no re-engage your audience that will be attending that show that also attend your show to an "Unconference" they will see your group as a leader and they will appreciate the fact that you faciliated the event. What a great way to re-engage. Now you can do this anytime pre-show, during the show or post-show.

Unconference seems to make sense to me for all of us involved in the supply chain. The other interesting thing is why are registration companies, decorating companies, cities, cvb's, venues etc. not taking advantage of this new medium to engage their prospective and current customers.
Let's think outside the box and again facilitate some interaction that will lead to business and also allow you to gather market intelligence, while working with your customer base in a networking event.
Look forward to your thoughts.

Getting personal for tradeshows and events

I just read an article in the recent issue of Expo Magazine about getting personal with your attendee base.

Items that were mentioned in the article were variable print. Now variable print which is personalized message to your attendees has been around for at least 6 years or more.

I find that it was interested that is was being explored now by the Print Show. As a way to address 11 different industry sectors with 4 postcard directed to each sector.

The reality is why did the print industry show wait so long to introduce this technology to their promotional plan. Not sure but costs has a factor. Also the purls have become available and it make the campaign more interactive with a personal portal.

There are several vendors that establish personal portals for your attendees as well.

Next personal was a mascot. It got the some people interested and they will feel involved that they helped name a mascot for the cable show.

Twitter, facebook, linkedin, plaxo, xing, you name it they all have a place for our business of interaction.

Again as I said in an earlier post our job is to facilitate.

Now the question will be how to we as an industry continue the faciliation? This key to how we serve our customers.

Getting personal. Education at your conference, we need to engage both of our customer bases on giving them some say in the education they are looking for, that will allow them to overcome their business challenges or give them the future guidance for their business.

Again getting personal, how about personal emails to your customers? How about personal calls to your customers? How about f2f visits to their offices?

I like the getting personal idea, let's keep it moving along.

Tradeshow/Event thoughts

First day of starting a blog for the tradeshow and events industry.

The current economic times have put all in either a defensive mode or offensive mode.

Are those good positions to be in I don't believe either position is necessarily good for our long term growth. Now have these current economic times forced many of us to re-evaluate how we do business most definitely. However many of us should of saw some of the sea of change on the horizon before the current recession.

Some things are cyclical. In 1992 when I started in this industry everybody couldn't stop talking about audits. Now that is all of the rage. We should post accurate numbers of our attendance. Also it's important down the road track the audits of purchases at your show. This will require cooperation from you attendee base, yet this is one of the key ROI's you need to prove value to your exhibitor customers. ROI is not the first purchase but the continued purchase of products. Will exhibitors agree that the show get multiple sales credits doubtful. However if they stop exhibiting they could lose the sale to someone else down the road.

The value of the f2f is now questioned as well. So we are needing to utilize metrics to compare and contrast the cost for the exhibitors to reach x amount of customers vs. the tradeshow/event model. Now these are numbers and serve as a good measuring stick from CEIR and IAEE and PCMA etc. However these numbers can easily be tested and debated by your exhibitor base.

I believe if you have numbers that say one thing, there is a very good chance they have some numbers that say something else. Just watch politicians they make it seem like all of their numbers are correct even after they fail the litmus test of another study.

I believe everything in life no matter what you do relates to numbers. Numbers make up our DNA and our everyday life.

The question I believe we all need to be prepared to address is how we as tradeshow/events facilitate human interaction. Does it matter if it's f2f or online. I believe they need to be both however I look forward to hearing from you as well.