We hear from many trade show organizers that their attendees are growing increasingly wary of exhibitor email blasts. Some have given up altogether and simply do not allow exhibitors to send any emails to the registered attendee list. Recent technological advances have given rise to a number of alternatives organizers are using that include social media mentions, listings in the trade show APP du jour and one-on-one meeting scheduling systems. The latter offers a lot of benefits for the attendee who knows who they want to see but also requires effort on the attendee’s part.
2014 February
I recently talked to a show organizer who provides lead retrieval to his exhibitors for free. He said they want to provide a higher value experience to the exhibitors. When I asked him how he does it, I expected to hear that he hires someone and covers the bill. I was shocked to hear that he handles the whole process on his own. He starts by printing all of the attendees’ contact information into a QR code on the badge. He said the technological side of printing the badges is not too difficult.
I read this last week from Laura Donovan, a social media expert at The Word Pro. I thought it was interesting and she said I could share it. Has anything like this ever happened to you on LinkedIn or Facebook? Why Your LinkedIn Posts Have Disappeared Last week, when my colleague posted to one of her groups on LinkedIn, the comment disappeared. Then she noticed that when she posted anything to any of her groups, nothing published. When she clicked on “Your Activity” under her picture in one of her groups, she found that her…
I just read this article on the TSNN website about their predictions for the top 10 event technology trends for 2014. What do you think? 1. Organizers will seek integrated solutions – As technology becomes more prominent within the event industry, customers will have higher expectations of the services that their suppliers provide, and seek integrated solutions for registration, online mapping, mobile apps and audience response. 2. Windows Phone will be the heir to BlackBerry – While many consumers are using iPhone and Android devices, corporate IT departments have been much slower to progress. This is partly because of…
I speak to a great many convention, expo and trade show organizers. A recurring theme of these conversations is the merit of sharing the registration list with exhibitors. Some do but most don’t and for good reason, which was explained to me yesterday by an individual that runs a number of conventions. In the past, they have always given away the attendee list to allow for exhibitor email marketing to the attendees. They trusted their exhibitors would use the list only once and this was the easiest way to allow them to send emails. Up…
When I first exhibited at a technology trade show in 1987 it was not uncommon for the show organizer to give exhibitors access to the attendee list to send direct mail to attendees before the show. In fact exhibitors without household names who did not use direct mail, use telemarketing or hire some expensive traffic builder to reach out to the registered attendees usually had disappointing results. Magicians, Harley Davidson drawings and the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders were big draws at the technology shows back then. Then came email and it opened up a whole new…