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.
Then they instruct the exhibitors to download one of a few different free QR code scanning apps onto their smartphones. He says the apps can scan the QR codes, save the data and the exhibitors can export the contact information at the end of the show into an Excel file.
I am impressed that his organization took the initiative to do this on their own. I know from being in the lead retrieval business for over 10 years that exhibitors are very demanding when it comes to their leads (and rightfully so). Instructions, communication and technical support can be huge issues that are very time consuming onsite. The organizers are typically getting tugged in 10 different directions at their shows, so I give him a lot of credit for taking on the added responsibility of lead retrieval so that his exhibitors can save a few hundred bucks on a more traditional lead retrieval rental.
I would guess that most show organizers do not want to take on the extra burden of being responsible for lead retrieval, but maybe I’m wrong. If you are an organizer: Is this something you would be willing to do, or would you prefer to hire a registration/lead retrieval company to do this for you?
