Making it count
When AIPC, ICCA and UFI sought to unite and identify areas of common interest for education and research, what they in effect set out to do is give us all a little of our time and energy back.
Agents of change
Antony Reeve-Crook, Director, ArciMedia Ltd. Well, we’ve got a new prime minister here in the UK; Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. He’s not to everyone’s taste, and in fairness he took the post on the votes of just over 92,000 eligible party voters (the general public having already had their say in which party to elect), but we’re hoping he’ll do a good job. It was also a surprise to nobody. Born to wealthy upper-middle class parents, a pupil at Eton then on to study classics at Oxford Uni [...]
Using Sponsorships in B2B Events
Stephanie Selesnick,International Trade Information, Inc. At Trade Show Executive’s Fastest 50 Summit and Awards last month, Larry Settembrini, Vice President ReedPOP spoke about bringing sponsorships to life in his session, “Selling B2B Sponsorships in a B2C World.“ Below are three of his ideas that stuck with me, along with my interpretation of how they may be used in business-to-business events. Consumerism is defined as B2B events adopting elements and creative inspiration from consumer e [...]
Turning JMIC’s research into an explosive campaign tool
Antony Reeve-Crook, Director, ArciMedia Ltd. The Joint Meetings Industry Council's recently-unveiled report on the benefits of our industry; Business Events Legacies, may prove to be a lot more significant than its title suggests – but it needs our help to give it the impact it deserves. The report’s authors from the University of Technology Sydney, associate professors Carmel Foley and Deborah Edwards, and Pavlina Javoska and Anja Hergesell, claim it reveals “significant” shortcomings in the [...]
Exhibitions Change Lives
Stephanie Selesnick, International Trade Information, Inc. At the recent EEAA (Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia) Leaders Forum in Melbourne, Australia Exhibitions Day, Timothy Collett, Managing Director of Specialised Events, a for-profit exhibition company, quoted a young person from his team discussing our industry. She said, “You don’t have to be a doctor to change people’s lives.” It got me thinking about the exhibitions industry and what we do at heart: Help forge lifelong [...]
Food and Beverage Will Be the New Emphasis of Convention and Exhibition Venues
Sponsored article by Shenzhen World. Nowadays, the old concept of “food that fills stomachs” no longer applies to today’s convention and exhibition F&B. Convention and exhibition catering was always mistakenly viewed as “window-catering”, meaning simple food, short gathering and dining time, high turnover rate. For most convention and exhibition venues, especially those who rely on exhibitions as their main business, F&B was not considered one of their core offerings; therefore, kitchen [...]
The Case for Investing in our Second- and Third-Year Exhibitors and Attendees
Stephanie Selesnick, International Trade Information, Inc. Many interesting facts came out of the UFI/Explori Exhibitor and Visitor Insights over the last couple of years, among them that the largest attrition for both exhibitors and visitors happens from years one to two and years two to three. (LINK: https://www.ufi.org/industry-resources/surveys-and-studies/) It costs significantly more to recruit both new attendees and exhibitors. So, what’s an organizer to do? Here are some suggestions. F [...]
The UFI Digital Debate in Tokyo: Digital Revolution in the Exhibition Industry
Gunnar Heinrich, CEO, adventics GmbH. At the high-profile UFI Asia-Pacific Conference in Tokyo, Stephan Forseilles, Tesi Baur and I had the pleasure to debate several controversial topics about the digital revolution in our exhibition industry. With the help of the audience which could vote in real time, we took a closer look at A.I., customer experience, digital talents and digitization in the exhibition industry. Here is a wrap-up of our discussion. 1. Will A.I. change our industry completel [...]
Making it look EASY
Antony Reeve-Crook, Director, ArciMedia Ltd. Eric Everard, CEO and founder of Belgium’s Easyfairs is a keynote speaker at this year’s UFI European Conference in Birmingham. Before he takes the stage I managed to catch up with him to find out if the company’s model continues unchanged, and to what he attributes the company’s success. Easyfairs operates in 20 countries, manages a portfolio of 218 fully owned events and ten venues. Its revenues and profits are derived roughly 80 per cent from its [...]
Organisers’ future in Russia: paved in silk?
Antony Reeve-Crook, Director, ArciMedia Ltd. Among the presentations at the upcoming UFI European Conference at the NEC in Birmingham, Thursday afternoon’s talk ‘Glocalisation 2: Russia – China - One Belt One Road (OBOR)’ is likely to raise eyebrows for some seeking to make in-roads in central Eurasia. The May event looks at ways and measures to benefit from the shifting trade patterns emerging as new alliances are being forged, which makes the debate between Eugen Alles, managing director of [...]