Posted by
Barry Siskind
Community Manager
I recently participated in a meeting where we were reviewing a list of issues exhibitors raised in responding to a survey. At first I wasn’t all that surprised at the responses. They ranged from selecting a display to cost savings to R.O.I. What struck me was that 25 years ago, when I first joined this industry, I was hearing the same thing. Has nothing changed in the minds of the exhibitors?
Skip Cox, President of Exhibit Surveys suggested that the larger exhibitors had made a shift and were using their exhibition program to engage customer and potential customers in mutually beneficial problem solving. That made good sense to me, but, in terms of sheer numbers, the small to medium size exhibitors still look to their exhibition program to generate leads and make sales.
In a word where social media is breaking down barriers between buyer and seller and creating communities of like minded individuals, it would seem to me that the exhibition industry is on the verge of reinventing itself and its role in the marketing/sales/communication programs of corporations worldwide. Will the action of larger exhibitors be sufficient to open the eyes of the small and mid size exhibitors?
What role should organizers play?
Hello Barry,
allow me to comment on your message :
Better ROI and cost savings will always be on the agenda as long as the exhibitors (and the organisers) see an exhibition as a temporary event.
Whether the shift is made or not – finding leads and generating sales is the purpose of every marketing action !
In my opinion due to the internet and even more now with the introduction of social media in our industry an exhibition can be a permanent platform , where supply and demand find each other all year resulting in one or more peak moments per anum where buyers and suppliers meet and transform their contacts into life communication.
Organisers should embrase social media and create the surroundings and the means to make it happen all year thru – meaning that the organiser is the cathalysator – not only for the exhibition but for the whole of media that finally leads to the exhibition – the place where the protagonists meat face to face and arround the product itself.
Koen Bogaert
Publiganda nv
Belgium