Posted by

Barry Siskind

Community Manager

Creating a meaningful attendee experience means looking at your fair with fresh eyes.

Many organizers offer packages to entice their attendees including a special pre-registration process, advance notification of changes or additions to the exhibition program or a matchmaking opportunity between attendees and exhibitors. These are all valid initiatives but I would like to suggest that as more fair organizers adopt similar initiatives, there is a growing need to “think out of the box,”  to find new ideas that will excite, stimulate and motivate visitors to continue  to register year after year.

Here are few ideas for your consideration:

  1. Lunch with an industry guru.  I saw this offered as a prize at an exhibitor’s booth. The prize was a private luncheon, in the corporate headquarters for ten lucky winners.  Consider adopting something similar by offering your visitors a chance to enter a draw to be one of five or ten visitors who have a chance to talk to one of your keynote speakers over lunch. I actually participated in a “Lunch with the Guru” as part of ExpoSystems in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The organizer set up a tent with a formal table setting where and a few select attendees had a chance to talk about their exhibiting concerns with me.  It worked well.  

 

  1. Hospitality is a key consideration in any good conference plan. Why not offer to have your early registrants entered into a draw for the naming rights to a hospitality area. Barry’s Café sounds good to me.

 

  1. You can offer the same naming rights for early registrants on each of your aisles. There is no reason your visitors need to go to aisle 1700, rather they can visit an exhibitor at  #3023  Paul Woodward Place.

 

I am sure there are countless ideas that can be incorporated into your conference plans that won’t add a financial burden, create a sense of community and encourage early registration.  What have you seen or heard that captured your attention?