Posted by
Barry Siskind
UFI’s Community Manager
How much data is enough? It’s a question that many organisers have pondered every since the phrase “Big Data” became part of our lexicon.
Organisers have been successfully going about their business for longer than most other industries without the deluge of information that’s available today. Data driven decision making and intuition (what one might feel deep in their bones), may still be at loggerheads. Yet, it’s hard to argue with the power, if properly implemented, that analytics can bring to our organizations.
Recently the US based Center for Exhibition Industry Research published a report titled, “The Use of Analytics by Today’s Business to Business Exhibition Organizers.” There were five significant findings revealed in the study:
1. Most business-to-business exhibition organisers are using analytics.
What they found was that 68% of organisers polled are “engaging in, or will engage in data analytics within a year.”
2. Small data or big data.
The report found that most organisers’ data does not fit within the traditional definition of big data.
3. Size does not matter; Effective use of data does.
The report suggests that regardless of the volume of data, the same analytic principles are valid.
4. Exhibition organisers are in the early stages of using data.
This is probably not a startling revelation to many of us who still collect data using programs such as Excel or Access.
5. The most popular use of analytics by organisers.
Again no surprise. Organisers use analytics to help the attendee marketing and exhibitor sales efforts.
The reports produced by CEIR have always been incredibly helpful. The complete report on analytics can be found here:
I have recently conducted an interview with the outspoken Gerd Leonhard. He says: The digital transformation will never replace relationships. Algorithms are only an imitation of a relationship. They are not the real thing. This said: The digital transformation will transform any business. But in a way Rainier Evers has said: All our online activities follow one single goal: That we meet in the real world. Read the full interview with Gerd Leonhard in German language in Expodata magazine in July 2015.