Written by Alexandre Roty, Digital Director at MCH Group, and Member of the UFI Digital Innovation Working Group.
While it’s true that every industry has its own benchmarks, it could be argued that the retail industries are closely related to our own in the event industry. This is particularly evident when it comes to value creation, especially regarding high-traffic locations.
Understanding that our retail counterparts significantly outsize the event industry in terms of value — according to a report by Research and Markets, the global retail industry was valued at approximately $26.23 trillion in 2022*, while the global events industry reached $887 billion in the same year** — I believe we could consider and embrace the notion that their advancement may be attributed to the strategic use of technology in optimizing and maximizing attendee flow management.
This raises several interesting questions: Are there overlapping use cases between our industries? Which existing retail technologies could benefit the event industry, and which ones could we adapt to address our unique challenges?
Let’s check it out.
Master the Omnichannel Experience
Although you may not be a retail professional, you can likely articulate the ideal outcome for a retailer — regardless of location or channel, a customer purchase — and for a customer — a satisfying experience acquiring an item.
Let’s apply similar thinking to B2B events. What is an exhibitor’s perfect outcome? Is it swag giveaway? (Be honest, how many branded pens or keychains are cluttering your office desk right now?) You get my point. The real goal for exhibitors is quality leads. For attendees, it’s access to valuable knowledge and insights, complemented by engaging and exclusive content. So, if we follow retailers’ omnichannel lead, it shouldn’t matter where, when, or how attendees achieve their perfect outcome.
AI-enabled technology currently allows retailers to give customers multiple ways to receive their purchase, including mobile pick-up. Their email and SMS communications are tailored in real-time to locations, deals, and shopping behavior. Some event and conference organizers have noticed and upgraded their app capabilities to match this convenience and communication model, but quicker adoption would greatly benefit both exhibitors and attendees.
Unlock Attendee Insights
Sensors are ubiquitous in brick-and-mortar retail. If you’ve recently been grocery shopping, you may have noticed large totem screens displaying eerily relevant advertising. How do they achieve this? These totems are equipped with sensors that identify basic demographics within a certain radius, allowing them to determine gender and estimate age groups for more targeted advertising.
In contrast, the use of sensors in events is often limited to visitor flow analysis and heatmaps. While knowing who does what and where is ideal, dedicated tracking technologies face resistance from exhibitors if badge scans yield similar data. However, advanced solutions like Zenus now offer anonymous tracking that provides rich insights into visitor behavior—including stop rate, gender, dwell time, age group, and sentiment—without legal complications.
This technology not only delivers valuable insights into attendee movement patterns but also facilitates transparent communication with exhibitors about high-traffic areas. This data empowers sales teams to maximize the value of event spaces, and exhibitor organizer’s proof of concept on ROI.
Make It Searchable
As noted by Tobias Thygs, Head of Retail and Experiences at ExpoMobilia, “There is something good that retailers manage to do, whether online or offline: product and service search. We have all visited a store—or browsed an online shop—where we could search for extremely specific products using tailored filters.”
Offering advanced search capabilities on and off event would smoother and ease the consumer journey. Some events do offer search capabilities, typically through their online platforms, but we can envision a more granular approach—both online and via touchscreens in venues—that enables us to retrieve a wider array of products and services, ultimately benefiting our attendees through increased efficiency.
By adopting such strategies, we can enhance the search experience for attendees, making it easier for them to find what they need and improving overall satisfaction at our events.
Keep It Smooth
There is a recurring challenge for organizers regarding services offered on the show floor during events due to workforce shortages. Among the top services attendees expect us to provide is catering. While we cannot replace a delicious meal or a skilled chef with technology, we can create custom, intuitive experiences that generate frictionless interactions. Remember Amazon Go? Although it struggled to deliver on its promise—likely due to being ahead of its time—AI-supported and sensor technology has matured significantly since then, with Portuguese startup Sensei leading the charge.
Imagine “Food Corners” with no queues and no scanning, allowing attendees to enjoy meals with less friction and greater efficiency. By adopting a cashierless shopping experience, we can enhance service at our events, ensuring that attendees can focus on what truly matters: enjoying their time and making meaningful connections.
Look After Your Data
While the importance of data is widely recognized in the event industry as a key business driver, organizations vary in their maturity regarding execution. Some are already adept at generating and utilizing customer and marketing data—just look at the 2024 UFI Digital Innovation Award Winner. For those still progressing toward this goal, analyzing successful retailers can provide valuable insights: they maximize and optimize their data collection points, leveraging online behavior, heatmaps, customer service insights, loyalty cards, surveys, and feedback. This approach enables them to amass vast amounts of data for comprehensive customer profiling—and that knowledge is power.
For non-tech-savvy organizations, navigating the tech stack for data management can be daunting. However, by prioritizing the maximization of data collection points, the rest will naturally follow.
There is much to learn from the retail industry, especially considering its size compared to the event industry. However, we can draw inspiration from another aspect, as stated by Liz Rodriguez, Creative Director at MC2 USA: “There is something that the retail industry does very well—they test. They do a lot of testing when it comes to marketing, customer journeys, and so on, while the event industry is a bit shyer about trying new things or technologies.”
While many organizers focus on delivering operational excellence, we could gain valuable insights from our retail colleagues by testing more client-centric solutions driven by technology.
Alexandre Roty – Digital Director at MCH Group – Let’s connect on LinkedIn!
Sources
*Research and Markets. “Global Retail Industry Report 2022: Market is Expected to Reach $30.03 Trillion by 2026.” PR Newswire, 10 Nov 2022, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-retail-industry-report-2022-market-is-expected-to-reach-30-03-trillion-by-2026-301673462.html
**Research and Markets. “Global Events Industry (2022 to 2027) – Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecasts.” PR Newswire, 29 Sep 2022, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-events-industry-2022-to-2027—industry-trends-share-size-growth-opportunity-and-forecasts-301636097.html
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