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I put similar question to Clarion Events’ managing director, James McGough who says:“ Since the pandemic, we’ ve seen notable increases in‘ Value for Money’ and‘ Criticality’ scores, largely due to exhibitors more fully achieving their objectives. Our continued focus on enhancing connections and delivering high-quality content across all event formats and digital environments has played a significant role. Additionally, the integration of better technology – including AI – has enabled more personalised and impactful experiences for our audiences.”
McGough also points out that, in today’ s economic environment, many exhibitors focused equally on upselling and new business, leading to good engagement with inviting existing customers.“ Organisers can come up against cost objectives, but these can be navigated with ticket incentives for qualified buyers and running VIP experience programmes – it’ s a win-win, bringing high-quality
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audiences to the floor. The cost per acquisition on an exhibitor’ s guest vs new attendees is also much lower so it’ s a smart investment to run these initiatives.”
McGough continues:“ Some exhibitors miss a key opportunity by not inviting existing customers – limiting upselling, loyalty-building, and industry positioning. Those who do typically see stronger pipelines, more deal flow, and greater brand profile.
“ When exhibitors actively promote their presence at shows and invite their customers, organisers benefit too. This shows up with improved scores for return on objectives( ROO), NPS scores, and stronger likelihood of return. It’ s up to organisers to clearly explain to exhibitors why inviting their customers isn’ t just valuable – it’ s essential to driving the best results.”
McGough adds:“ With more accessible insight data, we’ re better equipped to understand attendee needs and motivations. At Clarion,
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Above: Chart draws on all available exhibitor feedback data( post-pandemic) and evidences the advantages based on 3 core KPIs when exhibitors use trade shows to engage with existing customers. N. B. most exhibitors have multiple additional objectives. |
we have a clear mandate to be data-driven – listening to customer intent and designing our products to deliver real value. To operationalise this, we’ ve invested in initiatives such as exhibitor voucher schemes, hosted buyer programmes, VIP experiences and 365 membership offerings – all aimed at making it easier for exhibitors to invite and engage key customers.”
Brewster summarises:“ It is clear that one of the lasting impacts of the pandemic is the shift to remote and hybrid working – this means that so many sales teams are starved of critical facetime with existing customers. This has led to a huge opportunity for trade shows to offer an additional touchpoint for exhibitors to meet with existing customers.
“ I hope this research gives organisers additional evidence to shift the status quo for those exhibitors that don’ t proactively invite existing customers to meet with them at key industry events.” EW
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www. exhibitionworld. co. uk |
Issue 4 2025 15 |