Roundtable
“Our exhibitor day runs in
June and we ask Freeman to
come along and help design
stands and put together
packages for our customers.
It’s about 50% marketing,
50% operational, and we see
a direct correlation between
the people that come to
our exhibitor day and the
ones that do well, and they
all rebooked on site. We
also have stand awards to
encourage our customers to
build better stands and we
present them with an award
during the show.”
Albert believes bringing
everyone together in one
place can have a huge impact
on outcomes: “Exhibitors
that attend our training days
can also organise special
discounts from suppliers and
we also push our customers
to promote the event to
their customers as this is a
huge area. We also get the
press along to these days
so they can talk about their
products. We have a really
good turn out, we get about
80 exhibitors out of 300 turn
42 — December
up, with amazing feedback.
“By the time they are at
the show we generally don’t
have any issues because
we do much of the work in
advance. Of course, this has
a great impact on our rebook
at about 70%, despite the
event being two years away.
Post event, everyone gets a
review call or face-to-face
meeting to review their
objectives and find out how
they got on. Having a contact
strategy is really important,
ensuring that the right
people are connected across
the organisations.”
Change how we communicate
Freeman EMEA head of
customer experience Angela
Smith sees a change in the
way exhibitors want and
choose to communicate.
She says: “We are definitely
seeing a shift in contact
plans with exhibitor plans
being more personalised to
fit in with their timescales
and not just everyone fitting
in when the exhibitor manual
goes live four months out
from the show. For us at
Freeman, It’s about 365-day
contact now. We might go
live with the manual as part
of phase one at our end but
in the mind of the exhibitor
who rebooked a year ago,
that was phase one and they
are now on phase four or five.
“So how do you match your
plan with their planning
stages? For me it’s about
understanding this and
where those exhibitors are
in their journey and we
need to match the right
level of communication
at the right time. They
are all at different stages
in the process and now
more than ever, exhibitors
need a more personalised
approach. What we want
to do is understand what
they want out of the event
experience and maximise on
this, and that’s a big piece
of work we’ve been doing
with our exhibitor team.”
Farnborough International
venue director, Michael
Watton, explains that venues
also play an important
part in the journey: “The
one thing that strikes
me is the amount of risk
organisers have through
so many different agencies
that everyone uses. Where
I think venues come in is
trying to make it as smooth
as it can be. The first person
an exhibitor may meet is
someone at the venue and
we want to ensure that they
arrive or leave in the right
frame of mind. There are a
lot of complicated parts to
the jigsaw, but we all play
a part in improving the
experience. I think exhibitor
days, particularly at the
venues where they’ll be
exhibiting can dramatically
improve the experience and
help exhibitors imagine
where they will be in a few
months.”
Smart ways to engage
Freeman EMEA MD Chris
Preston explained that
finding more comfortable,
convenient and clever