Roundtable
attended the webinar, we
were amazed to discover that
70% of them hadn’t done
anything in preparation for
the event.
“The exhibitor manual
is also a huge help but it’s
a hinderance too, and it’s
about how we feed them
information that’s really
relevant at a time they need
it.”
Measuring success
ways to engage with different
exhibitors across varying
generations dramatically
improves engagement. He
says: “One of the things
we are doing in our digital
teams and it is very much
for younger generations
we are dealing with, is that
our online chat and second
screen questions elicits a far
higher degree of engagement
and participation than the
old-fashioned approach.
“Even in the face to face
meetings we are finding
that if you have a screen
where you can type in your
question and that feeds
through to the stage, you
get a much higher level of
interaction because we’re
removing that whole self-
conscious feeling and people
are no longer afraid to ask a
question, no matter how silly
they think it is.”
Smith mirrors the general
sentiment around doing
more to engage millennials
on their ‘home turf’. She
says: “We recently did
a webinar event for the
exhibitors, mainly because
they were scattered around
the globe, and it’s the first
time we’ve done it for a
particular event. We had a
really good attendance as
there were 85 new exhibitors
at this event and we had
around 60 engaged within
the webinar. It was 45 mins
and it allowed us to get to
those exhibitors in their own
environment where they do
their planning. It’s where
they have their information
and we can get more from
them. Out of those that
Sealey believes an overhaul
on how we measure exhibitor
success is paramount: “We
love to do surveys and we
have a ton of data but I
honestly believe that we are
not truly turning that data
into real insights, which
doesn’t allow you to address
the right things in the long-
term. One of our key metrics
is Net Promoter Scores
(NPS) but even then, we’re
not looking at it in the right
way. I think a lot of the show
teams use it as a leading
indicator to decide what they
are going to do at the next
show.
“What I’m trying to do
with NPS is take it down
another level, so that we
are understanding and
seeing where there are
common themes, I think
in the long-term we move
away from NPS and look
at some sort of UX index
score. We can basically look
at six things like; were we
easy to do business with?
Did the quality of the show
meet your satisfaction? We
want try to find some sort
of algorithm that looks at
those things in combination,
so you get a more balanced
index score that you can
correlate to your revenue.”
365 engagement
Sealey continues: “The thing
that worries me the most
is that engagement only
seems to be over a three-four
month period leading up to
the show and then there’s
nothing, so how do you
maintain engagement across
the whole year, how do you
ensure that even if you’ve
done the rebooking? How
can you provide valuable
insight and information that
really helps to prepare that
exhibitor for the next time?
There’s no point in trying to
compare us to other event
businesses if you know
that the experience you’re
delivering isn’t where it
should be. It’s about trying to
understand where you really
need to aim for because each
event is different.”
What improvements can we
make to improve the exhibitor
experience?
Albert believes there
needs to be a fundamental
shift in attitude between
organisers and exhibitors.
He says: “The basics are on
an operational level and
everything else need to be
seamless. Utopia is where
our customers see as more
of a strategic support and we
add value. The exhibitors are
interested in how to book
and operationally get to the
show, it’s quite transactional.
I think that what we want is
our exhibitors to see beyond
this and for me this is a big
challenge in the industry.
“I think our customers see
us as one of many
December — 45