Roundtable
What’s the solution?
Reed Exhibitions, campaigns
manager, Cristina
Nedea explains that the
responsibility for getting
lead retrieval right lies with
the organisers. She said:
“We are the ones selling the
product to the exhibitors and
we can’t just sell a big dream
with no instructions on how
to get the best out of their
show experience. We have a
responsibility to educate our
customers. I think the whole
industry needs to work
together to improve this as
we have customers that may
do well with us but then
have a disastrous event with
another organiser and this
effects all of us.”
Sealy explained that
customers have to have
a seamless and simple
experience. “Our customers
have to have an easy way to
interact with our company
and should be able to access
information how and when
they want it. There is a need
to train and educate our
exhibitors and help them to
use the technology to get the
best out of it.”
Borcea believes that
companies need to ensure
that their lead capture
software is compatible with
their own. He said: If 5,000
sellers go to 10 events and at
each event they have to deal
with a different interface or
system, the feedback we are
going to get as organisers is
that we don’t want to go to
that event. We try to explore
with event organisers the
possibility of API integration
with our own lead capture
tool.”
GES head of marketing,
Amy Jordan explains that the
42 — January
“Recognising a shift in demand by generations
can’t be underestimated. As data-driven
millennials rise up to VP and CMO level roles”
key is partnerships. She said:
“It’s all about partnerships
and at GES we are starting
to build in touch points into
the stands and we looking at
different ways visitors can
interact with exhibitors. It’s
important that exhibitors
realise there are other
options and it is very much
an education piece. I know
from working at Easyfairs
that marketing talk to the
exhibitors and ensure that
they are using Visit (lead
software) and they explain
all the options available to
them and walk them through
the process.”
Nedea says exhibitors
don’t need to speak to an
organisation, they need
human interaction. “They
need someone to hold their
hand and help them cross the
road.”
Conclusion
It’s clear that the majority
of people, in particular
organisers, attending an
event are in agreement that
there needs to be widespread
change to ensure that the
exhibitor gets the best out of
the show and is able to follow
up on leads successfully
and on their terms. There
also needs to be a greater
understanding of customer
needs and a desire to form
meaningful partnerships.
Europe has some catching
up to do with the US in
terms of how siloed event
registration systems are and
the headaches that creates
for exhibitors. Particularly
enterprise exhibitors who
have sophisticated lead
management systems in
place and which are at
complete odds with badge
scanning and manually
dumping spreadsheets into
systems.
Organisers need to
acknowledge the job
that event registration
companies do; the time,
skills, investment and
complexity around running
event registration. All too
often on-site solutions are
undervalued and the knock-
on effect is that vendors are
forced to try and recoup
revenue directly from
exhibitors.
There also needs to be
greater sales and marketing
alignment through
improved communication
between departments and
much improved training
for exhibitors, so they
understand how to get the
best out of an event.
Recognising a shift in
demand by generations can’t
be underestimated. As data-
driven millennials rise up
to VP and CMO level roles,
event spend is coming under
increasing scrutiny because
too often, exhibitors cannot
accurately track the true
impact on revenue because
many exhibitions are set up
in a way that makes it harder
for them to do their jobs. EN