Roundtable
Raccoon Events, COO,
Aurore Braconnier believes
there needs to be stronger
communication between
sales and marketing. She
added: “It depends on
the organisation how
sales and marketing work
together, how the company
is structured and if the
business is led by the sales
or marketing team. If it’s led
by the marketing team there
is a danger the team doesn’t
know what sales is after. If
it’s lead by sales, it can work
better.”
Reftech MD Simon Clayton,
believes some exhibitors are
at fault for not using leads
to their advantage. He said:
“It’s interesting to hear this
from larger organisations,
we did a study a few years
ago where we sent two of our
team to a well-known show
in Spain. We set up a fake
business and we went around
110 exhibitors. We showed a
strong interest in exhibitors’
products and less than 30 per
cent of exhibitors followed
us up with a call. The fact
that we have to educate our
customers is indicative of
the problem. They spend
thousands of pounds and
it appears like they are not
joined up and following up
on their leads.”
Informa customer
experience director, Mike
Sealy also carried out
extensive research around
customer needs and delivery.
He added: “We did a mystery
shop at an Informa event and
we followed the customer
journey and I’ve not fully
read the report but what I’ve
seen is horrific reading.
“It’s clear that teams
across organisers are not
on the same page in terms
of a strategy and we need
to really understand our
customers’ experience and
what they actually want from
the event and how they get
it.”
Live Buzz MD, Justin
Craig believes it’s a highly
complex process and that a
significant shift in thinking
is required to improve the
process. He said: “Trade
events are hugely complex
and multi-dimensional,
there are so many types
of personas for exhibitors,
different sizes and different
demands. There is work to be
done by organisers to really
drill down the segmented
personas for different
stakeholders that go to their
events. It’s understanding
utopia and having solid lead
retrieval and, in an ideal
world, having API feeding
into a centralised CRM
system.”
Media 10 head of
marketing, Athena Kyriacou
believes scale is part of
the problem. She added:
“We need to improve how
marketing works with the
sales team and I think it
gets worse the bigger the
organisation. It’s essential
that marketing and sales
collaborate more and we
ensure that we are delivering
exactly what the sales team
wants. We should be having
these conversations with
our exhibitors but also our
internal sales team.”
During the debate we
connected to IBM in
Bucharest, global attendee
tracking event manager,
Radu Borcea to get an
understanding of how
exhibitors feel about lead
management and retrieval.
He said: “I don’t know
if the heads of IBM have
the same opinions as I do,
so I will speak from my
experience. When we attend
an event, of course one of
our goals is ROI. So, yes, it’s
about having a meaningful
conversation but it’s also
getting ROI. Certain event
apps don’t offer the level
of customisation. It’s very
important when I look at
an event to be able to see
if it’s performing. It’s not
only about the numbers but
the number of meaningful
conversations we have.
“GDPR is a huge barrier for
us, from my perspective, it
is really important to team
up with event organisers
who will allow me to reach
my goal of having these
meaningful conversations.
Some event organisers don’t
necessarily have a plan when
it comes to partnership with
us. Akkroo does, as they take
the time to identify what my
needs are and what I want to
get out of a conversation or
an event.”
January — 41