Like in an old movie , over the last 18 months event tech companies have gallantly rode into town like knights in shining Armani , declaring virtual events to be our industry ’ s saviour . Certainly , virtual seminars have indeed managed to keep some events ticking over , albeit not at the usual ramming speed . But with exhibition centres up and down the country primed to swing their doors open faster than Boris can say ‘ guided by the science ’, will virtual events become virtually nonexistent ? As an event website specialist of 23 years , we have been asked by a lot of event organisers if virtual is worth the time , effort and money . Our answer to this may go against the grain of techies in our industry , but although virtual events , keynotes and seminars have served a purpose and have done well to fill a vacuous void in the absence of face-to-face , have they been a mere sticking plaster over a deep graze ? However , virtual events have given our industry another media vertical to trade on away from the show floor . Previously , most organisers had all their eggs in one basket . The showfloor was the beginning , middle and end of the business model . But now the opportunity for online to bring substantial revenue to the event ’ s bottom line is clear . There are true net gains to be found for the organiser in empowering potential show visitors to personalise their
Let ’ s get personal
ASP ’ s MD Jon Benjamin tells EN how virtual events are the gateway to visitor personalisation , interaction and deep audience data
online interaction with the event . This is why ASP has spent the last eight months developing and stress-testing our event personalisation tool Gateway . We understand that what makes a good event website great , are the tools it provides marketing and sales teams to exceed their targets . ASP ’ s Gateway empowers visitors to create their own profiles , build their own custom lists of products , exhibitors and content they are interested in and add meetings and talks to their personal calendar . All of this personalisation and interaction makes a potential visitor a shoe-in to attend and spend . Furthermore , low cost and high yield products like Gateway allow exhibitors and sponsors to be in front of the show audience all year round . A lovely byproduct of this engagement and personalisation is
“ The opportunity for online to bring substantial revenue to the event ’ s bottom line is clear .”
that it provides exhibition organisers with deep data to help further evolve the offering for their event community . Websites are the shop window of the event . But through personalisation , they are now also a full-on event experience platform for audiences to interact , learn and even purchase all year round .
Keen to empower your event audience through Gateway ? Let ’ s talk ! Contact us at hello @ asp . events
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