virtual events . But what digital is doing is improving education and content . “ There are digital ways to give content at events and outside of events - so there are definite revenue streams which is a benefit of the pandemic .
“ It ’ s very clear the commercial component of exhibitions has not been replicated digitally . People are coming to see products and discuss them in lot of detail and do the buying . They are not going to do the buying on a Zoom call . They are going to do that face-to-face and that has not changed .”
Another thing Emslie is convinced does not work at virtual shows is networking .
“ The whole thing about going to show is you meet someone in the bar or have a chance encounter in the aisle . The whole experience of digital events has been very poor . I don ’ t think it ’ s because of the delivery . The delivery and technology hasn ’ t been great , but I don ’ t think it ’ s that . I think it ’ s just that as humans we want to meet face-to-face .
“ Virtual events became like something in the background – you ’ re still looking at your emails and doing something else .” He gives an example of a visitor at one of their shows travelling from New Zealand to Indonesia with the specific purpose of tracking down a potential
“ What we have proved as an industry is we won ’ t be replaced by virtual events ”
contact he knew would be attending .
“ He spent a year trying to contact this person by phone and email and had no reply . But he came to the event knowing he would be there , had a 15-minute meeting that resulted in a contract worth millions . It shows it ’ s really difficult to go face-to-face with someone and ignore them .
“ People will generally only answer the phone to someone they know . It has reinforced the power of face-to-face .”
Technology Emslie may be averse to virtual events but he is no technophobe .
“ Tech has been equated to virtual and you are on the wrong foot . It turns people off because the virtual experience has been incredibly poor . We are using a lot more technology around sales and marketing and in terms of understanding interactions with customers , what they are engaged in , having a lot more information about people we don ’ t have relationships with but are interested in .
“ That ’ s where we are spending a lot of our time and attention . Then at shows , technology around meetings and interactions .”
The most important thing he says to remember is that “ humans are there to have fun as well ”.
“ Technology can help us give a better experience .”
As an example Tarsus has been targeting new buyers through AI .
“ We spent a lot of time putting the personas together of what those buyers look like and using AI technology to find them .
“ We need to use technology to solve our problems rather than getting the technology and then trying to work out what the problem is .”
Where technology in the event industry lags behind other sectors , is because event tech businesses tend to be smaller , Emslie says .
“ You need bigger companies that can scale and deliver in multiple geographies and large show volumes .
“ The good thing is technology has moved on and we ’ re embracing it more . “ We ’ re less luddite than we were .”
Future focus Tarsus ’ sights are now set on recovering from the past two years .
“ We always envisioned it being 2023 by the time things got back to normal levels but we ’ re also looking at organically developing the business because what customers want has changed .”
As an example Tarsus ’ medial business is 50 % classic exhibitions and 50 % education . That education was previously at shows but has moved online .
As the industry recovers it needs to improve , to show exhibitions are worth the investment , he says .
38 — September