24 Advertising Feature
September, 2020
French Connection
Transitioning from an in-person to fully online tradeshow
using Swapcard’s platform and human expertise helped
keep GL events 2020 plans on track
Global Industrie by GL events has
become the industry tradeshow
of note in France. Bringing together
2,500 exhibitors and 45,000-50,000
attendees each year, they partnered
up with Swapcard in 2019 to digitise
their tradeshow for the first time.
“The reason we moved towards
a digital event was to offer an alternative
to a physical edition that
could not take place,” said Martin
Capdeviole, communication and
marketing manager at GL events.
The Global Industrie organising
team wanted to provide their
exhibitors with an engaging, valuable
experience and an all-inone
platform that captured all
their data and ROI in real time.
Then, however, Covid-19 appeared
Words
Martin Fullard
and the team initially made the decision
to postpone, and finally cancel
the in-person edition of Global
Industrie. They set about launching
an online event called Global
Industrie Connect. Global Industrie
worked with Swapcard’s team to tailor
the platform to the event’s needs.
Here are some of the features
used by Global Industrie to
give the best possible experience
to attendees and exhibitors:
Marketplace and webinars
Giving back power to exhibitors was
one of the KPIs for the organising
team. Exhibitors are used to having
over a thousand square meters to
showcase their machines, meet attendees
and conduct demos at their booths.
Going online meant they needed
a marketplace to showcase their
machines and replicate the experience
of an in-person event to
ensure a similar ROI. The Swapcard
and Global Industrie teams worked
together to create an innovative
marketplace showcasing all their
machines, plus meeting opportunities
and a wish list for attendees.
The platform also provided a space
to run more than 45 webinars, sometimes
with four running concurrently,
which gave visibility in the form of
speaking time to all the exhibitors.
Interaction
Attendees were also encouraged to
interact with exhibitors through live
discussion during webinars. The Q&A
and polls features created opportunities
for exhibitors and attendees
to exchange and discuss products.
Networking
Enabling networking between attendees
and exhibitors before, during, and
after the event was a key element.
Swapcard’s platform supports video
calls and matchmaking, so attendees
could schedule video calls with
exhibitors and vice versa, and have
face-to-face interactions, even online.
A multilingual platform
As an international tradeshow,
Global Industrie needed a platform
that could support multiple
languages. The whole platform was
available in both French and English.
Swapcard’s support team accompanied
the Global Industrie organising
team from inception to execution
and even beyond, throughout the
transition to online and the training
for speakers and organiser staff.