How to Waste Money on a Trade Show

Tradeshows . . . Where Good Leads (no longer have to) Go To Die. Almost a year ago we wrote a series of articles on the challenges that tradeshow attendees face: Tradeshows, Where Good Leads go to Die (Part 1 & Part 2), our version of a Jerry Maguire document. Taken as a whole, it outlines the problems in the tradeshow and events industry and describes a set of solutions.

So today, we are launching Event Bookmarking, a proprietary software and integrated hardware system designed to improve audience response, face-to-face social networking and lead management.

Everyday, we talk with event managers, vendors, sponsors, speakers and attendees discussing the good, the bad and the ugly about their events. One of the core issues we discuss is the pressure for a return on investment in the expo or booth area.

In any economy, participation in an expo is dependent upon the amount of qualified leads a vendor received for their time, money and efforts. But simply agreeing to invest in a show is only half the battle because traditional lead management only produces a list of who was “scanned”; a list of a list, if you will. It can’t produce a list of truly ‘qualified leads’.

The follow up on these lists can be daunting and is typically done by placing those new leads into the sales pipeline for eBlasting or even worse “dialing for dollars” phone calls made by the newest sales trainees or more expensively, top sales talent.

After a busy show, attendees get pounded with junk mail and emails and phone calls thanking them for stopping by and ‘pitching’ the product or service. As a result, little list qualification occurs and they simply become part of the database going forward. Solving that problem is what generated the lead management component of Event Bookmarking (PDF Download).

And now the story that started it all… Years ago, we attended one of the tradeshows about tradeshows. We happened across one of the dozen or so ‘event management’ companies (translation - event registration software), ate the candy, took a brochure out of guilt, and thanked them for their time. We learned a lot from that experience. We were two people in a show full of several thousand attendees. We came, we saw, we talked and then we left . . . For us, that was that.

And that’s when the emails and the phone calls and the invitations started coming. “We’re having a webinar!”, “We’re doing a luncheon in your town!”, “We’re offering new modules that we’ve stacked on top of the other ones… it’s all shiny and new and you MUST BE THERE to see it!!!”

Since we were relatively unimpressed with what we saw and were already well into the development of the BusyEvent Event Management Platform, we opted-out and took this one-time experience as a good dose of what not to do. Our event management clients were telling us what they wanted, didn’t like, wished they could have and we had already been building tools like this for over a decade as one-off software. The time was right for us to build an event platform.

But the lunch invitations kept coming. Even as we were launching Version 1 of BusyEvent and made no secret to who we were, nobody at the “we’ll invite you to a luncheon and show you our stuff” company had any tools or information to know if we were a qualified lead or not - so we’re still on the list today.

Last week, we received another email (the 4th in a period of 6 months) about another lunch and demo of their tools and that’s when we sat down and started doing some math. What did this one unqualified lead cost them and how many unqualified thousands more are rattling around in their system?

If they had just been able to sift through the thousands of contacts they gathered at the event we attended to find the 50-100 good and qualifiable leads it would have been more useful to them. What they do with the other 900 is up to them . . . so, here’s what we do:

1. First, everyone doesn’t get a color glossy brochure that will sooner-than-later find its way into a landfill. Instead, had that original event had the Event Bookmarking system in use, every contact could be filtered and the qualified leads would get more attention.
2. Then, we track who downloaded our PDF brochure, clicked on the link to our site, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc… and expressed ANY follow-on interest.
3. By self-identifying as ‘interested’ each of those more-qualified leads would get a call from us about the real actions that occurred (we met, we talked, you clicked a link, etc…) and as appropriate, those qualified-leads would continue through the sales funnel until a more expensive contact, such as a meeting, a lunch, or demo, etc…made sense.
4. The others would all get an invite to a webinar, links to downloads and perhaps a quick 3 question survey about what they’re interested in. And they’d remain in the ‘more qualifications needed’ list.

Before Event Bookmarking, Sales and Marketing would have no way to measure a successful show other than the number of contacts they gathered - qualified or not, “just get me names”. Those really aren’t leads, but rather, names on a list. Then inside sales is incentivized to get people to come to the luncheon no matter what their level of interest. This occurs over and over until nobody knows where the leads came from or what money is best spent on Marketing. It’s the “brute force approach” and we believe that budgets will never be there for that, ever again.

What you’ll see by downloading the Event Bookmarking brochure is what we’ll address for every attendee; the actual measurement of ROI and the identification of which contacts are worth spending time and money on and converting into leads.

That’s why . . . rather than continuing to be part of the problem, we’re offering part of the solution.

What is Event Bookmarking?

It’s a software and purpose-built hardware platform that combines Lead Management with Audience Response, Face-to-Face Social Networking and an online information source to extend a 3-5 day event into a 365 day year-round connection between attendees, vendors, speakers, sponsors and event managers.

So, feel free to download our ‘Green Friendly’ brochure and call us to discuss how to cut the cost of event management in half while getting quality event information as it happens.

Fixing the Problem - A Series On What's Going On & What Can Be Done

Fixing the Problem - Part 3: Where do we go next?

Over the past decade we have seen vendors and sponsors demand more and better results from the dollars they invest in events.

This is a trend that will continue to challenge event producers to become more creative in the development of sponsor and vendor packages. And even when the economic trends reverse, the new "new" will be with us from here forward.

At the root of these improvements is better information and connectivity; communicating and 'listening' rather than waiting to talk.

Sponsors who traditionally placed their brand on signage in support of the event are looking for ways to get the voice of the customer, educate customers on better use of their products, roll out new product offerings and open up a year-round channel of communication.

Vendors are looking for ways to hasten and improve the qualification-process. Who, out of the thousands of people they interact with, have been sparked with an interest in what was seen and should be followed up with, first?

And everyone would prefer to skip the production, shipping and drayage of paper brochures. As sponsors and vendors become more selective of which shows they will support/attend, the thing that will raise one event over another, is the ability to deliver their target audience, prepped and ready to go. If event managers can know their attendees and can help them make decisions pro-actively, then the successful events will know how to offer attendees more of what they need and sponsors/vendors more of what they want.

This is not an imposition on anyone’s privacy but rather a world view of what are the most popular items being reviewed on the attendee’s personal URLs.

In Part Two we discussed how the PURL gathers what each person saw and did at an event and then makes that information available immediately and long after the event is over. Measuring the traffic to those PURLs is just one way we can know what was hot and what was not leading up to, during and following an event. The goal of this activity is continuous improvement which raises attendance, draws better sponsorships and attracts higher-quality vendors and speakers. Measurement offers insight and tangible numbers that drive better revenues. This is an important step to increasing the health of the event industry in any economy.

As a case study, the client mentioned in Part One has offered just some of what we have outlined above and they are seeing upwards of a 40% increase in sponsorship revenue over their 2007 numbers, a 10% increase in attendance and an excitement that was unexpected but a pleasant surprise, none-the-less.

So, what's it all mean? The new lessons are the same ones we've known:

• Seek first to understand and then be understood.
• Content matters.
• "Love" IS the killer app and above all else, your mother was right . . .
  
• Look both ways before you cross the street.

Those 4 pearls of wisdom have always been true, and they will be as we go forward.

Fixing the Problem - A Series On What's Going On & What Can Be Done

Part Two – Assisting those who are left behind

In any economy, events with a good balance of speakers, educational content, social networking and interaction with new products and ideas do well.

People want to participate in an event because, for many industries, it is the best way to do business.

The good news is events are still happening.

The bad news… companies are sending fewer people, spending less money and putting incredible pressure on event planners to help them turn every penny into an ROI of more (not necessarily a bad thing).

In Part 1 of this series addressing how we can start “Fixing the Problem”, we discussed how to combat attrition. In Part 2, we're going to share how event attendees are including their co-workers back at the office and expanding the on-site ROI into the virtual and NO, we're not talking about Virtual Tradeshows.

While the event is in progress many have taken to Twittering, blogging, and camera phones to share the best finds. BusyEvent is about to launch an easier process that benefits everyone involved (for more information visit the BusyEvent blog to learn how we Integrate Twitter into Every BusyEvent). Keeping track of the people you meet, breakout sessions, new products, learning and the general excitement of an event can be easily shared in real time through the personal URL you receive when you sign up for a BusyEvent. Getting your co-workers involved by letting you know what speakers, people and product information they want you to collect at the event, can be done in advance.

On site you are assigned a key-fob sized, wearable device that attaches to your badge/lanyard to capture your bookmarks; permanent people, product and information links that can be stored and retrieved later.

Meanwhile, back at the office, your colleagues can see what you are seeing and even text message additional requests along the way.

From a vendor and sponsor perspective, the benefits of exposure to the larger audience are still there and in fact, are there in a more permanent and penetrating way.

The benefits?

1. The attending company reduces their travel cost.
   
2. Electronic brochures, presentations, blogs, and links to social networking via LinkedIn and Facebook all come together to reduce printed material costs and add a Green benefit to the event.
3. Real-time communications improve the overall experience and assure that the on-site attendee meets who they're supposed to meet and gets to follow up with them in a meaningful way.
   

Nothing can replace a face to face experience, but with Event Bookmarking we are making it easy for larger groups to glean useful knowledge from an event before, during and long after it is over.

Event Bookmarking also extends the reach for vendors and sponsors to connect with potential customers well beyond the days of the event.

Combine that with how we're integrating Twitter into the On-Site and Virtual event experience and you quickly see that content, communications and control make event attendance "on-site" just one component of the value that a company's overall event experience can have.

Tomorrow, in Part 3, we will discuss how to use this process to grow sponsorship and virtual presence revenues, as well.

Fixing the Problem - A Series On What's Going On & What Can Be Done

Fixing the Problem - Part 1 in a series on "What's Going On & What Can Be Done"

We're fortunate to have clients that are so forward thinking, that are true leaders in their field, that working with them stretches and pushes us.

So, during the past year, we've had a chance to observe and contribute to seminal ideas that we believe will have a positive impact on the industry as a whole.

In this 3 part series, we'll share some ideas, along with specific examples, of things our clients have done to improve their events from an operational, financial and engagement perspective, along with those things that are in process or development right now.

Part One: Taking a Proactive Approach
In Spring 2007, using the BusyEvent Event Management System, we helped one of our first clients run their event for 4,500 people… a global event with attendees from more than 70 countries.

As you can imagine, 2009’s global event brought serious concerns about participation, costs and engagement; specifically how to utilize and harness the power of social media. But, as is their typical process, he client locked in a date and began the planning process with us last year and are reaping the benefits of starting early, communicating actively and surrounding themselves with the best events talent they could find.

Rather than negotiate larger attrition percentages, we took a proactive approach to work with the hotel by reducing the rate a bit. We went further to work together on an incentive package for early birds that included hundreds of free room nights, free future stays, show tickets, suite upgrades and other fantastic reasons to book early.

By getting those who were pretty sure they were coming to book early and encourage others to join them, the results have been fantastic. Numbers are up 10% over the same time in 2007, limited seating education sessions are filling up and there’s a positive buzz about how the event has stepped up in quality this year. Because this event happens every two years it is vital to building relationships, sharing new ideas and supporting the employees in the field.

Events like this are happening every week and while the show must go on, there are new rules for how to run more cost effective events.

Utilizing the BusyEvent system, we are utilizing new ways to deliver events for 30-40% less while providing better information that drives valuable relationships. Taking advantage of the tools that we provide, BusyEvent technology is quickly becoming the silver bullet to running a serious event in need of a serious return on investment.

We encourage you to get proactive and even creative about your events. How ? We’re seeing the trends shift to those who are tired of complaining and anxious to make good things happen.

While face to face events are still the best way to meet people and do business, in Part 2 of "Fixing the Problem" we will explore how to help those company employees who couldn’t make it to this year's event.

If The Old Model is Broken, What Will Work in its Place?”

If The Old Model is Broken, What Will Work in its Place?”

As an Events Management company, we're big fans of industries and companies that have faced what the events industry is facing, figured out a way to 're-engineer' themselves and grow to even great heights.Examples such as Domino's Pizza, Amazon.com, Twitter and others certainly have great lessons to learn from.

On the other hand, it's also intriguing to watch an industry re-invent itself right in front of our eyes, much like what's going on with the traditional media and newspaper industry, the venture capital markets, the auto and financial industry and so many others, today.

In a post on the Steve Mays blog, he writes about an article authored by Clay Shirky: "Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable". Shirky provides some intriguing insights that significantly parallel the events industry of today.

Below, excerpts from his article edited with an events focus (our edits are in parenthesis).

"If the old model is broken, what will work in its place?” To which the answer is: Nothing. Nothing will work. There is no general model for (events) to replace the one the (economy and need for efficiencies) just broke."

"With the old economics destroyed, (practices) perfected for (an era of big budgets) have to be replaced with (those) optimized for a new era both economically and digitally. It makes increasingly less sense even to talk about an (events) industry, because the core problem (events) solve — the incredible difficulty, complexity, and expense of (meeting people and engaging with them) — has stopped being a problem."

"When someone demands to be told how we are going to (revitalize the events industry), they are really demanding to be told:

• that we are not living through a revolution,
  
• that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place,
  
• that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril,
  
• that core institutions will be spared,
  
• that new methods of (meeting and engaging) will improve the previous practices rather than upend them.

In essence, they're demanding to be lied to.

For the events industry to weather this current storm, learn the necessary lessons from it and to once again thrive, initiatives like "Keep America Meeting" are good first steps. But, they're stop gap and certainly won't be enough; making the same argument over and over again is insanity.

Why? Because the events industry won't ever look like it once did. Improved ROIs will have to be there, true engagement will have to be there, events will have to transform from 3 day events to year-long sources of opportunity and the costs, that's all going to have to change.

For those of us ready for this change, the future looks bright. For those stuck in the 'old way', the march of the dinosaur's has already begun.

Rather than a clarion call or siren's song, what we're hearing in the wind is our clients telling us that we're going to have to be better for them and for the future of us.

Those that are ready to answer that call are what the future of the events industry will be.

In our next series of posts, we'll overview what we've seen work in both the near term as well as for the long term future. The series, titled "Fixing the Problem" will begin on Monday.

Debunking 6 Social Media Myths

BusyEvent uses social media for both promotional purposes as well as a tool for clients to get insights to their events and to encourage participation. But, as exciting as some of the tools are, it's not about the tools - it's about their uses and above all else, "it's the content"!

So when we hear about all the "social media buzz" and watch as people go frothing at the gills about Twitter, Flickr, Blogr, Shopr, et alr, it reminds us of Web 1. Remember when the web was going to kill bricks-and-mortar? Remember when the web was going to kill movie going? Remember when the web was going to kill TV and commuting to work and talking with people?

Yeah, not so much.

So, it was with great interest that we read, "Debunking Six Social Media Myths", from Business Week Magazine written by B.L. Ochman, the president of Whatsnexonline.com.

BL's basic premise, learn from the past and remember, "free aint' what it used to be".

We’re Hiring a Zen Garden Design Guru!

We’re Hiring a web designer to Zen Garden our event management application.

Our goal is to show off the flexibility of the visual design flexibility of the BusyEvent event management platform.

For more information, visit our blog at: http://www.busyevent.com/blog

Keep America Meeting

Meetings and Events enhance employee and partner performance, fuel company growth and profitability, support local communities and aid the American economy.

As an events company, BusyEvent is 100% in support of the Keep America Meeting initiative and encourage anyone reading this blog to sign the petition.

The Goal? 1,000,000 signatures - kind of like this!

You're Going to Use WHAT?

LinkedIn Questions is always a great source of information and discussions.

Nicolaas Pereboom recently asked about the use of mobile devices to conduct Audience Response. As you would expect, we've gone through all of the available research re: mobile device use in the events industry. From the technical to device market penetration, to audience receptivity/resisdence to the idea and so forth.

ALL of our research indicates that real penetration and real ARS uses on ubiquitous devices, such as mobile phones, just isn't there yet.

In response to Nicolaas' question, David shared a bit of our expertise.

Nicolaas: If you do business in convention centers you'll appreciate many of them are underground and often have spotty coverage for cellphones even when the hotel has installed cellular repeaters.

If you can get past the possible coverage issues, next up are people that scoff at the fees if they don't own an all you can eat text plan. We think this will become less and less of an issue but it might be another few years before we see the convergence of fees not being an issue and coverage being acceptable.

So covering costs and coverage are easy enough to monitor... next consider the demographics of your audience. If you are supporting a wired group of techno-wizards - then you are good to go. But if your audience is a mixed bag of the savvy and not, then your changes of success start to slide.

This is why we like a hybrid model that can accept data from both cellphones and ARS devices at the same time. You choose your flavor and everyone can be satisfied.

Events Play Increasingly Crucial Role in the Marketing Mix

We've known this for years, and as we've seen the growth of our events business caused in large part by cost structure and efficiencies, it's become clear that the events industry is being turned to more and more.

And now, we've got some evidence . . . turns out that in this report offered by the George P. Johnson company, Data shows decision-makers are turning to event marketing (also known as experiential marketing) to drive purchase behavior and deepen engagement.

In St. Louis, we're fortunate to have some of the top events company in the country, right in our own backyard. Companies like Promotion managing national campaigns for Fortune 100 clients (and we're talking about clients other than the brewery) have leveraged experiential marketing since their inception.

As BusyEvent continues to mature as a product and a company, it's cool to see that the industry is taking advantage of the types of tools that will help it to grow - creating opportunities, revenues and turning data into information.

Read more: http://gpj.com/asset/pdf/rp00000051_090209101252.pdf

We're Hiring a PR and Social Media Pro!

RETWEET: HIRING (Proj>Perm) Savvy PR Pro. Writer for blogs, PR, SocMedia. DM or hireme@pmgstl.com. Prefer STL, will consider virtual.

Panamedia Group, the parent company of the BusyEvent Event Management Platform, is hiring a freelance PR and Social Media Pro.

We’re looking for someone that has serious experience with social media. That means viral campaigns, blogs, twitter, facebook, LinkedIn and all that other 2.0 stuff that was hot 2 years ago and is mainstream now. You don’t have to be the genius behind the 25 Things meme, or the creator of lonelygirl15, but you should probably know what those things are, and why they were successful.

Your initial projects are going to be things like writing some copy for our web site, press releases, and some help with articles on our blog. We’d also like you to help us use social media to get our name out there.

We’ve got a bunch of people in our target demographic that read our blog and follow us on twitter, your job will be to help us expand that and turn some of them into happy customers. You’ll also help us brainstorm new ways to reach more people, and do even cooler things with the web.

This is a freelance, project-based job, you can work on your own but we will need you to come into our office when we start each project, and periodically after that. We do have a spare desk, so you’re welcome to work in our office if you prefer. The usual carrots of “if this goes well, we’ll do more together” apply.

You can find out more about us at www.busyevent.com. We’re a startup, with offices in Maryland Heights, MO right below the best place for Gyros in St. Louis. We have solid funding, real income, and despite the economy a growing client base and a lot of interest in our products. We just need the right person to help up boost our marketing efforts while we’re busy making awesome software instead of twittering and posting to blogs.

Interested? Send us a DM @BusyEvent or email hireme@pmgstl.com.

Event CRM - Making a Real Difference at Events

Legacy event management tools are complex, niche-focused, expensive and disconnected.

To run a modern event, meeting professionals have to oversee 3-5 companies supplying individual pieces or, manage the details using spreadsheets, post-it notes and an overwhelming number of phone calls and emails.

And it's time for that to stop.

Regardless of the approach, they lose valuable data and can never access actionable information until it’s too late to impact their event. Plus, the social networking tools being used aren't integrated into the overall event so that the one person you really want meet or learn from never crosses your path.

With BusyEvent, we're changing not only the face of the events industry, but the core of how events are run, managed, utilized and leveraged to create opportunity, connectedness and profit.

Learn more about the BusyEvent approach to events from our CEO, David Schenberg: http://www.smallbizamerica.com/sbb/detail/trade-show-leverage-with-david-schenberg/

The Mind of a Meeting Professional - Eliminating the Aaaaaargh Factor!

One month done.

Successful events and challenges met.

So, what do our clients 'think' and how was the decision made to hire BusyEvent?

Using some of the visualization tools we're deploying for our clients, we thought it would be an interesting experiment to apply our client survey data to those tools.

Here's what we found, we hope this is useful for you as well.

Turning Data Into Information (Part 2)

Putting meaning to data is as important at getting it in the first place.

As we continue to work on and develop the data > information pathway for our clients, "information visualization" tools are becoming an increasingly fascinating passion around our offices.

For instance, in addition to the "how many people BE-Linked with each other", we're also now able to slice data so that our clients can mine for the most ROI-laden nuggets of information.

Plus, being the voracious researchers that we are, we've recently run across a fascinating tool developed by Jeff Clark from the company Neoformix. While the work they're making public is primarily focused on the Twitter Stream, their idea of data visualization and making information out of the stream is intriguing.

How is this pertinent to the events industry? Can you imagine the amount of information that goes wasted after any 3 day event? Who met whom? Who mattered to whom? Who engaged with whom? Which vendors are most popular? Which topics are most popular? Which parts of the event fell flat on its face? For all the BE-Linking going on, which generated opportunities and revenues? And on and on and on!

"Just Add Water . . . and Run Your Event"

CEO David Schenberg was recently interviewed by Microsoft’s Bob Walsh and Patrick Foley for the Startup Success Podcast.

During the interview, they focused on how BusyEvent is providing “effortless event management tools so (event managers) can stress about the things that matter”.

David’s interview begins at 8 minutes in and a discussion about the BE-LINK system (at 23:30 in) outlines how BusyEvent combines Lead Management with Audience Response while helping people bring their personal and professional networks to an event – all with a single consolidated tool.

Listen to the podcast at: http://www.busyevent.com/blog/?p=77

The Best of . . . Q&A with BusyEvent

People ask us a lot of questions and we always publish them in our blog: www.busyevent.com/blog. The following are the top three from the last few months. Want to ask a question of your own, email it to info@busyevent.com.

John asks: How do you think text messaging could help the industry?
BusyEvent Answers: There are many services for both business and entertainment that have popped up over the past few years that are beginning to take the place of traditional websites. There are a large percentage of people who still don't use a phone with email capabilities. The moment those people leave their computer, they lose their tether to the latest info typically sent to their inbox. Some of the most important applications that will continue to evolve center on things that affect consumer's time, money, convenience and connectedness with business and family contacts. In the events industry notifications about schedule changes, special opportunities, sponsor offers and the fact that someone you plan to meet has just arrived at the lobby are just a few of the text features we're already implementing. Text to Speech is another area worth investigation as well.

Annie asks: Why do people go to conferences?
BusyEvent answers: This is a timeless question. The ebb and flow of our travel economy causes people to wonder how the conference business will survive and even thrive. One thing has not changed over the years... content is king. If an event has a combination of things that cannot be found anywhere else any other time of the year, it should continue to do well. Short change the supporters of an event in any area and it will suffer. People look for new products, great speakers with industry insight, subject matter experts, plenty of social networking and generally a location that gives them time to enjoy while sharpening the saw. Emerging technologies that keep people more connected before and after the show are the area where effort could pay off to improve this well-proven experience. When the goal is gain or strengthen client relationships, these technologies will go further to help qualify a set of timely needs. Anything that can help potential attendees, exhibitors and sponsors decide that this is the show for them will be worth the investment as the economy tightens. You will need a distinct advantage over other show properties to help people decide where to spend their limited budgets.

(Another) John asks: What's the difference between a sponsorship and a true brand partnership?
BusyEvent answers: As the economy waffles for the near future, new sponsorships will become more difficult to obtain and existing ones will fade. Brand partnership requires a good understanding of the profiles of the various users of the brand. If an event can know enough about their attendees and then deliver the right demographic audience to the brand, then there's a real reason for sponsorship (money, services, in-kind products like food/beverage/prizes). Real creativity is required to build up a brand partnership that gets a group of people really engaged in the brand. Simply placing logos on stuff isn't going to fit into shrinking marketing budgets. The emerging trend is to gather better data before, during and after the event so you have something tangible to show a brand to obtain their involvement in your event(s). We use SMS, web, variable data postcards, voice response, RFID and barcoding in concert to know as much about a group of people as we can without anyone feeling manipulated. It's a rewards-focused program where people let us know a little about their preferences and get something valuable for their time. I hope this either confirms what you were thinking or expands on a fruitful conversation to come.

Best of luck in the new year!