The topic of trade show innovation has been captured on film by exhibition thought leaders, Doug Ducate, President and CEO of CEIR and Francis Friedman of Time & Place Strategies.  A core aspect of any event is to unveil  “what’s new” on the show floor.  This innovation factor drives attendance.  Both the show organizer and exhibitors have the responsibility of communicating the innovations in a fashion that draws attention from the press, attendees and a larger group who could not come.

Francis Friedman

How does a Show Organizer bring “new” advancements, new innovations to a show when the exhibitors are not creating new products and services? This is a question Francis addresses in this video.

Doug Ducate

Continuing this conversation, Doug Ducate offers his opinions.

What are your thoughts? Where are you seeing innovation on the show floor?  As an exhibitor, how are you communicating your innovations?

Please share your thoughts with us by commenting or if you would like to share it via a video, please let me know.

This is a question almost every organization is asking: are trade shows the best use of my marketing dollars?  For some, the answer is a resounding YES, while others are quite the opposite.  In the recently released Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) report, The Changing Environment of Exhibitions, there are some data points which suggest a positive spin on trade shows.

The findings from this study explore the current and planned use of the full array of available marketing, communications and sales tactics; positioning of business-to-business exhibitions in this mix; current, high-priority marketing and sales objectives and perceived value of using business-to-business exhibitions to achieve them; as well as the factors that drive the decision to exhibit or pull out of an exhibition.

One of the key findings from the study is:

“Ninety-nine percent of executives identify what they consider to be the key value proposition of business-to-business exhibitions.”

I have not seen that high of a statistic for years!  Ninety-nine percent find trade shows hold a unique value.  So it might appear that it is not time to skip an exhibition, unless you are not prepared or the show is drawing the wrong audience.

Another significant research point is found in this chart.

The material in this report is exciting.  If you would like to obtain a copy, please click here.  Now, if you are a member if IAEE, the report is free.

Optimism for trade show growth is finding itself front and center as 2012 unfolds.  The numbers form CES 2012 are indicating a record breaking crowd of 153,000 were in attendance.  The official audited numbers will be released later, but early indication is that it was a terrific show.  Congratulation CES!!

BtoB Magazine reported in late 2011 the following information:

What is your firm doing with the event marketing tactic? Are you expanding it or staying the same?  Please let us know.

Yesterday, I received a note from Keith Reznick, President of Creative Training Solutions, about my earlier blog post which included a video by Francis Friedman of Time & Place Strategies, discussing bringing A- Team to your trade show booth.  In his correspondence, he was applauding Francis for his straight forward conversation about the vital importance of who is in the booth.  Then he shared a video response to that post which you can watch it below.

It is a power pack three minutes where he provides a great analogy for the need to have your booth personnel trained and shares the critical three questions.  Listen in:

Keith’s Three Questions

1. Tell me about your company?
2. What’s new?
3. Why would we pick your company from all of the other exhibitors here at the show?

What comments do you for me, Keith or Francis?  I look forward to our dialogue on this critical topic.

TSEA’s website has a new article written by Gordon Nary titled, Improve Your 2012 Exhibiting Results.  In the article he is interviewing  Keith Reznick, President of Creative Training Solutions and Ed Jones, President of Constellation Communication Corporation.

Keith starts off in the article by saying:

Access to the web enables attendees to hit the show floor with an agenda. They know who they want to see and the questions they’ll ask; exhibit staff need to be prepared for this. Unfortunately most are not. A few years ago a colleague and I interviewed attendees as they left the floor. One of the questions we asked was, “What do you expect of exhibit workers?” Here’s what they had to say.

Then Ed makes the point that:

Attendees must be engaged in a valuable and persuasive experience that results in a commitment to take the next step in the sales process. Exhibitors who recognize this make sure that their exhibit staff has the knowledge and skill required to meet or exceed attendees’ expectations. When exhibit staff lacks the requisite skills and knowledge, acceptable ROI is difficult to achieve.

Gordon asks: What is the most surefire way to consistently and measurably improve exhibiting results?

Ed: Improve exhibit staff performance with prospects and customers.

Keith:  85% of an exhibitor’s success is determined by exhibit staff performance according to CEIR. Select, train and motivate your most important asset on the show floor – your exhibit staff – and you’ll generate better ROI.

Ed:  Exhibit staff impact the success of almost everything exhibitors do to improve results. New exhibits, promotion, social media,  these are all ultimately dependent on the dialogue between company personnel and the exhibitors’ target audience. The better the dialogue, the better the results.

The CEIR research that Keith was referring to is a report titled: Exhibit Staff Practice Summaries. A key point in the study is:

Attendees place a high importance on product knowledge; this coincides with attendees’ desires to utilize the face-to-face interaction throughout the purchase process.  Attendees chose the following attributes as the three most important (in order):

1. Knowledge about product or solution
2. Willingness to provide information (helpful)
3. Credibility

The conclusion is that exhibiting companies must continue to bring the most experienced and best-trained staff members to exhibitions.

Francis Friedman of Time & Place Strategies strongly recommends you bring the A-Team.  Listen in as he outlines the attributes of the A-Team:

Let me know how you are handling your booth staff training and what results you are experiencing.

Last year, I found this cartoon from MarketingSherpa and as 2012 CES is being wrapped up, I am wondering if the sales teams will feel like this on Monday?

Trade Show Lead Follow-up

Unfortunately, far too many exhibitors will let those leads go the competition since they have no follow-up plans.  It is such a shame to have spent all that time, money and effort to create a lead and then let it go to another company.

If you need an outsource company for lead follow-up, I know of a couple of excellent ones I can highly recommend.  Just email me at joycemckee [at] letstalktradeshows [dot] com.

If you have time (about an hour), I conducted a webinar on trade show lead follow-up and you can watch it here.

For the millions of us who could not attend the 2012 CES, there are several ways we can access what is transpiring on the show floor.  One of them in streaming video or film clips which highlight the new innovations being announced.  Either CES or an exhibitor is creating this digital content for us.

CES has their YouTube channel where they are placing the many videos.  Last week I had highlighted a small company which had been one of the finalists in CES contest which was titled:Visit Me at CES 2012.  I had thought their contest video was great.  On the CES You Tube channel captures a show floor video from that company Sonomax, which is below:

Exhibitor Videos – a Hybrid Experience

Kodak has hired The Pulse Network to share “what’s happening” from their booth.  It is live from 11 AM to 3 PM each day. Here is a sample from yesterday: