Samuel J. Smith
May 9, 2017
People come to meetings and conferences for lots and lots of reasons. Here is my list of 20 reasons people come to conferences – in no particular order:
Why do I think this list is important?
I like to look for “hidden” insights that might help me change my perspective and challenge me to think differently. If I can learn something new that changes my perspective – then I might be able to come up with better recommendations, new solutions, etc.
For example, once this list was assembled, the following words jumped out at me: Try, Share, Meet and Discuss. To me, these are action words used by people that like to engage in dialogue at conferences. They are not the words of people that want to sit and be entertained for 8 hours.
In a recent study, 60% of trade show booth organizers said that “Closed Sales” is their #1 measure of success at their event. Yet, there are many, many more ways that meetings add value beyond revenue generated. How are you measuring the business value that your meetings and events create for your organization?
In MPI’s Business Value of Meetings research, they identified 41 different metrics that can be used to help you measure and track the business value of your meetings. Take a look at the list below – you might be able to find a few new metrics for measuring your success:
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Trade show games are not all just, well, fun and games. They also help solve serious business problems, such as capturing data about your trade show leads that was getting lost before.
Here are 6 familiar challenges with getting all the data from trade show leads that we repeatedly hear about from our clients. After that, we’ll talk about how interactive trade show games can help you capture that data.
1. Stacks of business cards slow down lead follow up
While we are proud of how strong the technology is behind our interactive trade show games, we fully understand that it isn’t the tech alone that makes them so successful. What makes our games and contests really gather a crowd, and keep people engaged, is how well our games play on peoples’ very human emotions.
I’ve witnessed how people, individually or in groups, react when they play our games and contests. I’ve seen players in the thrall of these 6 emotions again and again:
Attendees get jazzed when they play our games. It reminds me of a Las Vegas craps table when the dice are hot. Groups of friends shout, dance around, and cheer as they really get into the games and contests. This is especially true when they are playing our Virtual Prize Wheel, and they win a big prize.
Several years ago, I was in Norway giving a presentation and using interactive Q&A for the first time in a conference. Previously, I had always used the microphone for my presentations. On this day, we had a new event technology that had a Q&A feature.
I discovered very quickly that if everyone had a chance to ask questions they would do it. I received dozens of questions via the interactive Q&A app.
Second, I learned that people were more willing to ask questions via the technology than stand up in front of the room with microphone.
The concept of a Social Media Wall in of itself has great potential: Gather up all the relevant social media output around a company or organization at a trade show or special event, and put it on display for interested attendees to see! Yet, clever design and execution are required to get the full value.
Here are 11 things that SocialPoint has built into the design of our Social Media Wall Event Displays, so that exhibit and event marketers can make a bigger impact:
Instead of just showing content with traditional templates, we created templates that transform your attendees thoughts, ideas and photos into fun designs. Most companies are able to find a design template that fits their event theme or brand design.
