Experts & Opinions
Nov 09, 2017
It wasn’t that long ago when trade shows relied largely on paper processes for registration and promotion, and exhibit booths featured large panels with static copy and graphics. That’s all changed.
Trade show planners and exhibitors alike have myriad leading-edge technologies to use for applications ranging from registration, data capture and analytics, lead retrieval and real-time engagement, to traditional marketing and branding. There’s software for registration, check-in, badge printing, e-literature, beacon technology and mobile event apps. There are mobile device charging stations,… more
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Nov 07, 2017
One of the questions I’m often asked as a trade show industry veteran is, “What do you wish you’d known back in your first year of managing trade show exhibits that you know now?” The following is my second in a series of blogs based on the most important lessons I’ve learned as a trade show professional and life-long student of the University of Hard Knocks.
No. 2: Give yourself extra time during exhibit set-up.
Many of our on-site problems occur because we’re trying to do too much in too little set-up time once we get to the show floor to put together our trade show exhibit (check out “… more
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Nov 02, 2017
Bizzabo recently surveyed over 400 mid- to senior-level event marketers about the future of the industry. The result is Event Marketing 2018: Benchmarks and Trends.
With contemporary digital marketing practices, brands have the ability to reach more people with more targeted strategies than ever before. Yet at the same time, nothing can quite compare to a face-to-face conversation. This isn’t a nostalgic longing for simpler days. It’s what the data says.
The average Chief Marketing Officer allocates 24 percent of their total annual budget to live events in order to connect with customers,… more
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Oct 31, 2017
Augmented and virtual reality, along with artificial intelligence and wearables, are some of the hottest trends in event tech for 2017. Event organizers are working hard to incorporate these technologies into their events in order to attract attendees and stay “fresh.” But do all new technologies belong in the event industry?
Some technologies may seem like a logical fit for your next event, but they can be gimmicky or even distracting, taking the attendees out of the event and creating artificial experiences and awkward interactions.
We’ve found that the most natural way to engage event… more
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Oct 26, 2017
When companies sponsor events, they don't just want their names on a banner; they want partnerships worth their real value and more: more audiences, more attendees and more brand awareness.
Event professionals want to deliver that value to sponsors but they don’t always know how. Fortunately, the numbers indicate they’ll have plenty of chances to learn.
What Sponsors Want, a recent report from ESP Properties, found that sponsorship spending will grow faster over the next few years than spending on public relations, direct marketing and promotions globally and those forms of marketing plus… more
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Oct 24, 2017
Here’s Our Story – What’s Yours? We’re Listening!
As the Marketing Manager for TSNN, I put a lot of thought into trying to listen and getting others to listen to us (it’s a noisy event world out there!). There’s no doubt we’re all attempting to connect, to be heard and to get our value proposition out there, hoping it will resonate. I fell in love with the psychology of marketing because it allows you to jump inside people’s heads - the way they think (and operate), and learn what drives them as human beings and how they go about reaching their goals.
As I approach my 10-year anniversary… more
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Oct 23, 2017
Since 2008, there has been a statistic making its way around the Internet that the EPA ranked the trade show industry as the second most wasteful industry - second only to manufacturing. You may have heard this statistic before. I have even used that information in an article I wrote for TSNN. Recently, I decided to look deeper into that stat that gives a bad rap to our industry. What I discovered was that even on the EPA website, I can find no reference to this statistic. Furthermore, many of the articles that referenced the statistic have been removed from the web.
Still, we all know that… more
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Oct 23, 2017
Meetings and events (MICE) are a part of everyday life around the world and are vital to how we conduct business in the 21st century.
The Convention Industry Council (CIC) defines an event as a gathering of 50 or more people for more than four hours. According to the CIC, there were over 1.8 million events in the U.S. in 2012 alone, including more than 10,000 trade shows.
In the recent CVent Industry Benchmarking Report, event planners stated that the top three challenges of managing an event were budgeting, ROI and event promotions. Planners also stated that the top two ways to measure ROI… more
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Oct 19, 2017
Are you preparing for an upcoming trade show? If so, you’re most likely searching for great giveaway ideas to make your brand stand out.
Giveaways present great opportunities for you to leave a lasting impression on event-goers. With creative, high-quality giveaways, you’ll get more people to your booth and interacting with your brand.
However, there are many giveaways out there that are just plain boring. To make sure trade show attendees hang on to your item instead of ditching it in the trash, try handing out these eight giveaways that people will actually want.
1. Power Bank
There’s… more
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Oct 17, 2017
The nature of events is changing and with it the responsibilities of the modern show organizer.
In addition to all the other roles they are asked to take on (empathetic storytellers, tech-savvy marketers), today’s show organizers have to be strategists as well. That’s because successful brand experiences aren’t just singular, one-time events – they’re part of an ongoing, multichannel brand narrative.
Figuring out how to weave that narrative through your entire marketing mix requires a little planning and some good insight.
Here are five best practices to help you keep your next trade… more
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Partner Voices
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