Experts & Opinions
Jun 13, 2013
After tradeshows, email marketing is arguably the most powerful channel for lead generation. Following email best practices is critical to closing sales after your event participation. Often, exhibitors are so weary after their events that they miss their window of opportunity and lose sales.
If you don’t have a strong email marketing foundation, you’d better start building that knowledge. Let’s start at the top, the subject line. The subject line is the most important element of your email. I know, that’s a lot of pressure. This is because if your email doesn’t get opened, none of the other… more
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Jun 13, 2013
In recent years, the expectation for events to be more interactive, collaborative and participatory rather than simply passive experiences has increased dramatically and technology is playing a major role in helping planners achieve this – from the noise created by social media before, during and after an event to technologies which enable the audience to engage more actively with the content and with each other.
I wanted to share some cool technology ideas that can help you make your event or your participation in an event more interactive and therefore more engaging:
Mobile… more
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Jun 08, 2013
I had the opportunity to speak with Nick Pintler, CMO at Gravity Jack. We talked augmented reality (AR) and what AR affects at a trade show. And it is more than a cool tool to generate engagement.
There is a social connectivity in AR software that has a dual purpose: generate contact and get your attendees to hang out in the booth. AR allows you to provide a visual cue for explaining information, collect leads, even go through a qualification process, and can be quite easy to use.
While most of us think of AR as something that is only to present information in a new… more
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May 31, 2013
A lot of time, voice, energy, ink and virtual storage space are used elucidating the ‘Power of Events.’ The industry – and CEIR in particular – has done an excellent job in recent years of backing this up with hard data to get marketers to understand what we collectively have to offer. We all know that most marketing text books maybe contain a page of information about tradeshows and events – and we are then forced to educate, update, and even campaign for and about the arsenal of amazing marketing and sales tools our events provide.
I say it’s… more
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May 31, 2013
I recently had the privilege to represent GES at a roundtable discussion in Las Vegas with Congressman Joe Heck (R-NV). It was hosted by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), the U.S. Travel Association and Station Casinos.
My conversations with Congressman Heck were simply refreshing. I’m not much of a beltway insider and I don’t interact with politicians on a daily basis, but I came away from the meeting impressed by his knowledge of the challenges show organizers face when attracting international attendees to their U.S. trade shows and the downstream effect… more
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May 24, 2013
When I say I felt privileged and pretty darn lucky to attend Coachella in 2012, I’m not exaggerating. This year’s festival sold out in 24 hours. People come from all over the world to experience Coachella and it’s one of the most unique events I’ve attended. Yes, I’m a music junkie. Everything from electronic dance music to indie and even hip hop, I love it all. My first concert (in fifth grade) was N’Sync and they literally brought tears to my eyes.
Nothing can replace the memories you make at an event, and what better way to extend that experience than… more
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May 18, 2013
When it comes to “virtual trade shows”, I agree with Gertrude Stein’s long-ago observation: There is no there, there.
A virtual event and an in-person event can each be described as a “trade show”. True … and a TV turkey dinner and mom’s Thanksgiving turkey dinner are both “turkey dinners”.
There are virtues to “virtual”, but for some purposes, the drawbacks outweigh the benefits. Let me give you an example. I’m on the advisory board oftheCollegeof Socialand Behavioral Sciences at UMass Amherst, my alma mater.
At most… more
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May 18, 2013
I have probably interviewed well over 200 salespeople in the last 20 years when I was seeking to fill various positions. One question I always ask every candidate is:
“On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being ‘not at all’ and 10 being ‘obsessed’, how motivated are you by money?”
If you want to work for me, the answer needs to be a 9 or a 10. Mostly, the response I get is “well … a 5 … because family and other things are more important …” This is a great response also and family is, unequivocally, more… more
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May 12, 2013
Finding the right speaker for an event is paramount to the success of the conference. Speakers do more than just share content, they set the tone for the whole meeting. But finding speakers who can have the right impact is getting more difficult, as more people are calling themselves speakers.
As a speaker I know that I am not the right fit for every event, yet I also am an attendee at many events. I am perplexed sometimes as to how a speaker ever ended up on the stage. Matching up topics and experience to the goals of the conference are paramount to the success,… more
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May 12, 2013
Trade show attendees have more and more options available to them every day. New, competing events are popping up everywhere vying for their attention. Education, networking opportunities and vendor research is now available for free online.
Trade Shows have a unique opportunity provide enhanced education, networking and exposure to industry suppliers that attendees can’t get elsewhere.
That enhancement was the topic of discussion on May 8 during the weekly gathering of show organizers, exhibitors and suppliers in the Twitter chat #ExpoChat.
Chat participants first talked about what… more
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Partner Voices
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