Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd International Association of Conference Centers session. The topic surrounding the event was “Incorporating Advancing Technology into the Meeting Experience.” The eight panel group included individuals ranging from meeting space planners, learning experts and technology professionals. The discussions included an analysis of audiences, creating optimal meeting environments, [...]
This is the fourth part of a five part series discussing my recent takeaways for the Exhibitor 2010 Conference in Las Vegas, March 14-18, 2010. View Part 3 – Virtual Dangers. I like baseball. If you know me, you’d also understand that’s easily the understatement of the decade. It’s an undefined sickness that forces me to re-channel [...]
There are some reasonable and relatively simple ways to incorporate foursquare and encourage audience participation at your next event.
This morning I’d like to keep the Exhibitor 2010 follow up going with a few notes from a session that I attended and found most interesting. The topic covered was RFID tracking technology, and how Philips Healthcare used it to measure the behaviors of visitors within their exhibit at RSNA. They were tracking everything from [...]
Virtual tradeshows have often been viewed as a threat to traditional face-to-face marketing, but new technologies and social media have given us techniques to do quite the opposite. Still, we need to be careful how we present these tools.
This is the second part of a five part series discussing my recent takeaways for the Exhibitor 2010 Conference in Las Vegas, March 14-18, 2010. View Part 1 – Social Trailblazing. During mid-morning Monday, I attended an intriguing session with Dax Callner, Using Social Media & Guerilla Marketing to Drive Booth Traffic. The examples and [...]
“Go-Green.” What had started as a revolution in aiding our environment, the crusade has since grow in to a multi-billion dollar cash cow of an industry, often times muddied by false claims and a multitude of unverified green products. The tradeshow industry has been largely targeted by the movement, with green exhibit displays, promotional items [...]
I’ve just returned from the Exhibitor 2010 show in Las Vegas and was intrigued, mostly positive, by what I witnessed and learned. The result of which I will be putting together in a five part series to share my thoughts. There is little doubt that the profile of events is changing. Attendees are evolving (link), [...]
OK, so today marked my first ever Exhibitor show and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the level of engagement among the other attendees. Also, I have to applaud our competitors, a few of them at least that exhibited at the show with what I felt was a genuinely original approach [...]
You may notice an increasing breed of attendees at your next tradeshow, if not already. Tradeshow Zombies. It’s a frightening epidemic that has been fueled by a mutated ‘Tradeshow 2.0′ virus. What’s equally scary is that these zombies have done a fair job of fitting in. They even look like other attendees, with one major [...]
I have had the pleasure this afternoon of having all of my final hesitations about social media, though small, put to rest. My doubts had survived a short life, from May 03, 2009 – March 05, 2010 and really, never stood a chance. At 2:55 PM today, Conan O’Brien, who recently joined Twitter, posted the [...]
It’s tough to argue that the largest, most expensive detriment to your tradeshow exhibit is PLANNING. Poor planning costs additional time, resources, materials and shipments. And let’s face it, getting your exhibit to the convention center is no small or inexpensive task either. From space leasing and show services to freight and drayage fees, the [...]
Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten signed a proclamation Monday calling for Topeka to be known for the month of March as “Google, Kansas — the capital city of fiber optics.” All in an attempt to get on the Mountain View tech giant’s radar as a test bed for new fiber-optic technology that would bring it Internet [...]
A couple weeks ago I came across an interesting article in the NY Times about outboarding, or more commonly referred as convention crashing. This is basically where companies take advantage of the traffic generated by trade shows by marketing themselves in a nearby hotel or meeting space. By doing so they avoid the costly expense [...]
Chances are, you’ve been here before: You fight early morning traffic, search aimlessly to find a parking space at the convention center, walk a short marathon to your exhibit space, only to find out that half of your tradeshow components have yet to be delivered, if any at all. Despite honest attempts at scheduling you, [...]
