Tradeshow Insight » Joshua Rush

HCEA Healthcare Convention Marketing Summit, My Take Aways

Joshua Rush — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:25:29 +0000

This past week I attended the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) mid-year summit in Boston where more than 200 exhibitors, suppliers and industry experts met to discuss current trends in health care meetings and events. As a new HCEA member this was my first experience with the event and generally I was impressed by the format and content presented in the plenary and breakout sessions.

Below are just a few key takeaways from the opening plenary dubbed, “Frank Talk About How Physicians Value Medical Meetings and Conventions.”

Featured panelists: Beverly MK Biller, MD, FACP, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Neuroendocrine Unit , Massachusetts General Hospital; Richard V. Aghababian, MD, FACEP, Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and President-Elect, Massachusetts Medical Society; and Ayguen Sahin, PhD, Instructor, Molecular Oncology Research Institute, Tufts School of Medicine
Moderator: Christine Farmer, Senior Convention Manager, Sanofi

Greatest challenge facing the industry
The explosive growth in technology currently outpaces physician’s ability to effectively diagnose and recommend therapy. So the challenge is finding a way to make medical meetings more effective so that data presented in sessions and on the exhibition floor transfers more effectively to scientists, educators, physicians and hospital administrators in attendance.

Time
Time is the most valuable commodity for scientists and physicians today. Conventions are becoming more and more important because it’s one of the very few opportunities that provide uninterrupted time for learning. Anything that exhibiting companies can do to provide understanding of ways clinicians can save time, improve patient compliance and effectively advance their practice will add significant value to medical meetings.

Know your audience
Make sure you understand the generational differences among your audiences. Fellows and young researchers are going to be more receptive to electronic forms of communication and interactions; whereas, more established professionals still prefer the tactile nature of an actual paper copy of a reprint or product brochure. It’s also important to realize that in this generational gap there are varying degrees of tolerances for follow up communications. Make sure you’re responding to the individual requests of the individual. Don’t overload them with material that isn’t of interest. Be focused in your follow up approach.

Often times medical device and pharma companies spend too much time worrying about the direct prescriptive or purchasing power of the individual physician. Don’t forget the fact that educators and scientists have much further influence than their immediate reach. And clinicians are more likely to be less influenced by a new product or methodology than educators, who tend to be early adopters on leading edge of new research.

Sunshine Act and its impact on events
The Sunshine Act requires pharma and medical device companies to track and report anything of value that has been given to physicians, administrators and educators as it relates to the marketing of a product. It restricts the amount of money that can be spent on the cost of meals and prohibits individual gift giving.

One of the panelists commented by saying that we wouldn’t have the life saving drugs that we have today if weren’t for healthy collaboration with the companies that support research. Another questioned how congress can regulate and restrict people and businesses from building relationships in meaningful ways.

It seems like a classic case of the one bad kid who ruined things for the entire class.

Were you there? Let me know your thoughts and if you agree or disagree with anything mentioned in my post.

Be more strategic at your next event, create story

Joshua Rush — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:52:24 +0000

How can you be more strategic with your event design? Start by storytelling, one of the simplest most effective forms of communication. And it’s one of the best ways you can market experiences. All you need a protagonist, an antagonist and a plot.

For example, take one of our newest clients — Stereotaxis, a company that pioneered magnetic navigation for complex cardiac interventions. The client wanted to develop an authentic and compelling story that would set the stage for its newest service — EPOCH Solution. The idea is that while Stereotaxis has long been known for its navigation systems and enterprise class CMS services, its guests would experience that the sum of all the parts are greater than any individual component.

Protagonist: Stereotaxis’ guests (existing clients, prospects and influencers)
Antagonist: Perception of its industry leading, yet disparate services
Plot: Experience Stereotaxis, discovering EPOCH Solution in a live networked lab environment

The client had a clear vision of how the story would be told in order to get the most effect. Our job was to ensure that the environment facilitated the desired experience.

Here’s how it was done:

We developed several lab environment with visual design elements with integrated technologies.
Networking all “labs” in order to demonstrate how Stereotaxis’ systems speak to one another in real-time, including external connections to alliance partner exhibits.
Reinforced key messages and brand propositions with rich, layered static and digital signage.

Other helpful resources:
http://authenticitybook.com/

Marketing experiences, not architecture.

Joshua Rush — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:30:56 +0000

When was the last time you had an “experience” at an event? Where an exhibit – its brand and it’s personality, resonated with you beyond normalcy and tradition. We tend to force the experience around an existing environment. We should be designing the experience first, leaving the architecture as complimentary. What’s the visitor experience and what’s being done to reinforce and extend it beyond the close of an event?

Nothing in this business excites me more than the challenge of solving this question.

So when I say design is more than exhibits – panel counts, counters, kiosks, etc, I mean It’s about creating an experience that aligns your brand proposition to a specific event. It homes in on your key business objectives and differentiates your brand from the competition. It could be a promise of innovation, superior service or value.

In every case there is a challenge or questions that can only be answered by your product or service. First we have to figure out what that it is and then develop a story that your targeted audience can relate to in a way that ultimately plants the seeds that can sprout into a or purchasing decision, media exposure or reference. Then we need to figure out ways we can reinforce your brand throughout the event and extend the experience beyond its set duration.

What does experience marketing look like?

I was in Barcelona a couple of weeks ago attending Mobile World Congress, the annual event that this year drew a record 60,300 attendees from over 200 countries, with 51% C-level representation. As for exhibitors, Google’s Android exhibit gets an A-plus from me on creativity and experiential design. It was the busiest most exciting booth in all 8 halls of the congress. Android created an entirely unique story about their mobile platform with a themed exhibit featuring green android critters surrounded by demos for various apps supported by their system and self guided touch screen kiosks positioned in front of a conveyor belt that carried all new devices running on Android. The message was clear. You have plenty of options with this system. For fun, visitors could climb a set of stairs going up a green deck and then slide down a slide to the first floor of the exhibit where a photographer was set up to snap their photo at the exact moment they emerged from the tunnel. Visitors were given a branded photo inside of an Android frame for taking the ride. It sounds kind of silly when you say it out loud, am I wrong?

But when it’s done the right way little things like the slide and photo are fun and extend the experience for guests that goes home with them that will forever be a reminder of the time the spent in the Android booth.

It’s all about the experience. What’s the story and what’s being done to extend and reinforce it after the show is over.

Early 2011 Trade Shows Filled with Increased Attendance, Optimism

Joshua Rush — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:26:09 +0000

You can sense a buzz is in the air this year if you had the opportunity to walk a trade show floor these past few weeks. It’s almost electric! For me it started at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas where, according to Exhibit City News, preliminary numbers show more than a 10% increase in attendance and an 8% increase in exhibitors.

Echelon was at CES working with Entropic Communications on the debut of a new 40’ x 50’ custom exhibit. Entropic said it was one of the best shows they’ve had in several years; that they had meetings booked solid for the entire four-day event.

Key (preliminary) stats:

Overall attendance: 140,000
International attendance: 30,000
Number of exhibitors: 2,700
Square feet of exhibit space: 1.6 million

But CES wasn’t the only show buzzing.

After a short trip home I was back on the west coast for the 109th National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show in Anaheim, where the venue was nearly jumping with excitement. Optimism seemed to be the theme of the show. The association reported strong gains in the number of exhibitors participating in the show and in international attendance.

Several of our NAMM clients said to us in so many words, “dealers are here ready to write orders.”

Furthermore, in it’s 32nd year, NSSF SHOT Show, held at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, also saw record breaking figures in buyer (31,769) and media (2,074) attendance.

Stats from the 2011 SHOT Show:

Total Attendance: 57,390
Exhibitors: 1,600
Attendees: 31,769
Exhibit space: 630,000 net square feet
Media: 2,074

That’s what it’s all about.

More Photos From Labelexpo Americas 2011

Joshua Rush — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:05:38 +0000

We’re WAY overdue on these photo updates so I thought I’d share them quickly. This is a 30′ x 50′ custom rental exhibit that we developed for one of our newest clients, Actega. If you’re wondering what these guys do it’s simple — they develop and produce specialty coatings, sealants, printing inks, and adhesives for packaging and the graphic arts industry.

Our primary objective for the design was to create an open environment that provided several clean, large format areas that would support walk around product displays. The result was a 12′ high back wall structure with the following:

Graphics: full color graphic mural halo lit with blue gel fluorescent fixtures
Custom LED light box kiosks with elliptical blue acrylic shelving for displaying a range of Actega’s rigid and flexible packaging solutions.
Large circular hanging fabric sign for branding and ID
LCD TV floor displays at each of the corner entrances for digital signage / video presentation.

Entropic And Echelon At IBC In Amsterdam

Joshua Rush — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 22:36:26 +0000

If you had to come up with three words to describe the city of Amsterdam, what would they be? I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the word “exhibition” made some lists although it might be used in the same context of the meaning of my blog today, which is of course, trade shows.

Sure we can go on forever talking about the social-political upsides to living in a city as liberal that of Amsterdam but the point today is that it is a great city for trade shows. And it’s where I spent this past week installing a 6m x 6m stand for Entropic Communications, an Echelon client exhibiting at the International Broadcast Communications (IBC) show.

Our goal was to create an environment that facilitated connected home networking demonstrations and private meetings for Entropic’s leadership. We utilized a combination of custom exhibit properties for meetings with a few rental components in order to create an environment that was had the look of a tech-driven company.

You can visit our web site to read a case study about Entropic’s custom exhibit program.

Business Travel 101: Carry On at All Cost

Joshua Rush — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:44:28 +0000

For all of you road weary business traveler’s out there I’ve a funny story for you. Picture this scenario in your head for a moment if you can.

It’s 2:00 p.m. and you’ve just checked in to ORD as you’re about to begin an overnight trip that starts with a simple connection in ATL. The first question you ask yourself is “check my bag or carry on?”

If you’re like me and hate to be that guy trying shove a roller bag into an undersized overhead compartment AND genuinely believe it slows down the boarding process, then maybe you opt to check your bag.

OK, done. Now you can focus on the next hurdle. Security check.

Fortunately for you, the line is moving along and you quickly move through clear security. You stop by the news stand for a bottle of water and a paper and head to the gate.

“This is going to be a great trip,” you’re probably thinking to yourself now. That’s when you hear it.

Letdown number one.

“Ladies and gentleman waiting to board the flight to Atlanta there’s been a slight delay in our departure due to the fact that the first class toilet has backed up into the cabin,” says the gate attendant.

Oh SH#*! Literally.

Snap back to reality. This is exactly how my trip started this past week. I mean, is it me, or has traveling always been this trying?

And my story doesn’t end with the stinky plane either. I wasn’t going to wait another hour only to have Delta tell me that the flight was canceled, especially not when I had an 8:30 a.m. meeting the following morning and only one flight out of ATL that would get me there in time.

I was lucky enough to snatch the last possible seat on the 4:15 p.m. flight out of ORD. Temporary relief, phew!

After a quick connection in ATL I finally make it to my final destination for the night. Everything is going to be all good now. Right?

Wrong.

Letdown number two.

Remember that bag I checked in Chicago? Yeah, well let’s just say that somewhere between overflowed toilets and last-minute changes to flight plans, my bag went AWOL.

Oh, and my friends at Avis screwed up my rental car reservation so no car either.

Letdown number three.

So at 11:00 p.m. guess where my cabbie and I head?

To the closet Wal-Mart so that I could buy essentials for tomorrow’s meeting. That includes everything from toothpaste, shaving kit, and dress clothes, too.

On the bright side, I never thought $8 dress pants and a $10 button-down could look so good! A little scratchy, though.

Finally, I rest my head on the luxurious pillows of the local Sleep Inn, the fine hotel establishment at which I slept that evening. Before I fell asleep I decide that the sooner I could distance myself from the trip the better.

To make a long story short, me and my $18 Wal-Mart outfit made a killer presentation the next day and the client got a big kick out of my somewhat embarrassing story. Plus, my missing bag greeted me when I got back to Chicago.

So in the end no real damage incurred but I learned a valuable lesson that day: carry-on your bags at all cost.

Labor Reform Bill, How It Affects Exhibitors

Joshua Rush — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:15:34 +0000

Earlier this summer the Illinois General Assembly passed the Labor Reform Bill, a new law establishing an 18-month period to develop and implement reforms that will result in lower costs for exhibitors. I know you’re probably rolling your eyes now but the new law opens to the doors to some pretty significant changes in the way trade shows will operate in the future. What does boil down to for you, the exhibitor?

New labor work rules that reduce crew sizes, require less overtime pay.
Exhibitors OK to do their own work, regardless of booth size.
Restructuring capital debt to allow the MPEA to further lower costs for customers.
Allowing shows to select outside electrical and food service contractors.
Auditing contracts to ensure savings are passed on to customers.

Source: http://meetinchicago.typepad.com/chicagomeetingmatters/2010/05/historic-legislation-to-cut-costs-and-keep-mccormick-place-competitive-becomes-law.html

Stuller, Echelon Wrap Up Another JA Show In NYC

Joshua Rush — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 02:05:36 +0000

New York City. The Bright Lights. The Big Apple. A city that has a reputation as being one of the most culturally inspiring places in the world. It’s also a place that makes even the most hardened exhibitors cringe when they realize they’re headed to the Jacob A Javits center for an event. Why? Simply, it’s expensive.

Enter Stuller, Inc. (@stullerinc) a longtime Echelon client that this past week wrapped up with another JA show (@JAShow_NewYork). It’s their second-to-last stop before winding down their major events for the year. Our goal for this show was to make this experience as seamless as possible for Stuller.

Here’s how we did it.

I&D: Setting the tone

Labor rates in NYC aren’t as high as every other major convention city. They’re higher. Yet, everyone knows this going in. You don’t fight it. You work with it. And if you’re fortunate enough to be working with a good crew like the guys at Nth Degree you can rest better knowing that they’re looking out for the bottom line, too.

Make sure you give the guys detailed plans such as to create as few as questions about electrical requirements, constructive needs, etc. as possible.
Delegate effectively. Tackle the setup in teams so that productivity meets the timeline for setup.
Jump in where you can but be sure not to jeopardize your labor crews livelihood. They take their jobs very seriously, as well as they should. It’s New York City. Don’t fight it. Work with it.

Product Merchandising

Because Stuller is showcasing nearly 1000 sq ft of jewelry, tools and dealer solutions it’s important that we give their staff as much time as possible to prep the booth for show opening. This means that no matter when our target move-in begins, we have to give the clients at least half a day for merchandising. Fortunately, this year we had an extra half-day to install the booth so we were able to more productive in day one of the setup and provide the client ample time to complete their setup.

Dismantle

Stay out of the way. In some cases, this is the best thing your exhibit company can do to ensure a speedy break down. Stuller is no exception to this rule. These guys do half a dozen large shows a year and our ultimately responsible for the safe keeping of their product and tools. Our presence during JA dismantle is intended to assist the clients with preparation of its tools and products for outbound shipment. As soon as the client is off the floor, our team goes to work with break down of the exhibit properties. Again, our goal is not to be a trip hazard for our client.

Parting Words

In no way do I mean to belittle the NYC exhibiting experience. In fact, it’s one of my favorite places to work in the U.S. The people. The energy. The food. It all makes for memorable trade show. But I’m curious to hear what you think. What’s the best and worse experience you’ve had at a NYC event?