But, all jokes aside, we have all been guilty of this at one point or another. Sometimes the desire to add something cool to your exhibit or event is so overwhelming that we lose sight of what we really want to say. The good news is that there’s a cure; the content!

I recently attended Red7Media’s Event Design Summit in New York to listen to, and interact with, some of the leading minds in the experiential marketing world. There were several hot topics and themes that surfaced during the event but, one that stood out to me was “Content over Technology”. What really stood out was that this message wasn’t just being flogged by the creative community alone. Technology providers and developers alike were also speaking heavily on the perils of spending more (time and money) on good technology than on good content. Even Bill Gates, someone who has made billions from selling technology, proclaimed that “Content is King” in his 2001 article of the same name.

Let’s face it, anyone can buy the latest gadget, but good creative is a tougher commodity to come by. So, what will set you apart from the pack and cut through the noise? Simply be true to your message. If you start with a great message that is on brand, followed by well developed content, the medium used to deliver that content can be as high or as low tech as you like…. but the experience will always be memorable!

Next time you catch yourslef, or anyone else, saying something like: “I really want to have technology X in my booth”, just use this simple filter and ask yourself “Why?” If you can’t immediately answer how this technology will contribute to your overall message or goals, chances are, that it probably won’t.

Fantastic Norway - Cardboard Cloud

We’ve all heard the ubiquitous term “thinking outside the box”. But, even as this stale phrase is finding its way to fossil status in the business vernacular, there is one place where it is more applicable than ever. 

In years past, trade shows have been a place to set up a structure, slap on your logo and spread out your wares. Well, times are certainly changing and so is the trade show. Creative marketers who find themselves challenged to squeeze the most out of this traditional medium, are increasingly looking beyond their booth for answers.  Some have tried tying their exhibit programs to online events, games and social media campaigns. Others have created multi-city mobile marketing programs that coincide with, and support, their traditional trade show schedule. Even within the exhibit itself, we are seeing a lot more theater and a lot less old-school selling. 

Whatever the tool or tactic, by thinking “outside the box”, these creative brand and event managers are completely redefining it. 

EXPERIENCE vs. STRUCTURE 

Over the last few months the long debate over “Experience vs. Structure” has surfaced regularly within the exhibit/events community. With exorbitant labor rates for set-up, drayage, shipping and other show-related costs, most exhibitors are looking for better ways of leaving an impression on their target audience without leaving an equally large impression on their marketing budget. One way is to focus on the experience and let the structure take a back seat rather than the leading role. 

I have to admit that most clients still present creative briefs that read like grocery lists: “We need a reception desk, two demo stations, storage, literature racks and a meeting space…”. Briefs like this have a way of always producing very similar results and stifling any real creative thought that may have surfaced. 

In contrast, those who provide briefs focused on goals, rather than “stuff”, often have a better shot at getting unique solutions that they might have never considered. 

This approach is becoming much more common as exhibitors and marketers are starting to tap their creative partners for alternatives. In the end, focusing on the overall visitor experience, and what you want them to take away from your event, forces you to think about true brand direction and goals in a way that the standard “grocery list” approach never will. 

After all, in today’s world of Twitter and Facebook, it’s no longer just about how brands talk to people, but more about how people talk to brands. With the number of “follows, shares and likes” starting to have a direct impact on many brands’ bottom lines, how people experience your message is critical to how they feel about, and promote, it.

It was released by The Convention Industry Council and is entitled: The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy  

The study was conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers US and some of the highlights include that the U.S. meetings industry directly supports 1.7 million jobs, a $106 billion contribution to GDP, $263 billion in spending, $60 billion in labor revenue, $14.3 billion in federal tax revenue and $11.3 billion in state and local tax revenue.

To be honest, I was a little surprised by these numbers. When you consider that, by comparison, the North American airline industry reported revenues of $159 billion in 2010, this really helps put your next trade show, conference or event into perspective.

With meetings and events representing more than half the size of the US auto sector, I have to say that I find it very rewarding to finally learn how important our industry is to the economy. I’ll certainly walk the aisles at my next trade show with some new-found respect!

In our last series of posts we discussed how trade shows and events are becoming more integrated with technology, with QR codes, live social media interaction and Augmented Reality driving the trend to hybrid exhibits and events.

Another rising trend is the use of Radio Frequency Identification or RFID to bring static displays to life. Essentially, this technology involves the use of a chip containing detailed information and a reader that activates various effects or reactions once the chip is detected. In 1998 British scientist Kevin Warwick made history by being the first person to have an RFID chip implanted under their skin. As a test, his implant was used to open doors, switch on lights, and cause verbal output within a building. Today, RFID has become more mainstream and it can be used to bring almost any environment or display to life.

“It’s Alive!”

Another classic use of this technology would be to embed objects with unique RFID chips. When an object is placed near an interactive screen equipped with an RFID reader, dynamic content comes to life around the physical object or interacts with it.  The image below illustrates this effect. An RFID-enabled glass is placed onto a Microsoft Surface touch-table. The dynamic content begins to swirl around the glass and follows it anywhere it is placed.

“Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!”

According to Mike Zuganelis of StudioPMG—a digital marketer and one of the leaders in leveraging RFID for marketing— another effective method of incorporating RFID technology is through badges. Having visitors wearing badges with RFID chips allows the space to come to life around them and provides marketers the opportunity to gain valuable insights about their prospects. Wrapped in a compelling incentive, it also gives exhibitors a great ice-breaker by asking show attendees the question “have you been re-badged?” Eager not to miss the boat, the normally reluctant visitors inevitably allow you to scan their existing badge in order to receive a chipped one (complete with personal data obtained from the scanned original and the show database). Marketers who seamlessly incorporate the rebadging process into their experience reap the largest reward.

As attendees begin to explore your exhibit, interactive touch-screens and displays will recognize the badge and possibly greet them by name, even asking them to participate in a game or prompt them to answer specific questions. A more subtle effect would be to trigger sound, video and lighting effects as visitors walk past an RFID receiver.

While RFID can really allow the visitor to “activate” the space, it can also be used for metrics. The technology can collect data, allowing marketing and trade show managers to track usage and interest within the exhibit. Through RFID and the support network behind it, we are able to get a great bird’s-eye view of who spent how much time at what part of the exhibit, and why. This usage, along with any answers or input that visitors entered at a particular display, is automatically linked to their profile for later review.

Certainly, having the latest and greatest can be out of reach for many exhibitors, but the beauty of RFID is how scalable it is. You can use it in a single interactive display for a 10×10 booth, or fill your 10,000 sq.ft. exhibit with a linked network of RFID stations enabled for interactive data-capture.

Big or small, keep your eye’s open during your next trade show or conference for a small chip that packs a big punch!

In part 1 of this post we explored the increased acceptance of remote collaboration technologies and the ensuing rise of virtual trade shows and events.  At first many of us wondered if technology and an ailing economy would conspire to replace the traditional trade show forever. However, today we are beginning to see that something much more exciting and promising is occurring.  Real and virtual events have come together to offer traditional face-to-face experiences that also incorporate a live virtual component. These combined experiences are being billed as “Hybrid Events”.

The appeal of keeping the benefits of a face-to-face experience, while expanding your reach exponentially through virtual means, is easy to understand.  The increased ROI and larger audience is an exhibit manager’s dream, and hybrids offer the potential for both. When you consider the relative low cost of adding the virtual component to your exhibit, the proposition is a simple one to buy into.

All you have to do is follow the popular #eventprofs group on Twitter and it won’t be long before you come across a slew of event professionals professing and practicing the benefits of these “new wave” tradeshows. Emilie Barta is one such member of the online event community and she has long been a proponent and vanguard of the Hybrid Event movement. I have copied an abbreviated list of her top 9 reasons for going virtual with your trade show program here:

• increase the size of your audience
• extends the reach of your conference to a global community
• gives those unable to attend the ability to still participate in your conference
• creates new sponsorship opportunities
• footage can be archived and used for further education and promotion
• show that your association/organization is forward thinking and on the cutting edge of technology
• enable year-round, never-ending conversations and interactions that reach beyond your physical event
• more people involved in your conference means more idea-sharing and brain-storming
• convert virtual attendees into face-to-face attendees at your next event

In the Hybrid Event, the online component usually represents a virtual duplicate of a face-to-face activity or display. Examples may include:

• online chat with event staff and even with other (live) participants
• interactive blogs that are written and commented on in real time
• active commentary through social media networks such as Twitter, Linked In or Facebook
• Live streaming video of conferences, workshops and speakers
• virtual presentations such as web-casts

A leader in the arena of hybrid and virtual events has been Cisco. Earlier this year they were awarded the prestigious Grand Ex award and recognized for both the Global Sales Experience (GSX) and Cisco Live hybrid events. Not only was it the first hybrid event to win the Grand Ex prize, but this is also the first BtoB Event ever awarded this honor.

This is a promotional video for the Cisco Live hybrid events:

The video below (also linked above) is a case study of the potential power of virtual experiences as illustrated with the Cisco GSX event: 

Lastly, there is another variant of the virtual world being combined with trade shows. We have already covered Augmented Reality in previous posts and shown how real-world objects and places are being “hardlinked” to the online world via codes that can be unlocked by smartphones and camera-enabled computers. They have the capacity to overlay virtual content over everyday objects and places, essentially augmenting reality! 

This phenomenon has not been lost on the trade show world and several great examples of AR being used in exhibits have popped up. Marketing a trade show has become a much more “mobile” effort. The new breed of trade show attendee spends as much time walking the aisles staring at their i-phones as they do at exhibits. Event marketers have realized that reaching attendees via their mobile world is now the first step in reaching them face-to-face. Various apps, social networks and electronic media have been employed to engage these show-goers before, during and after the events for a much richer experience. Using the same channels, AR is now seeing widespread adoption in events. 

The use of AR is just one other enhancement that has helped the trade show space become much more engaging and interactive. Perfect Prototype is a firm that has specialized in creating such displays. Click on this image to link to their site where you will see examples of Augmented Reality being used to add animations to literature bring a heart display to life in a medical conference and even allow you to fly a helicopter around the trade show hall. 

In conclusion, the hybridization of physical and virtual worlds has opened up a multitude of opportunities to the event community and the future is here. I’m happy to say that “Hybrid Events” will only serve to expand the reach of trade shows to a larger audience and increase their relevance for years to come.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with hybrid events, virtual trade shows and using augmented reality in your displays.

As businesses mandated cuts in non-essential travel, web-based meeting providers such as GoToMeeting and WebEx saw a huge increase in users. This shift to adopt less expensive “off-site” interaction also helped drive the idea of virtual tradeshows. The last couple of years have seen a steady rise in virtual trade show “attendance”. Electronic media firms like PlatformQ and Unisfair began rolling out virtual fairs that were designed to look and feel like the real thing. Many of us in the event business watched this trend intently and even wondered if this was going to cause a major paradigm shift that would eventually send the entire trade show industry the way of the dodo bird? Well, in a nutshell, it did not.

A couple of years on and the jury appears to be in. The vast majority of virtual tradeshow users will agree that, while they can offer an information-rich and lower cost experience, virtual shows are best employed as an accompaniment to the real thing and not a replacement. According to a Champion Exposition Services study, one in four people planned to use a digital event platform in the association market. The study also found that 70% of respondents are actively producing, considering or interested in pursuing virtual events. However, many were not looking to replace physical events, but add on virtual components. So, even as Facebook and Twitter are becoming a mainstream reality of the business world, we still see physical face-to-face interaction remaining relevant. Why?

The answer is an easy one; the quality of the interaction is simply better. Most salespeople will tell you that they can be more effective face-to-face. You simply get more out of a real conversation than you do from an email or a phone call (or even a WebEx meeting). CFOs around the world will certainly challenge this sort of statement, but there is actually some real science behind it.

A study done by Albert Mehrabian (currently Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UCLA) found that you can break down communication into three elements: words, tone of voice and body language. Generally speaking, he also found that these three elements contribute differently to the meaning/understanding of the message:

- Words account for only 7%

- Tone of voice accounts for 38% and

- Body language accounts for 55% of the message.

Now, I will admit that Dr. Mehrabian’s findings are sometimes taken out of context, but anyone who has ever failed miserably in an attempt to be funny or sarcastic via email can attest to this phenomenon. A phone conversation would certainly be better than words alone, but, as the numbers suggest, nothing can substitute the full delivery of communication that comes with a face-to-face interaction. The instant connection that can be made in person is invaluable to many situations.

For this reason alone, I don’t believe that tradeshows and events will ever become obsolete; but they certainly are changing!

Look for my second installment to this post entitled “The Hybrid” and learn how Social Media, Mobile Marketing and technologies such as Augmented Reality are helping to change the face of trade shows and events forever.

One thing that has puzzled me for years is how, even with great research, planning and execution, great ideas very often get killed prematurely at the presentation stage, while mediocre creative seems to pervade the marketing world.

Well, I recently found an eye-opening explanation to this phenomenon in a series of old posts from one of my favourite blogs: The Ad Contrarian (written by Bob Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman/Lewis advertising). The three-part series is entitled How to Sell Great Creative and it offers great insight from both, an agency, as well as the client side. Bob’s background may be in advertising, but his points easily apply to exhibit & event design and all forms of face-to-face marketing as well.

Whether you are looking for great marketing or you are in the business of creating it, these three posts are a great read and I highly recommend them. You can check them out here:  The Big Show – Let’s Do It On The Floor – Ego and Failure

Bob makes two key statements that make up the foundation of his position. Firstly, “avoid the large boardroom pitch”,or the ”BIG SHOW” as he calls it. Here’s an excerpt from his first post:
 

  Large group presentations are the death of good advertising (marketing). Here’s why:

• When you gather so many people together, the importance of the meeting becomes exaggerated.

• When a meeting takes on exaggerated importance, participants become anxious.

• Clients can smell agency anxiety a mile away. It’s contagious and it causes fear. Fear is the enemy of an open mind.

• The meeting becomes a medium for the creation of subtle power relationships and a showcase for lower level people to demonstrate their analytic abilities (which is another way of saying ‘finding flaws.’)

• Every idea has weak points. Gone With The Wind has weak points. The Great Gatsby has weak points. People will be scrambling to show off by being the first to identify the weak points.

• Internal rivalries will be played out through the language of criticism.

• All comments will be equivocal until the highest ranking person speaks.

The biggest killer of good ideas is not research or clients or budgets. It’s The Big Show.

In order to sell great work, you must do everything in your power to avoid The Big Show. You must avoid the conference room. You must avoid pastries and agendas.

This leads into the second key point.  “If you are a client that wants really creative work…. let the real decision maker at your company work directly with the real creative leader on your account.”

Sounds simple right? Well, not always. Egos and layers of superfluous stakeholders tend to make these creative summits very rare. As Bob puts it:

“It is without question a better way to accomplish the primary goal of both agency and client — to produce better advertising (marketing).

And yet, because of the structure and politics of most client-agency relationships, this method of operation is almost impossible.”

Now, I can attest to the fact that, without a direct line to the primary decision maker, most projects just go in circles or die on the table. In most cases you will ether show up to a presentation with (a) third-hand information and creative that is way off target, or (b) a once-great concept that is no longer recognizable as a result of many levels of input from the wrong people. Either one is a recipe for disaster for agency and client, with neither party really getting what they want or need.

Bob’s posts were focused on how agencies can sell great ideas, but I think they’re just as much about how clients can nurture great creative marketing.

Personally, if I were a MarCom or event manager, I would prefer to take up a few minutes of my CMO’s time and get them involved with the agency at the onset of a project, rather than risk wasted weeks of work and having the project that I helped develop fail due to any or all of the above reasons. As difficult and impossible as it may seem at times, I have to agree with Bob; it is the single best way to achieve a truly outstanding campaign (or trade show exhibit, event, activation etc…).

At first this topic may seem confined to the exhibit/event design world, but, if you’re in the business of purchasing, selling, working or even managing a tradeshow booth or event, maybe you should consider this question for a second. It sounds absurd, but we take for granted that a mechanic has driven a car; that an architect has lived in a house. These are fairly universal things, but what about trade show exhibits? Do the people you entrust to counsel you on experiential events and environments have any real foundation of experience in the practical application of their ideas?

My first time was in Las Vegas. I was asked to make the trip down to sin city several years ago to help out behind the counter at my firm’s Exhibitor booth. I was apprehensive at first. This was the world of salespeople and marketing types; not designers. But, I guess I had evolved into a more client-facing “doodler” over the years and now found myself in this unfamiliar role. I was assured it would be fine and off I went to help promote our brand and services.

The experience was fun and rewarding, but the thought that struck me after the first rush of attendees zoomed past our booth was “I had no idea it was this difficult to make people stop”. How had I done it for years? How had I designed and proposed successful exhibit designs and entire event and tradeshow strategies without ever having experienced the challenges on the ground first hand? This disturbed me at first. Sure, I had been to auto shows before, and I suppose that I just learned on the job, that I absorbed knowledge and skills from those around me. Today, there are specific programs for would-be exhibit designers, but, more often than not, creative departments are filled with people of varied backgrounds such as industrial or interior designers. Some have even come from the world of theatre, architecture or even from engineering-related fields. I came to realize that these individuals may actually have little to no understanding of tradeshows and events at all when they are first hired! It was a sobering thought.

I came home from that trip with a new-found perspective on my job. Simple things like adequate storage, comfortable flooring, areas for private discussion and clear, visible graphic messages took on new meaning. I finally got it! Things I’d always taken for granted now made more sense as a “user” than they ever did as a designer. It reminded me of a great Chinese proverb I learned a long time ago:

“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”

Things are a lot better today.  I’m happy to say that our firm makes an effort to expose designers and new employees in all departments to the day-to-day realities our clients face. I try to make sure we attend as many events and trade shows as possible and we even bring along some younger members of our staff to help out with our own events. Nonetheless, the fact remains that I spent many years early in my career working for some very large and familiar exhibit firms and working on top-tier brands… all the while rarely ever stepping inside a convention center.

My advice to all of you out there on the client (or end-user) side is this: Try to ensure your partners and team have the exposure to really “get” your business. Don’t be shy about asking details regarding your designer’s background and experience level; or even that of your account and project managers. Next time you have a show that is relatively local, consider inviting the folks behind the scenes to come down and observe the set-up and the show… maybe even assist in some way. In the end, walking a trade show in your shoes will make them better partners who are more sympathetic and understanding of your needs.

For those creatives out there who have been in my shoes, I’d love to hear about your experiences “on the floor” and your thoughts on this subject?

More than any other word, “why” has the ability to imply a search for deeper meaning. It is also something that I increasingly find myself asking. Whether in work or life, the need to understand and rationalize the “why”, or in fact, the very importance of any given decision, has become a bit of a habit for me. I didn’t understand it at first, but a great article by Phil Roybal of The Hill Group just seemed to crystallize my obsession with this question. The article is entitled “Drive listeners to your view by starting with “why”.

Phil opens his post with this great introduction:

“When I talk to audiences, I try to lead with the juice, the core value, the “why”. This is the way, really the only way, to bring them to my point of view. Tech seer Alan Kay says “Perspective is worth 80 IQ points.“ It’s the why that provides that perspective, allowing listeners to buy into a concept; a decision they then justify with the facts you give them. Simon Sinek, in his book Starting from Why, talks about why this approach works and how to apply it to your situation.”

He goes on to explain the practical application of “why”, using references from the world of marketing. I operate in the world of face-to-face marketing and this methodology is even more poignant when applied to telling a story through tradeshows and events.

I quickly realized that Phil’s affirming point of view is something that I must have already understood at a subconscious level and even found myself manifesting in my professional life. For example; rather than simply following a design brief, I’m now constantly at odds with the motives behind a client’s request.  After years of designing exhibits, events and campaigns, I have developed a real curiosity for understanding how clients set their goals and targets to begin with.

It has led me to not just do, but to probe, question and examine in order to gain deeper insight. I have found that by simply trying to understand “why” a client is heading down a particular path, or by helping them to understand the true reason behind their request, the “how” just seems to fall into place.

So next time you’re sitting in a meeting and everyone is spit-balling ideas and coming to decisions, stop for a moment and simply ask “why”. If you can answer in one sentence, you’re probably headed down the right road. It is probably the best litmus test for ideas I have come across. It will also result in a clearer understanding of your purpose, which translates into messaging that is more pure and that your audience can better connect with.

I highly recommend reading the whole post. Phil also links to this great TED talk by Simon Sinek where he expands on these ideas.

In the past, exhibitors might have compensated for uninspired marketing by having sports cars, video games or even attractive models drawing attention to their booths. Today those things have largely been replaced by gesture screens, touch tables or holographic projections.

Now don’t get me wrong; I’m not averse to such tactics when they are well executed and paired with great content… I’ve used them several times. However, I am opposed to technology for technology’s sake. I recently read a very refreshing article on NOTCOT.COM that threw me back to a simpler time… and gave me some real inspiration.

The focus of the story was the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany and, in particular, the sliced Porsche cut-aways that featured the inner workings of the vehicles and the design process used to create them. Although the technology necessary to create these slices is pretty cool in itself, the displays remain fairly “old school” and passive. But it was the author’s enthusiasm and wonder at the workmanship and meticulous detail of the cars that reminded me of similar experiences I’ve had at museums, science centers and exhibits throughout my life. It also left me wondering; in this age of cost savings and down-sized budgets, what other low-tech interactive ideas have imaginatively found their way into tradeshows and events? Here are a few I’ve come across.

Puzzled? For our own exhibit campaign launched at EXHIBITOR2010, kubik wanted to focus on having “all the right pieces” for your next trade show or event. This led to a puzzle theme where, amongst other things, visitors were mailed a 6-piece puzzle invitation, with an extra piece included. They were asked to bring that piece to the booth to participate in building our message. Very interactive and low cost!

Come on Down! The Price Is Right might seem a bit dated today, but this venerable classic included a wealth of low-tech interactive games that launched a series of gameshow themed events. I’ve seen Plinko effectively used in event campaigns that turned hokey into high traffic. Check out this example for Dakota College’s Flamingo Fling.

Got it, Got it, Need it! I remember reading about an exhibitor that incorporated a scavenger hunt into their event. Prizes were handed out and the items on the list were nicely tied into the company’s marketing messages. A great way to have fun at a tradeshow!

Think BIG! The 1988 Tom Hanks film BIG featured an animated fortune teller machine called ZOLTAR. I’ve seen this machine replicated and rented for events where it delivered customized fortune cards to attendees. Imagine pairing this with a direct mail invitation using chocolate gold coins or carnival tokens. I admit it is getting into video game territory, but Zoltar is unique, fun and easy to integrate into a campaign.

Some would argue that these interactive tactics have seen their day. I believe that with the right campaign around them, they can offer a low cost way of engaging audiences that doesn’t involve kicking imaginary balls on a floor, scanning QR codes with your iPhone or making a company’s logo ripple with the wave of your hand.

Your attendees may not remember your touch-screen kiosk, but they’ll sure remember any of these. I’d love to hear about other effective examples that you’ve seen.