Trade Shows—Combining the Virtual and Physical

Trade shows have come a long way from the days of simply “manning the booth and scanning the badge.” What was once solely a physical event has become a global, virtual opportunity to share relevant content and deliver marketing messages to unlimited numbers of participants.

Along with advances in technology, many of the changes in the trade show business have been accelerated by current economic realities. The consequences have been positive. The evolution of combined physical and virtual events—a sort of trade show hybrid— has resulted in:

• Greater customer engagement
• Wider reach for sales

Leveraging the Virtual

As reported by B to B Magazine, during the 2010 SAPPHIRE NOW event, SAP conducted two concurrent physical events in Orlando and Frankfurt. In addition, people were able to view live satellite feeds at locations around the world. While the Frankfurt and Orlando locations attracted about 20,000 attendees, another 30,000 were virtual attendees.

Online users were able to participate virtually through live HD-streaming feeds of more than 400 conference sessions, as well as via live chat and Q & As with speakers. In short, SAP reached far more people than they would have just a few years ago.

New Media

Combining this live, online broadcasting platform availability with social media interaction has increased the potential for engagement to an even higher level. And a measurable one at that. Prior to an event, you can promote with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter—not only to your own network, but to groups on all these sites that exist in the industry segment. Use of new media at the show itself brings even more possibilities to reach, interact and track responses. Because nearly everyone at a trade show is carrying their smartphones, you don’t have to rely solely on people showing up to your booth. More potential customers are exposed to the brand, products and services by adding features such as:

• Mobile promotions
• SMS texting
• Twitter feeds
• Live chat rooms

Interactive technologies can let attendees build their own agendas and interact with content as well as with each other. All of these trackable interactions can increase your tradeshow ROI more than ever before.

Event Execution

Face-to-face is the ideal way for people to experience meetings, but economic realities and budgets don’t always allow you to physically attend events as often as in the past. This new, experience-based model is the key to competitive differentiation at the shows you choose to participate in.