Oh No, Not Another Buzzword!

Michael Hughes -- Tradeshow Week, 10/18/2004

The last thing this industry needs is another buzzword. One of the most commonly used, yet most elusive, isn't even a word — it's the acronym ROD. In the future, as power continues to shift from show producers and exhibitors to attenders, the industry will need to focus on both exhibitor ROD and what may become another dreaded buzzword — attendee ROT. That is, return on time.

The importance of attendee ROT may take a while to sink in. A recent Google search for return on investment returned 253,000 mentions. Return on time turned up a miniscule 24.

Understandably, show managers focus more of their time on the revenue side of the industry. In fact, according to a just-completed Tradeshow Week survey, show managers spend 41 percent of their time on exhibitor and sponsor issues and only 31 percent on attendance and related tasks. The rest of their time is spent on administrative tasks and working with vendors.

In the future, attendee ROT will become more of an issue, as attenders and their bosses require an improved return on the total event experience and value for their time expenditure. This power shift to attenders will be the key trend driver, and it will happen because attenders simply have more choices. The exhibition industry is getting more competitive and crowded, and attenders have more events competing for their time. In 2004, according to the Tradeshow Week Data Book, the average industry sector had 47 shows (including consumer shows). For 2005, the number is projected to be 51.

Business people also have more choice in terms of where and how they get their information. Exhibitions now compete head-to-head with the Internet for the attendee's time. And it's very well-documented that other concerns and mediums are also competing for that time.

Smarter, more informed attenders are changing the exhibition industry. According to the survey, show producers feel that a large number of their attenders are "somewhat" to "very well-informed" about their exhibitors' products and services before they get to the show. Web sites and electronic marketing are the No. 1 medium informing attenders. This increased level of information gives attenders more power over exhibitors. Improving attendee ROT should translate into better exhibitor ROD as it keeps attenders coming back year after year.

Here are some ways in which show producers can assess and improve their attenders' ROT:

Attendee advisory committee: If you don't have one, start one. If you do have one, look to see if it is truly representative of your entire marketplace. Also, if this group's main task is to develop and review the educational content, you may want to expand its scope to look at the entire event.

Education and networking: Simply put, the more education and networking opportunities, the better. Of course, they have to be timely and of high value.

Showfloor: Your showfloor is designed to maximize revenue. Still, look hard to see how it can be configured to help attenders navigate and find their exhibit booth destinations more easily. Consider having floor management staff act as ushers to help wayward attenders get around, much as ushers do at concerts or sporting events. Showfloors are simply too chaotic sometimes, and while this drives up the energy level and can impress some exhibitors, it slows down your attenders.

Exhibitors: Tell them what they need to know. Most exhibitors, especially your largest, most important anchors, are so busy going from one show to another that they can sometimes miss the forest for the trees. In many industries, it may be time for show management to develop information sheets or more detailed thought pieces and seminars on how event marketing is changing and what this means to your exhibitors and attenders. Help exhibitors focus on how attenders are changing and how eventually they will be tracking the return on their time investment, just as exhibitors analyze their own ROD.

Signage: The more signs the better. But, of course, they have to be clear and well-placed to be of any value.

Event schedules and literature: If you have a complex event schedule, which is highly likely, look to see if it is designed and formatted as effectively as possible. Efficient information display is a different art from graphic design. Also, attenders usually choose which session to attend based on how catchy the session title is and whether the speaker has a knack for writing succinct descriptions with the right buzzwords. Adding three "takeaways" or value points to each session description may be more useful than suggesting which part of the audience might be most interested in it.

Matchmaking services: Using technology to match like-minded attenders with exhibitors, and even attenders with other attenders, will probably be more common over the next few years. The right software and management approach to matchmaking has the potential to increase both attendee ROT and exhibitor ROD significantly.

Inevitably, in any industry more choice and information options tend to shift power to consumers. Just look at the automotive and telecommunications industries. Consider the convention center business today. Show producers are adding more shows at the same time that new information services are informing businesspeople, and buyers in particular. Eventually, ROT will be as commonly discussed in the exhibition industry as ROD is today.