More Choices: ROI Drive Spurs New Models

The need to demonstrate measurable ROI from tradeshows is prompting some organizers to experiment with alternatives to the traditional booth model.

Some organizers are exploring alternatives that make the show experience less random (thereby increasing return), while others are limiting the costs of exhibiting and attending (thereby limiting investment). Three of the most popular alternatives are pre-scheduled meetings, road shows and virtual tradeshows.

The scheduled-meetings approach builds on the traditional model. The show goes on as usual, with a showfloor and booths, but the show manager also arranges for sit-down meetings between individual buyers and sellers that have expressed a mutual interest. The meetings are a pre-set length of time that varies from show to show, but is almost always shorter than a typical in-office sales pitch. At the end of the meeting, the parties decide whether to meet again. The show manager often facilitates any follow-up meetings as well.

For both buyer and seller, the pre-set meetings formula translates into a more targeted set of contacts at the show. They allow the participants to point more directly to measurable ROI. Meanwhile, the show manager boosts revenues with the value-added services of screening and coordinating the meetings.

Two shows that are using pre-scheduled meetings effectively are the Marine Aftermarket Accessories Trade Show and the Natl. Lawn & Garden Show.

The three-year-old MAATS picked up the concept from retail shows and has used it from its inception, said MAATS Project Manager Kathleen Clickett. The show typically splits each of its three days between dedicated time for meetings and the exhibition floor. The meeting slots are 25 or 55 minutes long, Clickett said.

The format has particularly been a boon to international buyers, who get only the longer meeting slots. "It's a good opportunity for the newer people or smaller companies who are breaking into the marine world to get in front of the buyers and find out if their product is wanted or needed," Clickett said.

Bob Mikulas, president and CEO of the Natl. Lawn & Garden Show, said his show's "controlled marketing" approach has been so successful that he has started a new company, Controlled Marketing Conferences, to arrange pre-scheduled meetings for other shows.

NLGS locates its 10-minute meetings in an area of conference tables, adjacent to the showfloor but separated by glass walls. Mikulas sees it as a useful addendum to most tradeshows (but not necessarily consumer shows), because it is difficult for exhibitors to measure ROI at booth-style events. "At our event, exhibitors can measure it very easily," he said.

The road show format is also gaining in popularity, particularly in technical fields. A road show typically looks like a small tradeshow, but tours a number of cities, appearing in a hotel ballroom for a single day, often with a strong conference component. There are usually booths, but not always the same booths; regional vendors may exhibit only close to home.

Penton Media sees enough promise in its Windows IT Pro Roadshow that it is launching a company-wide road show initiative, which aims to send out road shows in connection with all of its magazine titles.

The Medical Records Institute, which also runs an annual conference and exhibition with 150 exhibitors and 4,000 attendees, has decided to roll out a road show this year to demonstrate its digital system for storing and maintaining medical records.

"The road show is more efficient than cold calling or any other traditional way of getting leads for your salespeople," said MRI CEO Peter Waegemann. "The target customer is the small doctor who is not really into computers. In the main conference, we get few of those doctors. They're not willing to travel across the country to be introduced to a very complex field."

The schedule allows doctors to see a presentation on MRI's system and still see patients for part of the day. The admission charge ($35 to $55) is a fraction of what it costs to attend MRI's larger show, and the doctor can return with an office manager.

For MRI, the road show has a bonus benefit. "Once a doctor has bought a system through the road show, then they may be ready to go to the (booth-and-floor) tradeshow," says Waegemann.

Finally, there's the virtual tradeshow. Many Web sites claim the title of "virtual tradeshow," though some are little more than a page of links to companies or online catalogs.

But a few companies have taken the idea further. Among them, iTradeFair.com uses a booth metaphor to set up online exhibits that offer virtual business cards, electronic brochures, slide shows, video and other kinds of presentations. The booth is open 24/7, but during designated "show hours" they can even provide a point-and-click link to a live online chat and/or a telephone link with the company.

The iTradeFair booths can be composed from pre-designed "skins" that resemble a tradeshow booth, so a buyer can click on the phone to dial the seller, click on a television screen to see a presentation, and so forth. Because each buyer and seller gets a unique log-in code, the site is able to track movement and activity for every exhibitor and visitor, producing hard metrics.

"We use the tradeshow metaphor because it helps jump the learning curve quicker," said iTradeFair's Ramesh Sambasivan. "Our focus has been on demystifying the technology and making it so simple that you do not need an IT department to take part in a virtual tradeshow." Exhibitors, he said, can set up a virtual booth in an hour or less once they have their brochures, presentations and business cards in electronic form.

Sambasivan said the virtual model works well for service-based industries, where the seller has little to show in the way of tangible samples even on a traditional showfloor. "It's probably less effective in something like a bridal show where, if you're trying to find providers as a wedding planner, you need to go and taste the cake, feel the fabric."

Right now, virtual booths are hosted from the iTradeFair.com site. In the future, said Sambasivan, the goal is to allow the booth to be "dismantled" and used on other sites, which would link back to the iTradeFair site. Future plans also include fully customizable booths that would resemble a company's physical booth. But first, the idea has to catch on.

Said Sambasivan: "We work with a lot of Fortune 100 companies, and I think tradeshow producers are beginning to see the potential of this, but not to the extent we'd like them to."