The Next 10 Years

If you thought the last 10 years were a roller coaster – just wait. The next decade is likely to be just as volatile.

The reason? The Internet is transforming all businesses, particularly those in marketing and media. So far, conventions and exhibitions have been helped, more than hurt, by the Web and other technologies. Producers have benefited tremendously from using technology to market their events.

But the industry's immunity over time is not completely assured. For events to stay competitive, organizers will have to refine their marketing models and value propositions. It will also take more aggressive and effective marketing to break through to overwhelmed and somewhat confused marketers – and busier attendees.

The Internet has given buyers in all industries easy access to better, faster and cheaper information. This trend has shifted power to buyers. In the exhibition industry, power is shifting to attendees.

According to a recent Tradeshow Week research survey of corporate exhibitors, attendees are well-informed through information available on the Internet. They are further along in the buying process when they get to the show. That means the stakes are higher for exhibitors, because attendees are coming to shows with a more defined purpose and a robust agenda.

More informed attendees also have an effect on event producers. A well-publicized issue has been the impact of online discounters on hotel blocks. The Internet allows prospective attendees to access information and education from other providers, compare conference fees with other shows, learn more about host cities, and most importantly, source buyers from other areas.

The good news is that informed buyers are more engaged attendees. They need an up-close view of the people and products they have been reviewing on the Web. Also, going forward, it is likely that all business people will require more information and education to stay on top of rapidly changing markets and trends.

Over time, the impact of more empowered attendees is going to be felt more directly by exhibitors. The challenge for marketers is that they are already somewhat confused by all the other changes in the business world.

Marketers are facing rapid market change and fragmentation, as well as shifting corporate strategies driven by mergers and acquisitions. The impact of the Internet has lowered barriers to entry, adding more marketing channels and causing more price transparency. On top of this, most marketers are not even close to mastering all the options and issues with new media. Finally, the need to track ROI poses another challenge.

To help alleviate exhibitor confusion, event producers and vendors can clarify the value proposition and simplify all event-related interaction and processes. They should also pay attention to the little things at shows, such as improved signage and better security near loading docks and storage. In short, the idea is to aid and comfort your clients and make their lives easier.

The relationship between events and other media (in particular, the Internet) will be very important over the next 10 years. Exhibitors need to integrate their event marketing programs with their corporations' full range of marketing efforts. Therefore, event producers must sell the value of events as the perfect complement to Web-based marketing.

It is interesting that while conventions and exhibitions are so important to the industries and other media they serve, they are also considered separate from other sales and branding efforts. For example, only about half of exhibitors say that their company's overall marketing and communications efforts are closely integrated with their event-marketing campaigns.

Yet, what are conventions and tradeshows, if not an industry's key players converged in one place? They represent an industry in miniature, crammed into a convention center for a few days.

The Internet and events essentially provide the same things in different ways. They provide community, commerce, communication, information and education, and the ability for one-stop shopping. The Internet's key application is speed and efficiency, and the value of events is the personal interaction.

Web sites are the introduction to an organization. Events take brands where Web sites leave off. (Metaphor alert: The Web is the porch; events are the living room.) This will become even more important over time, as buyers require personal interaction to sort though the clutter of an overwhelming amount of information.

Event executives need to think about how their relationship to other media might change over the next 10 years. The question is (and for each industry the answer will be different): To what degree will marketing efforts and media revolve around events?

Conventions and exhibitions have actually been the calm in the storm of marketing and media changes, because they foster personal interaction.

For the event industry to stay relevant, it needs to be the avenue for taking prospects from the Web through longer and more complicated sales processes, all the way to the close, while educating and adding value to industries in between.

The Web is the introduction to an organization and the preeminent communications tool. Events are the flesh and blood.