Readers Respond: How Do You Get More Attendees?

Gary Tufel -- Tradeshow Week, 8/15/2005

How to increase attendance? It's always been a top concern of show organizers, and the post-Sept. 11 travel environment, as well as new alternatives to tradeshows, continue to make attendance a challenge. Contributing Editor Gary Tufel asked industry members what they've done in the past two years to meet the challenge and boost their shows' visitor numbers.

"We have greatly expanded our electronic marketing campaign to include specific event newsletters, incentives and educational content. We have also hired top-name celebrities for meet-and-greet appearances and have donated a portion of our proceeds to local charities."

Nick Curci, President, Corporate Solutions

"Over the past two years, we have done an aggressive mail and phone campaign to attendees who have not attended our shows in the past two years, and to new prospective attendees who have never attended our shows. We have given them incentives to come to our show, such as free guest passes. We also set up a VIP registration area for them so that they do not have to wait in line to get their badges."

Robert Kolinek, President, Helen Brett Enterprises

"For our 2006 show, we're increasing the size of our e-mail database to prospect to more attendees at a lower cost. And we'll offer our conference program for free next year as well; there will no longer be a fee."

Ted Coene, President, The TFM Show, Group C Communications

"We have a key buyer manager whose job isn't necessarily to increase the number of buyers, but the quality, and that's made a huge difference. We've looked at some of our marketing strategies to focus more on the type of buyer, rather than the volume. We've added many more special events and focuses on the industry. And we moved to a brand-new facility, which many attendees were curious to see."

Mary Larkin, Vice president, seafood exhibitions, Diversified Business Communications

"We are putting greater and greater effort into the acquisition of fresh mailing lists. When attendance slumped after Sept. 11, many of the show organizers we work with curtailed their direct mail reach, in the interest of cutting expenses. Now that things are turning around, they are once again going back to basics. Broadening the direct mail universe is one way of attracting an ever-larger audience of buyers."

Bob James, Managing director, Frost Miller Group

"Over the past few years, we have made several changes to maximize acquisition of our target audiences, including increased use of granular (keyword-rich) messaging; more vertical (industry-specific) marketing initiatives; allocation of a larger percentage of media dollars to the online platform; buying shorter spot and higher frequency radio advertising campaigns; and a stronger focus on search engine marketing."

Cris Levy, Vice president, marketing, Shomex Productions

"An addition to our audience acquisition strategy is that we have really gone the way of grassroots campaigning, targeting the purists — for example, in-person visits to regional monthly user group meetings. These are people who feel, touch, and live the products, and the lifestyle, for that matter, that goes along with it."

Ron Moreau, Sales manager, Macworld Conference & Expo, IDG World Expo