Convention Insider (Conventions.net)

I stated before i wanted to have a chance to do some blogging from the 50th State and it appears that I am getting that wish. I am at the Royal Hawaii on Waikiki as I am typing this post.  I will be posting more from my adventures here in Hawaii and will be getting some interviews from the Hawaii Tourism Authority and some interview and info and reviews and feedback from the hotels that I stay at while I am here.

For now I have to say that I am drinking from the Paradise Firehose since I arrived here yesterday. I had a chance to see some of the "Gem Properties" of the Hawaiian Islands.  I will talk more about those as I get a chance to decompress a little but since I am writig this to you at 4:00 a.m. so that I may get a jump on the next island I will wait to get a full post then.  Suffice it to say that we are getting the VIP treatment here in our "So Much More Hawaii" social media tour!

Tags: HawaiiHTA, Travel, Tourism, Royal Hawaiian, Sheraton, Waikiki

I have been reading a lot of posts lately and articles and other information on virtual trade shows and virtual conventions.  Yes, this may be a new idea that has had it time to come to us in the form of technology, but there seems to be a single most important factor that is missing from the virtual world–human interaction.  There is just something about meeting people face-to-face that makes it all worth while.  Meeting and Conventions has a great post up about the in the flesh meetings.  It is worth a read for the sake of just getting some numbers. For building your brand, making sales and earning relationships there is still nothing better than meeting that person across from you shaking hands and saying hello.

Tags: Events, Conferences, Conventions, Trade Shows, Sales, Relationships

YouTube is the number 2 searched or visited site on the planet right now.  I always say that it happens to be right behind Google as the case is, and it must be rough having the first two slots of visited Internet sites, being that Google bought and owns YouTube.  YouTube is a great way to broadcast a message, provide information and a great social media tool for use in your trade show or convention.  I recently spoke at the IAEE event in Miami last year and met Dana Doody of The Expo Group and explained the use of a Flip Camera as a way to take video of your event or trade show and Dana went right out and started using it.  You can see a sample of what Dana is doing in London! Great job Dana.

Tags: YouTube, Google, Social Media, IAEE, The Expo Group, Miami, Dana Doody

Are you using any forms of social media to help you with your event?  Does your show have its own Facebook group, a blog, a Twitter page?  What are you using in the new social media space to promote your trade show or convention?  Many people are now adopting the new form of online marketing, and it is helping search results, it is making it easier to communicate with attendees, conference organizers and speakers.  If you are using social media what tools seem to work best for you.  I will talk about what we have done here at Conventions.net to help attract our readership, using some of the tools available.  In order for you to keep up with your competition, you too need to adopt some of the newest and latest tools available. In the meantime, I won’t see you in the funny papers but I might just see you on Twitter.

Tags: social media, tools, trade shows, conventions, promotion

This is probably not what you were thinking you would read after that title.  I am not asking the question of how much it costs you put on a convention or the overhead it takes to run a successful trade show.  I’m referring to the other side of the coin.  How much does it cost the average attendee to show up at the door when registration opens?  I was recently in a forum where people were telling me that they would never be able to attend an event as they would have to make it a mini vacation in order to attend.  This got my attention a little.  As conference organizers and event planners, we always think about our own bottom line, but what do we do to think about the end user?

How much do you think it really costs to attend your event?  I was speaking at a small town event last week and they charged around $50.00 for an all day seminar, lunch, the facility and some cool door prizes.  To me that was a very small sum of money to charge to hear some really good speakers and information (No I don’t mean me!).  But to the small town guy that is trying to survive in this economy $50 was a large chunk of money.  I attended an event the week before that in San Francisco and it was $1,000 to attend and I had to stand while I ate!  Yes, it is all relative I know but I implore you to think about the other side of the coin when planning your next event or meeting or conference.  How much does it cost to attend?  I would have gone to an event this week, but I couldn’t afford the babysitter.  See what I mean?  You have to think of everything!

Tags: Conventions, Trade Shows, Economy, Costs

I have been on a speaking run here in the first 5 months of 2009 and it looks like that trend may continue.  I sometimes submit myself as a speaker and other times I am asked by event planners to come and speak to their attendees.  As an event organizer myself I know how it is to get a large number of submissions of speaking ideas and proposals and to have to pour through them to make a decision on what speaker might best fit.

I recently received an announcement by for a call for speakers:

Event Technology Expo (ETE), the National Expo and Conference addressing all aspects of Technology for Tradeshows, Meetings/Conventions, and Special Events, has issued its call for speakers for the upcoming national event. The show will be returning to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, September 9-10, 2009, as a co-located event with HSMAI’s Affordable Meetings® National.

In order to get the instructions on submission you can go to their site.  The submissions are open until May 25, 2009.  If you are a person that is comfortable speaking in front of an audience, it might be a good idea to submit your own speaking proposal to an event that is in your genre or niche.  It is a good way to help build your own personal brand and get you in front of the people that could help you and your business.

Tags: ETE, Washington DC, Events, Trade Shows, Conventions

No, this is not a test of the emergency broadcast system and no, it is now a pop quiz.  The purpose of this post is to let you know if you have a meeting facility or if you have a place where people are giving presentations or putting on seminars or have other AV needs, you need to test EVERYTHING.  I come from a time when it was cool to be the certified AV kid who was trained to run the film projector.  Yes, I am that old, we had real film projectors instead of VCR tapes. Now of course we have the state of the art in our schools, but I digress.

I wanted to let companies out there know, and if you are a meeting planner, event planner or otherwise, you need to pay attention as well, you need to test your equipment.  I was recently at an event as a featured speaker and due to my experience in that area I was able to lend a hand when it came to the equipment that was being used by the facility and the speakers.  I should not have had to take the time to do this as any well respected meeting location should have all of your audio visual needs well in hand.  As speakers, it is your responsibility as well to be familiar with your own equipment and be prepared for any glitches that may occur.  if you are using Mac vs. PC you should be prepared with the proper adapters.  If you put your slide deck on a thumb drive make sure it is the most updated etc.  Be prepared as a speaker and if you own a facility, make sure your familiar with the equipment.  It makes a better experience for the people that are attending, the speakers that need to use your facility and will result in repeat business.  My best advice for you and your equipment?  Test.

Tags: technology, conventions, trade shows, meetings, meeting planners, event planners, conference planners, seminars

I was just sent an unsolicited email from a group called Scan IT which is a company that sells software for a business card scanner.  The software is nothing really new and many companies offer this as a service.  My friend Allen Stern has a company like that called Cloud Contacts.  In addition we have featured a company here that eliminates business cards in a sense at a trade show or conventions or any other meeting.  All-in-all, we need to get in touch with each other which is the focus behind this post.  The email I refer to had this statement:

According to a 2008 study by the Aberdeen Group, a global technology research firm, 28% of tradeshow leads NEVER GET A FOLLOW-UP. Without that follow-up, you are leaving a lot of business on the table.

This means that nearly one of three business cards that are given to someone at a trade show as a business lead are actually used later.  I think that this is a bad business practice if you are attending something that is going to give your business.  I am also thinking that this is not a very "green" way of handling the number of business cards that are handed out.  I am looking at a box I have of cards that are not entered into a database or any other database.

In today’s economy, leads are the gold standard of any business.  A single business card from the right person could generate a year’s worth of sales for some businesses.  That is a scary thought if you throw away one in three of those cards.  It’s like playing the lottery and throwing away one in three tickets.  Is that the way you do business?  I would suggest that everyone have a way to get that information on a business card into a database of some sort.  It could be that sale or that customer, or better yet that perfect job you were looking for in the world.

Tags: Business Cards, Contacts, Trade Shows, Conventions, Green Practices, Databases

In the blogging world they say that "Content is King".  in the world of trade shows and conventions I would have to say attendance is the royalty.  My friend and colleague Chris Brogan runs some events that I was able to attend in San Francisco called the Inbound Marketing Summit.  This last show he ran was a little different from what I was used to seeing in our world of social media and marketing.  The event was a lot like speed dating.  The speakers had 20 minutes to give us their knowledge and impart their wisdom and then it was on to the next item.  Those of you like me with ADD, this is the perfect scenario.  Others might not have been keen on the idea.  Mostly the people complaining were speakers as they had 45 minute slide decks they were pushing into a 15 minute slot and trying to get 5 minutes of questions.  This is a new way of doing things and we may see more of that in the future.  I would love to see this event in Dallas and Boston, but for now I have a couple of conflicts.  Thanks Chris for allowing me to attend and keep up the good work!

Tags: Chris Brogan, Inbound Marketing Summit, San Francisco, Events, Conferences

Apparently in some cases size does matter.  Sorry, I couldn’t resist that opening line.  Now to deal with all the crazy searches that will produce–but I digress.  I was actually reading a piece put together in the Las Vegas Business Press written by Ben Spillman, called "Small, nimble conventions thrive as behemoths struggle."  The idea is that the bigger conventions being held in Las Vegas are hurting as much as anyone else in the business, and smaller conventions and trade shows are seeing some benefits that the big guys are not.  The article talks about some of the larger shows, like the National Association of Broadcasters and the Consumer Electronics Show which were held this last year in Vegas.

"[NAB]…one of the largest and longest-running in town, saw its attendance fall more than 19 percent from 2008 to 2009, falling from 103,938 to 83,842.

Attendance in 2009 was the lowest in at least 13 years and down more than 27 percent from a peak of 115,293 in 2000.

The Consumer Electronics Show, the largest annual convention in Las Vegas, was down 22 percent in 2009 to about 110,000."

Those are some pretty scary numbers.  I am sure that we can all run and hide and say the sky is falling with thoughts of these shows beginning to decline but the interesting part of the piece I found most interesting is the facts that come out about smaller shows:

"Some small shows, like the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, are doing just fine. The cemetery show, held during the same time as the broadcasters’ event, enjoyed record attendance of about 1,400.

Small show operators who might have been overlooked during the boom time are now benefiting from the lower costs of space, hotel rooms and airfare that make Las Vegas a great venue.

Exhibitors are also enjoying that lighter attendance means a higher percentage of attendees are dedicated buyers, not sightseers. That means small exhibitors and small shows don’t have to dedicate personnel to accommodate attendees who aren’t serious about making deals."

It goes to show that the bad news is not bad for everyone.

Tags: Las Vegas, Ben Spillman, Conventions, Trade Shows, Consumer Electronics Show, National Association of Broadcasters, NAB, CES