I was just reading through Trade Show Week about the difficulty had by a trade show in Alberta, Canada called Rig Expo 2008. Apparently this show did not adhere to the build it and they will come idea. Approximately 60 exhibitors signed up to be a part of the expo that concentrates on the oil field industry. There were plenty of exhibitors but someone forgot to tell the attendees to show up. There were a number of reasons given for the lack of attendance at the show, but that does not take the sting out of the lost investment. The head of the show had anticipated 3,000 to 4,000 attendees and apparently that number shrunk to about 22 attendees in a four hour period. Ouch.

Unfortunately not a lot can be done for the people that paid that $2,500 price tag for a 10′ x 10′ booth. There really are no guarantees. Show organizer Paul Pearson said just this as his answer to the issue of paying back exhibitors:

“We rented the building, we advertised the show, we did everything we could,” he added. “You pay your money and take your chances.”

I’m trying to wrap my mind around the idea that the show organizers did not have a better idea of attendance. They apparently had no pre-sold tickets and had no idea if anyone would show up for the event. Something tells me that many exhibitors won’t be taking chances on this show in the future. I’m sure many of the exhibitors are now calling this the Rigged Expo.

How do you protect your investment? Go with an established show and if the show is not an established trade show, make sure that the people behind it have some good credentials. In this instance it looks as though many of the exhibitors believed the show to be a good one for them invest in and attend.

Michael Hart, Editor-in-Chief at Trade Show Week also touched upon this same problem in his blog post titled “Living With Green Fatigue” as he describes:

The show manager of this launch, designed to market – and stop me if you’ve heard this one before – eco-friendly products and services, had optimistically projected 250 exhibitors and 2,000 attendees.

Our contributing editor Lisa Plummer counted 40 booths and, while the show’s manager claimed he had 350 pre-registered attendees, Lisa said there may have been 15 at the most on the showfloor during the time she was there.

Another example of a show that had some lofty numbers projected and came nowhere near those projections. Those exhibitors also must have felt the sting of not having attendees to show their wares. Hart seems to imply that the reason for the poor attendance is the fact that there are far too many “green” type trade shows on the market. If that is the case, then I suppose it is the fault of the exhibitor for making a bad choice of shows. That can be a hard pill to swallow, and makes it tough for new trade shows to get the establishment they need to get sponsors and exhibitors.

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A friend of mine in the trade show industry helps manage the AWFS or better known as the Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers and their trade show that is scheduled to take place July 15-18, 2009 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  I went over to see their web site, and noticed something I had never seen before, Belt Sander Racing.

Yes BSRA, the NASCAR of woodworking apparently and according to the information given on the site:

AWFS^®Fair, Accuride and the Belt Sander Racing Association present “BSRA’s Big Event.” Racing enthusiasts compete on a 75-foot long wooden track with their “customized belt sander racing machines.” All AWFS^® Vegas participants will receive complimentary tickets, but SEATING IS LIMITED, and this exciting event promises to draw a crowd, so you’ll want to get to the track early!

Now that is a trade show I could get into attending.  Nothing like a room full of power tools and some sawdust to get your machismo rate up.  They even had Richard Karns who played Al Borland the sidekick to Tim “The Toolman” Taylor as a host last year. The show took place last year for the first time in Las Vegas, which is another feather in the cap of the LVCVA.  The show only takes place every other year but I wonder if they will have the Belt Sander races again? 

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I have been spending a lot of time lately speaking to and interviewing some of the leaders in our industry of conventions and trade shows and I will be doing a series of posts to reveal the results of those interviews and discussions.  One of the things that seems to occur to me after speaking to these industry leaders is that there seems to be a shift in what is the norm in trade shows and conventions and how they are being handled.  I have heard tell of new technologies being used, new players in the old world of how things were done and show managers that are seeking new ways to plan events and shows.  One thing is certain, there will be some benefit to the show exhibitors and attendees based on the changes I have seen in little areas.  Stay tuned for more information as I get all my notes together and get my posts completed.

If you would like to be featured as a thought leader in the industry or if you are doing things in the convention or trade show industry that you feel is revolutionizing the way we do business, please feel free to drop us a line or use the contact section to let us know about you.  I’ll be contacting many others to find ways to reveal what is happening in the world we live in.

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We here at Convention Insider understand the world of search and the power of Google.  One of my mantras is “We live in a Google world.”  We are constantly trying to rank high for search terms that will bring people to our site at Conventions.net.  When we bring them to our site, we are bring them to our customers, the people that list their services or wares on Conventions.net. 

I was recently doing some background checking and working on some keywords and phrases as it relates to the search term “convention.”  One of the things that I realized is the highest searched for phrase in that family of searches is “Silver Convention.”  Thinking that people were searching for a convention about the silver industry I decided to see what turned up by searching for silver convention in Google.  I think I really missed the mark on my idea of a silver industry show. 

Turns out everyone wants to find who that cool 70’s disco band was from their early years.

This dates me a little bit  but I too know of this group and I can remember using my best moves on the dance floor of the local disco with my bell bottom jeans and and long David Cassidy hair.  I’m not going to show any of those “moves” again for a very long time.  I’ll let the pros take you there.  Enjoy the video.

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We have not stopped blogging here at Convention Insider, and we haven’t broken our spell check features, we have been busy making adjustments to the Conventions.net site and making plans on how we can be the most used convention resource guide in the trade show and convention world. 

Part of the changes we have made, is the use of a new search feature here on Convention Insider.  Over on the right side of the page here, you will see a search widget, or as the folks at Lijit like to call it, “a search wijit.”  There goes the spelling alarm in my head.  This feature allows you to search not only the content here on Convention Insider, but it let’s you search the entire Conventions.net site, our network of linked friends, or the entire web, you get to choose.  Your search results will be show you directly to the information you are looking for.  If you wanted to find out about moving people for your convention and search for the folks at The Convention Store, you not only get the Friday Feature article written here, but it also send you right over to their spot on Conventions.net .  Feel free to poke around here and use the search feature and we’ll keep providing you with the results.

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My colleagues over at Media Bullseye have a post up about conference insurance.  The problem they discuss arose at a conference, or unconference I guess it should be referred to as, had a problem with the number of attendees versus the amount of signed up guests.  The number that signed up was substantially less than those that attended. 

They also  refer to social platform called “The Point” that is helping conference organizers find out if they have enough support to hold their conference.  It is somewhat like an insurance policy.  I can see where this might be a benefit to conference organizers or to the people that support an event through sponsorship.  It really is not a problem for the attendees, so it seems to be a win win.  I am going to keep an eye out for the campaign as it approaches its deadline for raising funds and getting early sign ups for the conference.  As of the date and time of this publication they were at 10% of their goal.

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I knew after a few minutes into the conversation with Arnie Roberts (pictured right) of Smart-reg International  that I was in way over my head as it related to technology and the issues surrounding convention or event registration, and the associated lead generation and lead retrieval, or what Arnie likes to call “Lead Capture”.  There are so many issues related to how registrations are done and how lead retrieval is acquired, that our supposed brief conversation turned into a marathon phone conference and left me with my head spinning with all of the information available.  Think I’m kidding?  We talked about Russian spy stuff and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), copper coils and chips, world economics, and many other very technical and cool James Bond kind of stuff.  After all, Arnie got his start more than 30 years ago in the technology sector working for the American Broadcasting Company in their corporate data center.  Arnie knows data.

I can only describe Smart-reg International in a single word - INNOVATIVE.  Arnie Roberts is truly the leading expert in the area of convention or tradeshow registration.  He is sought after by companies not only locally but also globally to provide information on how best to handle registrations not only online as is the case with many of his other competitors, but also on site which is a unique offering of Smart-reg International.  Smart-reg International has handled conventions or events from as small as 200 attendees up to 92,000 people. I’m not sure how I would carry around 90,000+ business cards, but Arnie’s company offers a simple solution with their technology and innovation.  He has done this in locations here in the US, and in places like Barcelona, Berlin, Singapore and New Delhi to name a few.

Not only do they have the technology in place for handling registration and lead retrieval, they are also innovating ways for convention planners or event planners to do some very interesting things.  They are using RFID as I mentioned above to track attendees and provide invaluable data to organizers.  In addition they are adding significant value to the way conference planners can generate more exhibitors by giving value added benefits to them through new technologies.  The technology that is awaiting approval for its patent is the trademarked “ALL IN THE BADGE” technology.  A very cool badge indeed, and all of the benefits are difficult to list here, but suffice it to say, if I wanted to track my attendees, and generate leads, allow them to purchase products, or handle transactions using a badge, this would be the first place I would stop.  Other technologies the company is looking to offer for conventions or trade shows are Product Locater, Colleague Tracker, Smart Mat, and Refer-a-Friend.  Like I said, these guys are a one stop shop for getting your event on top with all the possible technology to make it a success.  If you can make it out to Las Vegas next week (December 10-12, 2007) for the IAEE’s Annual Meeting and Exhibition, stop by and speak to the folks at Smart-reg International at booth #1006, I know they can dazzle you with their service through the use of their technology.

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I was asked the other day if I could help promote an event that a friend is putting on in the Northwest.  She wanted me to speak at the event and told I would be glad to do so and wondered what efforts she had gone through to promote the event.  She laid out some of her ideas and I had a few other ideas for her as well.  I thought I might share those with you in three words. 

Use social media. 

Many people have no idea what social media is, so using it to promote an event is completely lost on them.  What is social media?  Well Wikipedia tells us that it means:

Anything that uses the Internet to facilitate conversations.

Being that they are in serious need of an expert to work over that entry, I’ll add a few thoughts to that definition.  Not only does social media facilitate conversations, it also creates participation, builds relationships and can help gather a crowd, which is the idea of promoting an event, convention or conference.

Using social media is a great way to create a buzz for your event.  Set up a blog for the event, do a podcast to talk about your conference, while planning your convention, let people see a livecast of planning meetings or other functions.  All of these are great ways to help promote your event.  They also prove to be very valuable to attendees sponsors, exhibitors and others involved.  If it is valuable to them, your event will be strong year after year.

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I’m sorry to report that my experience in last week’s blogging convention lands me in the corner wearing a dunce cap.  I receive a grade of “F” in most categories.  My excuses are many, but none of them really carry much weight as I look back on what was a really poor effort on my part to be an exhibitor on the show floor in Las Vegas.  Why am I being so hard on myself?  There probably are more reasons than I can possibly list here, so I’ll let the picture in this case speak for my words.

As you can tell, no color, no flash, and no draw to the people that are visiting my booth.  It’s not to say that we didn’t get to talk to a lot of people, but I know that had we done a better job of branding and promoting what my company does and why we were there, it would have been a much better attendee experience.  I guess we live and we learn.  I am signing up for next year’s convention, and they are projecting that they will double in size and nearly triple their attendance.  It’s a good thing that I got the learning experience out of the way early.  It’s now about 9 months away from getting a better grade than an “F”.

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Conventions.net our parent website and we here at Convention Insider are happy to report that our campaign to increase exposure and promote the idea of a convention resource guide for event planners and convention planners is an overnight success.  Well, perhaps overnight is not the truth in that regard, but we have seen some very good results for our efforts over the last 60 days in fact.

I have said it before and I always love the statement so I will repeat it again, “we live in a Google world“, with apologies to the many other search engines out there that are trying to capture a piece of the search engine pie.  Due to the ever increasing need to rank high in search engines, companies are employing all sorts of ways to optimize their web sites and their exposure.  The folks at Conventions.net are no different, but they are different than perhaps their competitors.  They are using the power of search engine optimization and social media like this blog to enhance their search results and passing that on to their sponsors and partners.  Our results are quantified in the rankings for certain key words and phrases shown here by the search engine and search result:

GOOGLE

• “Conventions” #8 result
• “Tradeshows” #8 result
• “Trade Shows” #14 result

Yahoo

• “Conventions” #3 result
• “Trade Shows”  #5 result
• “Tradeshows” #2 result

MSN

• “Conventions” #4 and #5 result
• “Trade shows” #15 result

The power of search is shown in the results and you can be a part of that powerful search result by contacting the team at Conventions.net and getting your company listed as a vendor or supplier or as a resource for those in the Convention and Trade Show Industry.  People are finding Conventions.net, and they are seeing the advertisers and sponsors of the site as well as the listed vendors and suppliers in the market place.  Is your company being found on the Internet?  If not Conventions.net can help.   Check out the media kit on the navigation bar above or go to Conventions.net.  We here at Convention Insider are living in a Google world and we invite you to come and join us!

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