Did you know...
- A visitor will spend an average of 8.3 hours over 2.3 days visiting exhibits on the show floor.
- 5-20% of new customer acquisition is the result of trade show participation.
- 77% of attendees at events are potential new customers for exhibiting companies.
- 82% of attendees at events have buying authority.
I, like most, am a big proponent of social networking and I am jazzed about the potential impact on the event industry. However, I don't hear much dialogue about the onsite experience anymore. Isn't this the main event? Link.
There's a panic to participate in social media that's pushing the other aspects of a live event down the list. It's like when the Internet was brand new and everyone had to get a website launched. It was only later that companies figured out how to utilize media to achieve their goals. Rather than an either/or discussion, we're engaging our clients in social media as another channel to communicate with before/during/after the live event. Technology changes, but relationships last a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, Steve, we've actually enabled LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and the ability to add personal links and files to our attendee profiles. While people won't create another social network, they will add a few items to help people get in touch. Since you tend to get out what you put in, we're seeing a growing trend of attendees trying to see who will be at the event by browsing, LinkingIn and tweeting with their networks before to see who's coming. Pre-planning has been tried for over a decade and the tools are finally becoming popular enough to help make this happen.
Written by David Schenberg - CEO, BusyEvent