Budget issues aside, meetings and events take employees' time—and these days, workers don't have time to spare. This was the issue plaguing trade show and corporate event planners who attended last week's TS2, the gathering known as the "trade show about trade shows," which took place at McCormick Place from Monday, July 20, through Thursday, July 23. While the trade show floor showcased products ranging from die-cut plastic mailers to new exhibit-management software, educational sessions honed in on strategies that planners can use to overcome this roadblock.
Francis J. Friedman, president of New York's Time & Place Strategies Inc., delivered a presentation entitled "Secrets to Building Successful Events in a Recession." According to Friedman, "if you're producing an internal corporate event, your people are probably working in a downsized environment. If you're working two jobs because you've picked up the tasks of someone who got laid off, attending a corporate picnic—or any kind of event you weren't ordered to attend—moves from being a slam dunk 'that sounds fun, yes, I'm going to do it,' into being a much more considered decision."
Friedman's advice to planners: "Do much more forward thinking. Think about what will bring people to an event. The standards have been raised. It's no longer about getting employees to think, 'Gee, that sounds like a fun party.' They should think: 'I have to be there.'"
The best way to achieve this, said Friedman, is to focus on creating a diverse itinerary. "If 70 percent of your programming appeals to the whole audience [of a meeting or trade show]," he said, "you have an opportunity to devote 10 percent of programming to three sub-segments, and give each group something unique. You may have a women's caucus luncheon, a senior executive roundtable, and a hip-hop dance contest for the young folks. That way, all attendees stream through three tracks of education," which adds value to an event.
Emma King, chief learning strategist at Meridia Audience Response, participated in a TS2 conference session dubbed "How to Blend Face-to-Face and Online Meetings into a Seamless, Interactive Experience." In the seminar—and in related workshops—King said discussions turned to the state of trade show attendance. "With the downturn of the economy, we're getting the same quality of customers at trade shows, but we're seeing only one person [representing a company] instead of several," she said. Although the person who does attend the show "may be higher up in a company's food chain in terms of decision-making," King said, "we're losing the attendees that used to come for one or two workshops but didn't stay for the whole thing." Now, employees are unable to justify the time spent on the road to attend two- or three-hour presentations, and would rather tune in virtually from their desks.
King said that during TS2 Q&A sessions, trade show planners were eager to get tips on using technology to increase revenue. "Something we put to the group was being able to charge for [online] access to just one workshop," she said, "or being able to charge for access to a series of three workshops or just the keynote addresses." Although the concept of online conferencing isn't new, King said "there have been heavy costs associated with it in the past," and creating different pricing structures for attendees is a strategy that's becoming increasingly popular.
Other educational sessions held during the four-day trade show focused on designing successful experiential events, the future of face-to-face marketing, and event contracts and legal issues. TS2 2010 is slated to take place at the Boston Convention & Exhibit Center from July 12 to 15.
