Expert panel
Simon Burton managing director, Exposure Event Creations
Simon Daukes group managing director, Haymarket Exhibitions
Kirsty Perkinson, marketing director, IMIE
Duncan Reid portfolio director, Confex Group
What are the main objectives of an exhibition?
Simon Burton To bring a community together, to network, learn, inspire and promote business. At their best, exhibitions express and articulate market places. They capture the dynamics of a market, give it highly condensed expression and generate opportunity, dialogue and sales. When they work, nothing else comes close.
Kirsty Perkinson: To meet your sponsors', exhibitors' and visitors' objectives, while delivering a healthy bottom line. Each group has different objectives for attending an exhibition so it's important to understand what they are, rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach. If you meet each group's objectives, you should meet your own objectives for return on investment.
How do you measure the effectiveness of an exhibition?
Simon Daukes: Happy visitors. We measure this through quantitative tracking data and qualitative focus groups. This is measured via research as above plus sales data and ROI tracking.
SB: From an organiser's perspective, event effectiveness is happy exhibitors and happy visitors - and hopefully some profit. The first two are difficult to measure, the third easy - assuming there is any. There's a danger we all become obsessed with bigger and better, and size and scale are not effective measures of effectiveness. Creating an environment in which exhibitors, visitors, media and association partners come together to effectively communicate should be the goal.
How have exhibitions changed in the past decade?
SB: Well, part of me says they haven't. We're still bedeviled by the belief that busy aisles equal a quality show. Exhibitors failing to understand and exploit the opportunities exhibitions create and sales people selling chalk marks on the floor, not audience engagement and marketing opportunities. On the plus side, we've seen the growth of niche events in different formats, focused on giving markets and communities what they want and the never-ending ability of entrepreneurs and visionaries to create exciting new events that deliver for visitors and exhibitors alike.
What does the future hold for the exhibition industry?
SD: Happy times. Change always brings with it uncertainty. Uncertainty means consumers need to research their options. That means opportunity for exhibitors.
Duncan Reid: The future is fine as long as the exhibition market continues to evolve, reacting to the changing needs of the industry. Exhibitions can't be just about creating a sales platform. Exhibitions need to offer advice and support.
How is the credit crunch likely to affect the sector?
SD: It will clear out the also-rans and allow visitors and exhibitors to focus on the innovative and the market leaders. Value for money will be more important than ever. Only the lean will survive.
KP: The ever-looming recession will sadly see some casualties in the industry. Clever organisers will be launching appropriate exhibitions to reflect the needs of a market that is watching every penny it spends.
What are the biggest challenges in creating exhibitions?
SB: Price of venue space; exhibitors who think exhibiting is an admin function, not a marketing one; the hard work that exhibiting entails for exhibitors.
DR: Obviously, an exhibition needs to be commercially viable. To achieve this it is important to create a brand that is synonymous to the sector that it caters for, and one that your visitors and exhibitors feel is an industry leader and something they should be part of.
KP: Juggling the desire to create spectacular content for our visitors without it blowing the budget. Knowing when to quit and when to tough it out.
How can exhibitions be integrated with online event marketing?
SD: Increasingly modern marketeers seek to partner with us to bring their brands to life. Experiential marketing or live media, as we call it, is the perfect partner for digital. Entirely complementary and very natural bedfellows.
SB: I think we'll see a boom in podcasting to create portable and non-event derived content around events to engage with audiences. RFID technology will allow us to create highly targeted messaging for genuinely paperless shows with bespoke information delivered in real time to show visitors on their personal microsites or shopping baskets. Events will increasingly place themselves at the heart of the market's transactions, networking and learning throughout the year. We will abandon the idea of the show website being a way to extend the three days of the event, and think about how our event brands actively engage with our communities 365 days a year.
Which exhibitions, apart from your own, do you most admire?
KP: I went to the Baby Show recently - the first time I've ever visited a show out of choice rather than for work. It was a fantastic visitor experience from start to finish, and they had obviously really thought about the small details to make it an excellent day out.
SB: Any show that runs a second time. Anyone who can take an idea and then convince enough exhibitors to buy into it and enough visitors to turn up so that everyone thinks it's a good idea to do it all again is worthy of admiration. It might look easy. It isn't.
DR: I like what Chris Hughes' team has done with Brand Event's products. The visitor experience is key to the success of these events, but I would have to say the winner for me is Grand Designs. It has blown its competitors out of the water with its new and exciting approach.
Experts' choice
Our exhibitions club reveal their favourite venues for producing the perfect event.
Venues
Simon Daukes
Excel London;
Millennium Stadium;
NEC;
Olympia Grand Hall
SECC
Duncan Reid
Earls Court
Excel London;
NEC;
Olympia
SECC
Kirsty Perkinson
Business Design Centre
Earls Court 2
Excel London;
Urbis;
Vinopolis
INTERNATIONAL VENUES
Duncan Reid
ADNEC;
Amsterdam Rai;
Palais des Festivals Cannes;
Fiera Milano;
Melbourne Convention &
Exhibition Centre
Kirsty Perkinson
Excel London;
Dubai Exhibition Centre;
Geneva Pal Expo;
Bologna Exhibition Centre;
Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre