Trade shows have been a popular marketing and sales channel to connect with new prospects, generate leads, and build relationships within the industry. It’s also one of the best places to showcase and demonstrate your product and service offerings.
As the pandemic brought about a whirlwind of change and forced organizations to go remote, many trade show organizers quickly pivoted to become virtual trade shows. And although the move has been swift, it hasn’t exactly been smooth. The drop in audience engagement and interaction, limited networking opportunities, and technical complications have emerged as key concerns around virtual trade show participation.
While these concerns are partially valid, the advancement in event technology platforms are humanizing the event experience. With a little help from such platforms and this five-step guide we have created, you can organize a successful virtual trade show.
A virtual trade show is an online exhibition/expo that lets exhibitors organize an immersive experience for attendees through a virtual trade show management platform. The platform enables exhibitors to showcase themselves through 3D trade show setup, branding, and other event engagement tools.
Exhibitors set up their virtual booths, hold virtual demos, interact with delegates/attendees, and most importantly, generate leads and sales. For attendees, virtual trade shows are open for specific segments of the target market depending on the nature of the trade show.
A typical virtual trade show will also include:
Use the following five-step framework to plan a successful virtual trade show:
Position your virtual trade show well to connect with the right target market. Identify the benefits your virtual trade show can provide to your attendees and exhibitors and link them to your business goals.
For example, a Martech Trade Show; in the rapidly changing marketing landscape, it is imperative for marketers to be aware of new and upcoming martech tools, which can get overwhelming. Plan your virtual trade show in a way that educates marketing professionals on new tools and applications and communicating this through interactive workshops and demos. Martech providers can perceive this opportunity to showcase their new products via workshops while driving brand awareness.
Being an organizer/intermediary, you facilitate this exchange while bridging the information asymmetry.
The virtual trade show platform can practically make or break your event, and we’re not exaggerating. While picking a trade show platform, choose a platform that offers a more consolidated feature set as it will help you streamline your marketing efforts. Also, ensure that the platform is device agnostic, comes with a mobile app, and adheres to the accessibility guidelines.
A state-of-the-art virtual trade show platform will offer the following features:
The list is quite comprehensive, so make a checklist of the features you need and then shortlist a few top platform providers and opt for a live demo before zeroing down on a solution.
Here are some popular platforms we recommend:
Virtual trade shows are still uncharted territory for many. Design an experience where attendees can navigate virtually with little assistance. Here is how you can improve the trade show experience:
Getting to communicate with industry peers and vendors is probably the marquee attraction of a trade show. Streamlining the communication between exhibitors and attendees is the key to improving the trade show experience.
Create an ecosystem where attendees can interact with exhibitors, exchange virtual business cards, bookmark interesting vendors so that they can revisit them later, and schedule meetings via video chat. Built-in e-commerce features can help both parties close deals on the spot.
And that’s not all. Creating event-specific communities or groups can enable participants to follow-up to continue their discussions, exchange information, and close deals. Apps like Cvent, Hopin, Bizzabo or IMs like Slack can help you create micro-groups so the communication is streamlined and participation is easy.
The exhibitors and sponsors drive a significant chunk of sales in the early stages of the virtual trade show. Help them build their brand to work together toward generating engagement, leads, and revenue at the virtual venue.
As the organizer, here are a few ways you can help them drive brand awareness:
People have become accustomed to attending virtual events, but many still find it challenging to grasp the concept of virtual trade shows. To dispel these doubts, plan and execute your virtual trade show in a way that encourages everyone to participate, attendees or exhibitors alike.
Also, track the organizer’s dashboard to measure and improve performance. Design separate surveys for exhibitors and attendees to understand what they like and how you can improve future events.
We hope this five-step process will help you plan your virtual trade show effectively.
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