Exploring ‘The Bold New World of Convention Exhibits and Trade Shows’— beginning with 10 challenging questions.
Great conversations begin with great questions, and the PCMA Masters Series program at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 20 kicked off with 10 of them. The presenters were Jeff Leit- ner (pictured), founder and dean of Insight Labs, and Bryan Campen, social media director for Manifest Digital, which is conducting the Future Meet project, sponsored by PCMA, IAEE, Gaylord, ASAE, and Freeman. And they cut right to the heart of the topic—
“The Bold New World of Convention Exhibits and Trade Shows”—with a series of quick- answer provocations intended to leave no assumption unchallenged: The majority of our vendors care or don’t care about our association?
Better to have 100 solid leads or five dinner dates?
Trade shows are a must-have or a nice- to-have for our vendors?
More important for our vendors to get leads or to get recognition/thought leadership?
Trade shows are a must-have or a nice-to-have for our attendees?
Better to have more vendors or more compelling displays?
Giving access to the general public increases or decreases the value of a trade show?
In 2016, the best trade shows will be more like work or more like a vacation?
In 2016, the best trade shows will have hundreds of attendees or thousands?
In 2016, attendees will pay more or less to attend trade shows?
From there, Leitner and Campen had attendees break into small groups, aligning themselves with one of five possible models for future trade shows—from “This is just a downturn, the current model is solid” to “The current model is dead.” Tables talked about what a trade show organized around their model might look like in 2016, then reported out their thoughts to the entire group. “My candid assessment is that as a group, this group is beginning to inch toward the future,” Leitner said, “but it still looks a lot like what today looks like.” He added: “Your challenge is to create something more interesting. ...Your chal- lenge is not to do the same thing more efficiently, because then you’re a bank.”
—Christopher Durso
Freeman on the Future
Talking with Carrie Freeman Parsons, vice chair of Future Meet co-sponsor Freeman, about what’s next for trade shows.
Why sponsor Future Meet: “There has been so much conversation around the idea of the validity of trade shows and how they’re going to continue to be relevant. Although we completely believe in the medium itself, we also believe that attendees are changing their perspective of what they want to get out of those events. We saw this as an opportunity to get good thought and perhaps challenge conventional thinking.”
The future of exhibitions: “The biggest change is that idea that people are going to travel for three days and wander up and down the aisles and be kind of passive through that process. What’s happening now is that people are coming in and they’re saying, ‘I’m going to be here for a finite amount of time and I’m going to get the most out of that time.’ You’ve got 20,000 attendees, and they’re all dif- ferent. Exhibitors say they want to reach all 20,000, but really you want to reach 2,000 people who are interested.”