How Show Organizers Get the Maximum from Their Websites

The Internet is barely even a decade old, and already it has revolutionized the way trade show organizers work. Everything from exhibitor recruitment, booth space assignments, attendee acquisition, registration and housing—the show website has become the essential all-purpose tool for trade show management and communications.

These days, a show without a website can hardly be considered real. Show organizers have embraced the Internet. According to EXPO’s November 2004 survey of 312 companies, the top five features offered at show websites are attendee registration, a list of exhibitors, hotel reservations, host city information and the exhibitor prospectus.

And sites are becoming more sophisticated all the time. As show organizers understand the capabilities of the Internet—and the needs and behaviors of their customers—and as new technologies are introduced, the sky is literally the limit on where a show site can go.

According to the Internet marketing professionals at Slack Barshinger, the Chicago marketing agency, some of the latest developments include:

• Improved navigation, eliminating the number of clicks required to get to key functions, like registration and booth selection.
• Use of matchmaking technology to bring buyers and sellers together more easily. Some of the new tools offer unique ways to increase the likelihood of a series of perfect matches.
• Functionality that supports the show before, during and after the event itself. This ranges from matchmaking and communications, to pre-show planning tools, to follow-up communications and ongoing content refreshment.
• Integration of online and offline marketing communications, for a consistent customer experience.

A summer’s worth of car shows at one website: Cars at Carlisle

Carlisle Events holds eleven consecutive car shows, every other weekend between April and October, at their 82-acre fairgrounds in Carlisle PA. Besides two enormous swap meets in spring and fall, each show focuses on a particular automotive brand or category: Corvette, Ford, GM, Chrysler, trucks, motorcycles — you name it.

Each event stands alone — attracting a devoted crowd of buffs — but Carlisle Events successfully packs them all into a single website, www.carsatcarlisle.com, by assigning a memorable color to each. This way, Carlisle delivers information unique to each show while gaining leverage from the common information that crosses all shows. The home page describes the entire Carlisle annual line-up, plus a bit of its history, and directs aficionados of particular car brands to the tabs spread across the top, one for each event during the season.

The Ford site, no surprise, is color-coded blue, with a nifty set of racing stripes running horizontally across the page. The General Motors show site is orange, in keeping with the color of the traditional GM engine block. At any given show sub-site, devotees to the various car brands can find everything they need, while retaining a sense of individuality and brand loyalty.

The common elements across all shows are aggregated on the left-hand menu bar: such functionality as directions, hotel accommodations, sponsors, even the Carlisle fairgrounds weather outlook. The most important items—registration, activity schedules, admission info and the popular giveaway car—are repeated in bold on each show’s page, for easy access.

The site was conceived and organized by Chris Edwards, the Marketing Manager who joined the company in 2002. At the time, no one in Carlisle management had a clear idea of how web-savvy their 82,000 attendees were likely to be. But Edwards knew that each weekend attracted a passionate group, whose allegiance to their car brand was strong. “Many of these folks are members of local car clubs, and they come en masse to our weekends, bringing their families, setting up barbecue grills and having a great time together. We didn’t want to build a stand-alone website for each event, but we needed to give them a sense that their particular show was a special place for them alone.”

Car lovers turned out to be avid Internet users. After the site launched in November 2002, it reported 499,000 unique visitors in 2003 and 952,000 unique visitors in 2004. The most popular areas are the lists of past competition winners and—a bit more prosaic—the pdf of directions to the fairgrounds (with 80,000 downloads to date). Edwards later launched an email newsletter that circulates to 35,000 subscribers, and he is now planning to add a webcam that will stream video of activities at each weekend’s event.

Possible sidebar: Seasonal traffic patterns at the Cars for Carlisle site
Caption: Carlisle’s website traffic builds throughout the spring, as fans plan their event attendance and the organizer posts newly available content.

Matchmaking on Steroids: [Embedded Systems Conference’s EEQuorum]
Using technology to help attendees optimize their time at a show is nothing new, but CMP’s Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) has taken the concept to the next level, with its EEQuorum tool. Licensed from a start-up company called BDMetrics, the system turns the ESC website into a customized resource for finding not only key people to meet, but also the most relevant sessions to attend and the top products to check out on the exhibit hall floor — all dictated by a recommendation engine targeted to each attendee’s needs and interests.

The process begins at registration, when attendees are invited to fill out an online profile that then generates a series of customized web pages, beginning eight weeks before the show. [ed., see the screenshot provided by BDMetrics] The page content changes weekly, with updates driven not only by new session or exhibitor information but also by the search engine behavior of the entire show site community. For example, an attendee might search on “Internet security” and receive a list of 12 products, 22 sessions and 15 people to check out. The site thus becomes an advance show planner that is highly relevant and continually improving. [ed., see illustration of this from Rick Geritz email]

When CMP launched EEQuorum on its 2004 site, it was an immediate hit. With the 2005 show, usage increased four-fold, and 82% of users went back during the eight weeks before the show and added an average of 15 more data fields to their profiles, to make their custom recommendation pages even more relevant.

“The old model of event attendance is based on serendipity,” says Rick Geritz, President of BDMetrics. “You register, you get a badge, you show up, and hope your time is well spent. Our system allows ESC attendees to identify in advance the ideal relationships among the 2.3 million possible permutations at the show.”

Not only does the tool deliver a pre-populated custom show guide, it allows attendees to set up meetings at 15-minute intervals with exhibitors and with each other. CMP provided a special 40 x 40 lounge area for attendee-to-attendee meetings.

“Exhibitors benefit from the system as well,” says Alix Raine, Senior Vice President of Communications at CMP. “Instead of buying a booth and waiting for a miracle, they know in advance that a half dozen highly qualified leads are scheduled to visit them. They can see the detailed attendee profile in advance, so they can make the meetings as productive as possible. This way, the ‘community’ nature of the event starts months in advance and continues well after the show itself is over.”

A website extends the trade show another 361 days: The International Builders’ Show’s Virtual Trade Show

The Builders’ Show is a giant: 1,600 exhibitors, 100,000 attendees and 350 educational programs packed into two and a half days in Orlando every January. About five years ago, Ignacio Cabrera, Staff Vice President of Exposition Sales for the show sponsor, the National Association of Home Builders, came up with the idea of using the show website to give exhibitors more value. He and his team created the Virtual Trade Show, a section of the Builders’ Show website that allowed exhibitors to create their own virtual booths and make themselves available to attendees year-round.

Exhibitors are taking advantage, in spades. About 99% of them have created a site, posting product information, graphics, press releases and links. Each pays a nominal fee of $150 to participate. As attendees visit and ask for more information, the exhibitors can send them email, whether to set up appointments in advance or keep in touch after the show.

“The key benefit to exhibitors is the year-round access to attendees,” says Cabrera. “But to me the best thing is that it gives our smaller exhibitors a playing field that’s level with the big constructions companies. It was an uphill battle to get exhibitors to understand it, but now they look forward to it.”

One of the secrets to their success is the help desk, managed by Elena Pearl, whose team supports exhibitors by phone and email as they set up their virtual booths. The virtual event goes live every September 1 and stays up through the following August. Pearl’s team reviews the exhibitors’ content as they post it, to make sure nothing inappropriate goes up. They also take suggestions from exhibitors for ongoing improvements and additional functionality. A site redesign is scheduled for June 2005.

Cabrera now considers the entire show site a virtual trade show. “Exhibitors can manage their entire show via the site now. They can view the floor plan, reserve exhibit space, book their hotels, download free customer passes — everything imaginable.”

With all that activity in fewer than three days, the site is an important tool for attendees, too. The builders can search for suppliers they need, across 60 categories, like windows, appliances, and roofing, and set up appointments via email. “Our attendees are interested in different tracks,” notes Cabrera. “They can’t possibly walk the entire show floor. So it’s important that they plan their time in advance.” During show week, the site takes a million hits a day.

How a Website Can Help Avoid Hotel Block Attrition Charges: [AIHce]
Like many meeting planners, the industry groups AIHA and ACGIH — both of them involved in industrial hygiene and occupational health and safety — have struggled with a decline in show-sponsored housing registration that threatens the minimum guaranteed room blocks negotiated with show hotels. For some years, they had been unable to fill their block for the AICce conference, which the two groups jointly sponsor every May in Annaheim.

The Internet is, ironically, heavily to blame for this situation. With the availability of services like Travelocity and hotels.com, attendees can find alternate accommodations with just the click of a mouse, instead of having to call around to random hotels hoping to find a convenient room at a lower price.

For their 2005 event, the groups decided to take action. On the theory that linking housing and registration might have an impact, they brought in ITS to supply both services. [This year, attendees who visit the AIHce website and click on the “Registration & Housing” button are linked to a site created by ITS.]

But AIHce doesn’t just leave it at that. They added a special offer: attendees who book their housing through the site get $150 off their conference registration. At last report, 83% of registrants were signing up for the hotel, too. Considering that a certain percentage of attendees are local to California and drive in daily, this is a welcome development. As of this writing, 81% of the room block was filled, compared to 66% at the same time last year.

To further bolster the housing take rates, the AIHA added a special [FAQ section] at the website that makes the case directly to association members. In 1,400 words, the organizers carefully explain how important it is to the association that they avoid attrition fees, and list a half dozen advantages to the attendees in staying at contracted hotels. Says Carol Tobin, Director of Education and Meetings at AIHA, “Our members have an altruistic streak. They are, after all, health and safety professionals. So we felt we could appeal to their sense of dedication to the association. But, they are also science and technology oriented, so we had to make a careful, detailed case. We spent a lot of time crafting the FAQ, and had our marketing people smooth out the language for us. Thankfully, our members seem to get it.”

Taking Care of Business: SEMAshow.com
One of the top five trade shows in North America, SEMA has invested a lot of time and effort to make its website as valuable as possible—to exhibitors, attendees and stakeholders in the automotive specialty products industry. SEMA’s website strategy: supporting the core business, and using the site to support new growth.

The core businesses are, no surprise, selling booths and driving show attendance. So it is these two business processes that drive the home page design. Clear instructions for both exhibitors and attendees appear on the left-hand navigation bar. The registration page is immediately available. The home page look is clean and uncluttered. So the base business is nicely covered.

The latest SEMA show website was introduced in 2003. “We are very happy with the current version of the site,” says Peter McGillivray, Vice President of Marketing and Communications. “Our booth space is regularly sold out. Our registration growth rates are fantastic. This is a 40-year-old show, and we’ve all just been through a down market. But we’re lucky—our industry is hot right now.” Between 2003 and 2004, booth space grew from 105,000 to 118,000 square feet, and attendance rose from 51,000 to 58,000 qualified buyers.

Part of the 2003 refresh of the website was driven by SEMA’s reorganization of its content into 11 product categories, such as restoration, business services, hot rods and tires and wheels. The new category focus radiates through the entire show, serving as the organizational structure for the show daily and the booth layout.

Beyond the core business, the website is also tasked with supporting new areas of business opportunity. In SEMA’s case, the show is well known, but the association behind it is relatively obscure. So in an effort to raise the awareness and usage of association itself, SEMA has linked its industry research, education, and regulatory outreach information to the show site.

To improve its overall appeal, the association spent six months researching the needs and interests of its various market segments. The research results were then used to develop new website content that pressed the hot buttons of both buyers and exhibitors. The previous rendition of the website simply listed the products sold in each section. But the new copy provides a richer perspective. Says McGillivray, “We know this new content is resonating because we see our words picked up and repeated in the enthusiast media, like Hotrod and Mobile Electronics magazines. We’re not only pleased that the website is making an impact — we’re flattered.”

The other area of new business supported by the website is the international sector. Today, the site is delivered in six languages, to make the 10,000 international buyers and exhibitors who attend the show feel welcome. “An established show is always seeking new buyers and exhibitors,” points out McGillivray. “We plan to add even more foreign languages in the coming months.”

Sidebar: Designing a Great Website
While the Internet may be in its infancy, it has been around long enough to teach us some key lessons. Here follow principles of website design to keep in mind.

• Less is more. Strive for a clean, simple look and feel. Limit the number of graphics, to improve page loading speed. The type font should be clear and large enough to read easily. Avoid using dark backgrounds with lighter reverse type.
• Set expectations. When inviting prospective attendees to register, for example, let them know at the outset how many steps are involved. If they know where you’re taking them, they will be happier and more likely to complete the process.
• Avoid jargon. You need to serve new-comers as well as experienced visitors, so be sure the words on your menus and in your content are familiar to all.
• Test your navigation with real visitors. You’ll be surprised at how often the way your users experience the site is very different from your expectations.
• Make help easily available. Visitors will inevitably get confused at some point, so offer them assistance through multiple channels—web search, email, telephone, fax and even postal mail.
• Keep your site current. Your audience is searching for information year-round, not just when your show happens to be scheduled. So keep refreshing your content, and check your links to make sure they still connect to functioning sites.

Build versus buy: Should you outsource or manage your website in-house?

It’s an age-old conundrum: shall we do the work inside or use outside professionals? The jury is still out, but here are some arguments in favor of each side of the fence.
The case for “buy”

• Do you need more management headaches? Let someone else worry about the website, so you can get on with your job
• You benefit from the cross-fertilization introduced by professionals who work with multiple clients
• A full-time website professional will be at the top of his or her game and up to date on the hottest trends
• You reduce your technology risk. Why should you be buying the latest tools, when your supplier can do it?
• Speed: they can get you up and running faster
  The case for “build”
• Cost savings. In the long run, variable costs will be much lower in house
• Integration of your website with your business processes may be easier from an inside base
• You’ll have more control
• No one is closer to the market than you. Translating that knowledge directly will save you time and reduce static.

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