Face-to-Face Report : May 2010

2010 Index Joins Library of Free CEIR Research Available for ABM Members

Late last month, over a dozen ABM member companies, including Cygnus, McGraw-Hill, Nielsen, PennWell and Reed, took advantage of an exclusive new offer for members. The latest report from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), the 2010 Index, An Analysis of the 2009 Exhibition Industry and Future Outlook (normally $225) was offered at no charge as a benefit of Association membership.

The 2010 Index reveals a year-over-year decline of 12.5%, four times greater than any prior year. It also offers an in-depth exploration of how and why particular economic indicators, employment, and personal spending habits may dictate future exhibition industry performance. (ABM members: Contact Kate Patton to request the report.)

This is just an example of countless insightful reports from CEIR, with whom ABM has partnered to provide members with important, timely information on the world of face-to-face – all at no cost.

Other top-requested reports include The Power of Exhibitions in the 21st Century, which offers a wealth of insight into how new generations of attendees want to connect, learn and network at events; Effective Methods for Visitor Promotion, which analyzes the most and least effective tools for attracting visitors and reveals the average spending on pre- and post-exhibition promotion; The Spend Decision, which evaluates the behaviors and opinions of marketing executives at mid to large sized organizations that use b-to-b exhibitions in their marketing mix; and Digital + Exhibiting Marketing Insights 2009, a comprehensive analysis of the influence of digital media on the exhibition industry.

Contact Kate Patton with your request(s), and the research will be e-mailed to you directly.

ABM’s 2010 Events Summit Leads the Way to Virtual Event Success

On March 24, industry professionals gathered both in-person and online to participate in the 2010 Events Summit, which delivered proven strategies for utilizing virtual and face-to-face events to maximize the profitability of a company’s event portfolio.

Keynote speaker Tony Uphoff, CEO of UBM’s TechWeb, opened the program with an informative introduction to virtual environments and some encouraging statistics. For example, 75% of business decision-makers said they attended three or more Web-based events in the past 12 months, and 93% of them find the events they attend to be valuable for their professional role. Uphoff also shared TechWeb’s lessons learned and best practices, including the power of editorially-driven program content, strong customer management and the value of an engaging, easy-to-use user interface.

Other speakers included Tom Cintorino, EVP, Digital Media, Northstar Travel Media; Michael Kushner, President, Virtual Media Strategies; Steve Palm, CEO, NewBay Media; Maria Palombini, Marketing Director, Events Division, Summit Business Media; and Scott Pierce, VP, Digital Development, ALM.

The Summit can be viewed in its entirety on-demand here, and you can follow along with the presentation decks here.

BIN Report Expands to Four Revenue Platforms
Trade show revenue declined 15.8% in 2009, grew in share of b-to-b revenue

Evolving with the b-to-b industry, ABM has expanded its Business Information Network (BIN) reporting once again to now cover the industry’s four key revenue platforms: print, tradeshows, digital and data. The two newest categories, digital and data, both grew in share of b-to-b revenue in 2009 and now account for 1 out of 4 industry dollars.

Total b-to-b print revenue was most impacted by the economy last year, followed by trade shows, then digital media. With regard to share of b-to-b revenue, both trade shows and digital have increased.

REVENUE (in billions)

SHARE OF B-TO-B REVENUE

About CEIR (Tradeshows):
For 30 years, CEIR has been highlighting the importance of exhibitions in today's business environment. Its goal is to promote the image, value and growth of exhibitions. This is accomplished through producing primary research studies that prove the effectiveness and efficiency of exhibitions as a marketing medium.

About Inquiry Management Systems (IMS) (Print):
With offices in Toronto, New York and London, IMS has served magazine publishing professionals since 1979. Over 1,400 magazine titles utilize its array of products that help sell additional pages of advertising, increase lead results for advertisers, and produce creative Web solutions.

About Outsell, Inc. (Data): Outsell is the only research and advisory firm focused on advancing the publishing and information industries. The firm’s international team provides independent, fact-based analysis and actionable advice that helps our clients thrive and grow in today's fast-changing digital and global environment.

Digital revenue sources are: ABM members, PricewaterhouseCoopers / IAB, eMarketer, and Outsell Inc.

Leveraging Social Media at Your Events

We learned at ABM’s Annual Conference last week that no matter which industry you serve, social media is creeping into events as ways for attendees to share ideas and opinions, open up dialogue with potential partners, or simply to make plans for dinner. In fact, Annual Conference attendees produced approximately 300 tweets over three days.

So how can you encourage your attendees – either face-to-face or virtual – to do the same? Or to post their Flip videos to YouTube and Facebook?

Here are a few tips and tactics to encourage and leverage attendee social media habits during your event:

1) Set the tone. Make sure that you and your team are actively tweeting, posting to Facebook and LinkedIn, and otherwise building momentum for the event in the online places where your attendees gather. Once the ice is broken, attendees are often quick to join in with their own thoughts.

2) Predetermine what your event’s hashtag will be. A hashtag is the keyword that attendees can include with their tweets so that their ideas will be aggregated in one place on Twitter. These keywords are indicated by a number sign (“#”) at the beginning of the word, hence the term “hashtag.” For instance, the hashtag for ABM’s 2010 Annual Conference was #ABMAC10. Using this hashtag, journalists, potential attendees or those who could not attend – or any other interested party – could easily find quotes and information from the event.

3) Announce your hashtag. In hindsight, we should have thrown the Annual Conference hashtag up on the projection screen at the beginning of the very first day of the event, so that all attendees knew it from the start. While word-of-mouth got the information out there quickly, there were several great tweets from attendees at the beginning of the meeting that used the hashtag #ABM. Because those attendees didn’t realize there was a hashtag unique to the event, their ideas didn’t aggregate with the rest of the event’s tweets. Be sure to reinforce this hashtag throughout your event so that late attendees are also aware.

4) Set aside interview space. Journalists often want to conduct video interviews with event attendees and speakers, but conferences and trade shows can be too noisy for Flips and other recording devices to catch interviewee quotes. Set aside a little space in a quiet corner or an extra room for journalists and their interviewees to record a quick Q&A. (Extra points if this room also has electrical outlets to recharge laptops, cameras and smartphones.) Your speakers will welcome the extra press and you’ll minimize the number of reporters hanging around broom closets, or worse, taking attendees outside the event for a quiet chat.

5) Leverage social media feedback. Many events professionals may shy away from encouraging open, unedited information about their conferences, trade shows or meetings available online for fear of bad press and reputation damage. But, any industry is comprised of a network of people who are in communication with each other – and word travels fast no matter what the medium. Rather, see the opportunity that lies in paying attention to this unsolicited, honest feedback from attendees. They will make it clear via social media what they liked, didn’t like, and what just needs some tweaking. This transparency could be your greatest asset.

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