We’re trying to
elevate the B2B
experience
– Ben Turner
IN BRIEF
What: Google Cloud NEXT
conference
Who: WONDER London and
Blitz by GES
Where: ExCeL London
When: 3-4 May 2017
Winter 2017/18 in association with GES
and breakout spaces required.
“The brief from Google was that they
wanted to host a series of conferences
which would ultimately create a pipeline
for selling Google Cloud products,”
Turner tells Engage. “They did this via
some keynote speeches, which were more
sales-led, and then through creating
breakout spaces, stages and content.
“These spaces allowed certain topics to
go into a deep dive, covering the nitty-
gritty information. They wanted the
breakout spaces and plenary spaces to be
available for people to pick and choose
throughout the day, so it was more like a
personalised event.”
Giving visitors an element of choice in
the topics, speakers and partners they
interacted with was an important part of
gaining data and return on investment
(ROI) from the event.
Each attendee was given an RFID badge
and would tap it any time they interacted
with a partner or entered a session. The
resulting data benefi tted visitors and
partners as well as providing valuable
insights for WONDER and Google.
“It meant we could track where people
went to gauge for future events what was
popular and what people engaged in,”
explains Turner. “It also meant that the
delegates could get post-event material. If
they were really interested in a specifi c
breakout we could send them more
information about that.
“Another thing it did was allow the
partners who had spent the money to
work out their ROI.
When it came to partners exhibiting
at the conferences, Google wanted to
maintain brand consistency across all
seven EMEA events. This meant that
WONDER was required to create partner
booths corresponding with silver, gold
and platinum packages, designed to
maximise visitor engagement during the
events while remaining in-keeping with
the overall Google Cloud brand. RFID
became an invaluable component of that,
as it could show partners exactly how
many people interacted with their booth.
Creative thinking
To maximise visitor interaction at
the London conference, Turner and the
WONDER team decided to think outside
the box for inspiration.
“We get the most success from face-
to-face engagement by focussing a little
bit more on how a demo might look,” he
explains. “Instead of having a plasma
screen set into a wall and expecting
people to go over and interact with
the product, we would also bring in
something physical.
“One example of that is a demo called
Quick Draw, which is literally people
drawing something on a plasma screen. It
doesn’t sound that engaging just putting
a plasma screen in a wall with some
graphics round it, so we thought about
what would catch someone’s eye and
make them want to go over.
“We got 4,000 pencils and drilled pencil
holes and then created the façade of the
screen around the wall with lots of red
and yellow pencils. It had that visual
aspect and it was creative.”
Creativity, says Turner, should be at the
heart of B2B experiences as much as it is
in the consumer world.
“In a lot of B2B events the norm is done
because that’s what’s been done before,
whereas if the same brand is doing
something public-facing in the consumer
world then they are probably doing it in a
different way.
“We’re trying to elevate the B2B
experience for a client.”
engage
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