Read the data before
the writing on the wall
Mykyta Fastovets, CTO at Expoplatform, on the
role of tech in the decline of the large trade show
O
ur industry has witnessed some high-profile show
collapses in recent months. Deutsche Messe’s Cebit,
Baselworld, Zalando’s Bread & Butter and Emerald
Expositions’ Interbike are among the largest. But while social
media is aflame with debate on alleged failure to adapt to the
market or mismanagement, we’ve been considering the role of
technology in identifying the red flags that precede an event’s
decline.
And more to the point, can event technology go a stage further
and help improve things for organisers? Some of these shows
stopped performing because they were no longer catering to the
individual needs of specific visitors. Measuring this and acting
on it is something that you can’t do without technology.
Of these four events, Cebit drew perhaps the greatest gasps.
Just 120,00 attended its 2018 edition, down from the million or
so who walked the show floor in its heyday and, like Baselworld,
resulted in the departure of the event’s chief executive. A staff
memo reportedly claimed pre-bookings for the 2019 edition
indicated the show would drift into losses, and management
reacted in order to maintain the company’s economic stability.
“It is now time to integrate the topics from Cebit that are
relevant for manufacturing, energy and logistics into Hannover
Messe,” Deutsche Messe CEO Dr Jochen Köckler claimed in a
statement.
The question remains, will the integration of this show into
another of the organiser’s flagship events be the correct course
of action, and how did Deutsche Messe arrive at that conclusion?
Counter the incoming blow, don’t just avoid it
Don’t mistake whim and guesswork for enterprise and
diligence. Modern exhibition management decisions can be
made after analysing data not anecdotes. Good software
partners will be more than your ear to the ground. By
categorising the various elements that comprise your show, you
will know where decline is reversible, who your new audience
should be, where it is heading and where your losses should be
cut. Data and AI algorithms now let you discern your audience’s
desires before they even express them.
Use software tools to assess the seniority of your visitors,
how they are interacting with your exhibitors, and look at the
product categories that get the most traction. If the wrong
people are attending, and they are struggling to have effective
meetings with your exhibitors, then leads are unlikely to follow.
If the products are changing from those that used to be present
on the show floor, then perhaps your show itself needs to be
repositioned. Keeping the narrative going, and spinning what
you have into new smaller events, may be preferable to rolling
what you have into an existing event.
Well-established exhibitions decline when the organiser
is either unable or unwilling to cater towards the needs of
their exhibitors and visitors. Those unable are typically faced
with one of two problems. They either don’t understand their
stakeholders because they don’t have the right tools and
processes in place to glean this information, or, they are afraid of
introducing major change to the event and have a bad situation
get worse.
Finding the right tools is a case of finding the right digital
partners who will analyse your event process with you, set up
the right data capture, and help you derive the right metrics.
This, in turn, will make the decision-making process easier, and
less risky, by removing much of the guesswork.
By looking at the data your software partner can provide you
could spot shifts in interest and behaviour of your exhibitors and
visitors long before you have to face the music. Indeed, a good
software partner can provide you with the wall on which to read
the writing.
exhibitionnews.co.uk | January 2019
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