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by Ruth Stevens I was teaching B2B digital marketing in Buenos Aires recently, and found some of my students to be dismayed by one data point that came up again and again in the course: Of all tactics in the B2B marketing toolkit, the most valued, the most used and the most effective is face-to-face […]
by Bob James and Michael Hatch Brick-and-mortar chain store owners everywhere are sweating “the retail apocalypse.” Traffic is abysmal. Sales have tanked. Stores are vanishing (over 8,600 are predicted to close this year). Job losses, bankruptcies and liquidations are legion. A tidal wave of disruption is shaking retailers to the core. Could an “apocalypse” beset association […]
by Jim Curry I am neck deep in exhibitor sales brochures at the moment. That involves reading endless exhibition statistics, questionable exhibitor testimonials, and vomit-inducing openers from organizers. It is a very boring and predictable process, because 85% of them are templated tosh. When reading the brochures, you can normally tell quite quickly the 15% of […]
by Carl Landau As a seasoned veteran in the niche event world, I’ve pretty much seen it all. What event organizers should do, mistakes to avoid, and most importantly—how to generate more revenue! I recently sat down with Magnificent Media’s Dave Reimherr for a podcast about live event management for niche publishers. We talked about how to go from thee sponsors […]
by Michael Barnett Virtual reality, drones, artificial intelligence, big data, live streaming, the list of buzzwords “revolutionizing events” is endless, and therefore meaningless. If everything is a threat to the events industry, then nothing is. But here are four trends indisputably affecting events: Isolation. Instead, consider that a majority of Americans do not have someone […]
by Elizabeth Johnson In college I had an economics professor who decided to bring a whistle to class one day so that he could blow the whistle before making an important point in his lecture. As the class wore on, he was blowing the whistle before every sentence and thus just began saying “tweet, tweet” […]
by Caitlin Fox When’s the last time you looked at your event’s website through the eyes of your end user, searching for event content you’d need to make a decision about attending? While event websites used to be an afterthought, I consider them to be the front door of a campaign, and of a show. […]
by Chris Brogan If you’ve been to one trade show, you’ve seen them all, in a way. There are the exhibitor booths, the plush carpet, the signage, the fishbowl full of business cards in exchange for a free gadget giveaway, squeezy balls, little dishes of candy. Occasionally, there’s a “fun game” thrown in there, some […]
by Silvia Pellegrini The most difficult things to sell ALWAYS end up being products and services people actually need–the kinds of products and services they feel are almost forced upon them. When we have to make a logical purchase, like car insurance to protect ourselves and our financial future, for example, we aren’t at all excited […]
by Bob James A telling statistic lies deep within CEIR’s new report, Cost to Attract Attendees. It could in part explain why association-owned shows have recently seen a falloff in attendance, exhibits and income. Association organizers, according to the new report, have cut their marketing spend during the past four years. Associations now spend 20% less on attendee […]
