When asked by Francis Friedman, chair of the Future Trends Task Force to provide thoughts on emerging trends, it seemed relevant to remember some of the historical mistakes that other industries have made. Technology can disrupt a competitive landscape and have a significant impact on the direction of a marketplace.
For example, railroad companies missed the opportunity to adopt and produce new innovations such as automobiles and airplanes. They considered their industry to be the railroad industry not the transportation industry. This shortsighted definition of their mission prevented expansion into new markets.
Are we repeating that same mistake in the trade show industry? Recently, IAEE launched the initiative to prove the value of trade shows to corporate America. However, do we still want to be the trade show industry?
In simple terms, corporations are driven to locate buyers. Trade shows and events offer the ability to meet these buyers. Yet, trade shows are considered one of the most expensive efforts in sales and marketing budgets. Booths, hotel rooms and travel are significant costs.
On the other hand, social media strategies are becoming better at providing alternative lead generation and brand marketing options. Show organizers are the original marketplace for these buyer/supplier relationships, but too often they wave goodbye to attendees and exhibitors and remind them to come back next year.
Since corporations cannot wait until next year to continue engaging buyers, social media solutions present an appealing way to keep in front of potential customers through online tools. According to RD Whitney, CEO at the Institute of Finance and Management, "Trade shows must stay in the middle of the buyer-supplier equation especially in online communities in order to demonstrate value to customers."
Proving the value of trade shows is an attempt to protect the current definition of our role. By protecting our industry, we are actually missing a significant change. According to the Gartner report "Predicts 2013: Social and Collaboration Go Deeper and Wider," two online community shifts will happen:
- By 2016, 50 percent of large organizations will have internal Facebook-like social networks, and that 30 percent of these will be considered as essential as email and telephones are today.
- In 2017, the majority of all new user-facing applications will exhibit gamified-social-mobile fusion.
Trade shows and events must understand how to adapt to these social and collaboration changes involving our communities.
Roger Lewis with AllianceTech describes how important it is to move up to strategic solutions when dealing with customers. Executing trade shows and events are tactical operations for corporations. The development of a community that engages an organization brand is a much more strategic objective. We need to become community managers instead of just trade show managers.
Ten years ago, former IAEE executive director Steven Hacker often described how show organizers realized the need to evolve from selling carpet on a trade show floor to connecting exhibitors with attendees. The industry focus should now embrace evolution from onsite community to onsite and online community in order to create additional value for corporations. We own the contacts and make the connections in the marketplace. We now have tools like Presdo Match and Industry Connect to create online solutions. Now we need to redefine our role.
New technology like Big Data, gamification, mobile applications/devices and social media are evolving community management strategies. Trade shows and events are just another element of a marketing campaign. If we choose to protect that role, we will be resigned to a secondary position as true community managers take on the strategic opportunities.
IAEE is a collection of some of the brightest thinkers on face2face marketing. I am confident that our leaders can start to look outside our current 'tracks' and determine how to build toward new horizons. This technology disruption can become a great way for our industry to prove value. Even if the definition of our industry has to change.