Social coupon websites like Groupon are booming, building buzz on behalf of businesses by sending out daily emails alerting subscribers to local bargains in their city. It's a novel concept that already has changed the shape of e-commerce — and is now poised to impact trade show commerce, as well, as the National Restaurant Association (NRA) recently became the first global event to offer a trade show-based social buying program, it announced last month.
At the 2011 NRA Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show, which took place May 21-24 in Chicago, the NRA launched the NRA Show Daily Deals program. Powered by Bizy, a Chicago-based social buying website that specializes in business-to-business deals, the program allowed buyers to purchase a deeply discounted deal online and fulfill it face-to-face at the event, thereby combining the convenience of e-commerce with the power of face-to-face networking.
According to the NRA, the interaction allowed attendees to purchase deeply discounted products in areas such as equipment, services and technology, and to try out new products that might have otherwise been cost-prohibitive. Exhibitors, meanwhile, gain new brand visibility and the opportunity to identify new prospects who might not have considered them otherwise.
"The NRA Show Daily Deals program harnesses the power of Internet group coupon sites to create demand, while simultaneously creating one-on-one interactions that match sellers with new buyers," said Mary Pat Heftman, executive vice president of Convention, National Restaurant Association. "Unlike traditional at-show discounts or other online offers that are only transacted in a faceless online environment, NRA Show Daily Deals are first purchased online at a deep discount and then fulfilled in-person at the NRA Show."
In further support of social coupons, NRA Show attendees also had the opportunity to interact with social buying sites like Facebook, Google, Groupon, LivingSocial, Social Grub, Where and Yelp on the exhibit floor, exploring in person how their services could help restaurants generate online buzz and build offline customer loyalty.
This year's NRA Show attracted nearly 58,000 registrants, according to preliminary analysis, which included a 4 percent increase in the Restaurant/Foodservice category, a 6 percent increase in the Dealer/Distributor category and an 8 percent increase in the Press category. On the exhibitor side, there was a 7 percent increase in square feet occupied over 2010, covering more than 515,000 square feet and encompassing more than 1,900 exhibitors.
"The growing energy and optimism of restaurant operators, dealers and distributors were tangible at this year's NRA Show," concluded C.W. Craig Reed, convention chair for NRA Show 2011 and director of food and beverage for the Broadmoor Hotel. "The business solutions and product innovations by our exhibitors, coupled with the inspiring ideas and broad expertise of our speakers, created an environment where attendees could find all the products, services and know-how they need to enhance their productivity and profitability. These tools, resources and insights will help the restaurant industry continue its economic recovery, which in turn will positively affect the nation's economy."