Originally published March 6, 2006 in MeetingNews
Trade shows that are held in the virtual world that is, completely online are gaining in popularity among groups seeking innovative ways to improve the return on their event marketing dollars.
Known as online or virtual trade shows, they are similar to webinars, which are usually hour-long web conferences or webcasts focused on one subject. But they emulate full-blown physical conferences and trade shows and can last up to seven hours and even up to three days for big shows.
Virtual trade shows typically include keynote and breakout sessions presented as web conferences or webcasts. Web pages dedicated to specific exhibitors serve as virtual exhibit booths. All the show participants speakers, attendees and exhibitors can communicate with each other in real time through instant messaging.
Virtual trade shows cannot yet rival the largest physical trade shows in size. Typical online trade shows range from about 1,500 to 5,000 attendees and 10 to 100 exhibitors, according to Gonen Ziv, senior vice president of North American operations for Unisfair, a leading provider of online trade show technologies and services.
Ziv claimed that companies can obtain qualified sales leads at one-tenth the cost of physical shows. Unisfair charges from about $40,000 to $500,000 to produce an online conference and trade show.
Unisfair has staged about 150 virtual events since its inception in 2000, about one-third of them in 2005 alone, Ziv said. "Online trade shows really took off last year," he said. "It was a breakout year."
This year, the New York-based company expects to double its 2005 results, Ziv said. He cited a few reasons for the growth in virtual trade shows: the strong economy, which has allowed firms to increase their marketing budgets; greater acceptance of web conferencing; and the search for new revenue sources by trade show organizers.
The rise of virtual trade shows also dovetails with the trend of corporations favoring focused customer events over exhibiting at large trade shows.
Last year, companies that held their own virtual events accounted for about 30 percent of Unisfair's shows, with expo companies accounting for the bulk of the business. This year, the percentage of corporate events is expected to climb to 50 percent.
Nortel, the major Toronto-based telecommunications company, is one corporation that has benefited from its own online conference and trade show. More than 1,000 people attended its first virtual show last November to acquaint current and prospective customers with its mobile communications products and services.
In addition to the attendees at the live event, several hundred more people have accessed the archived proceedings. "We were very happy with the results," said Sandra Thompson, marketing manager for Nortel's mobility solutions group.
Nortel targeted senior executives and information technology managers at companies from around the world the key decision-makers and advisors. About three-quarters of the attendees were in the U.S., with the rest from some 95 countries.
Given the busy schedules of such senior people, along with surveys showing they prefer to receive information electronically, a virtual conference and trade show seemed perfect, according to Thompson.
Rather than subject attendees to a hard sell during the conference, the marketing team arranged for a variety of industry experts, including those from Nortel and its partners, to present sessions on mobile communications issues.
The direct sell was saved for the trade show's 10 exhibitors, which consisted of Nortel and its partners. Attendees clicked on links to exhibitors' virtual booths, where they not only could access product information but also communicate with booth staffers via instant messaging. The software notified booth staffers of visitors, so that they could initiate communication.
Much to the surprise of the Nortel marketing team, the average attendee spent about 4.75 hours at the one-day show. That's longer than the two to three hours that the average attendee spends at an online trade show, and much longer than the hour or less at a web conference.
To keep attendees coming back, Nortel's event marketing planners scheduled breaks similar to those at physical events. They scheduled one keynote session to kick off the event and another one after the main meal break to entice attendees to return.
A full accounting of the show's return on investment is under way, according to Thompson. She explained that people are still viewing the archives, and all the leads and sales resulting from the show are still to be realized.
"All the numbers are not in yet, but we expect to get a healthy ROI," said Thompson. "It was definitely worth the money."