One of the worries with the next generation is to what extent they are actually interested in the physical get-together at all.
It is, of course, an unsubstantiated fear.
The physical get-together of people is not, and never will be, the sole domain of older generations. However, it is telling that companies soon began using their information and communications technology committees to make sure that company policies were not solely being made by executives who may not be quite so in touch with ‘the kids’ as they need to be.
The industry was acutely aware by the end of the first decade of the 21st century that making changes to incorporate this new world was the obligation of every event director, and the war against the online threat was not a finite battle to be won. This new world had to be embraced and incorporated in all events – the future of the industry looked like it would depend on it. In short, the dismissal of the online threat as something that could be ‘seen off’ was not accepted by progressive exhibition organisers.
The act of continuously rebuilding their businesses became a global challenge for organisers, and at the heart of it all was the need to find better ways to engage their participants, both exhibitors and visitors. The problem remained, however, that many organisers were coming nowhere near to taking full advantage of the business opportunities that data afforded them.
“In order to engage with them more effectively, we need to understand them better,” says UFI MD Paul Woodward. “In this we are lucky: one of the main assets of our industry is data. A number of CEOs to whom I spoke about this sheepishly concede that they should have a strategic plan for this, but don’t.”
To better engage our participants, and to avoid the fate of traditional trade media, many newspapers and even the main TV channels, organisers realised they would need to reinvent the look and feel of many of their events, and that this could be crucial in making them attractive to the next generation.
Fortunately, it turns out there are many, many, ways to appeal to a new audience with events, and a thousand ways to integrate a community’s interests into the event using both live presentations and digital content. As Nat Wong of Reed Exhibitions Greater China, once pointed out: “Change must be gradual … but there must be change.” Generation Y will almost certainly want to meet with their peers at events, but not events that look and feel like the ones their grandparents attended.
Organiser initiative aside, the arrival of the digital age also changed the way in which people chose to consume their trade shows. The shift from simply acquiring information to being educated required exhibition organisers to make a far greater leap than many had thought necessary. The digital revolution in the global exhibition industry let loose a driving change in the world of events that concerned the type of interaction events offer to participants – potential vendors on one hand, and potential buyers on the other. Although particularly relevant to consumer events, this change came in the form of a shift in the exchange model from one of promoting information to one of promoting relationships and experience.
A golden rule of advertising communication is that the message gets across only if the recipient receives something. For example, people read advertisements because they provide information, or because they are amusing. Trade fairs, according to Francesca Golfetto and Diego Rinallo from the Centre for Research on Markets and the Industrial Sector (CERMES), offer the traditional model of promotion–information exchange. While visitors receive and accept the exhibitors’ promotion, they also receive information by comparing the varieties and features of supply in a certain market. This kind of model has characterised trade shows since the early, general, trade fairs, which buyers attended to gather information about the latest developments in products and technologies.
However, this promotion–information exchange model has gone the way of advertising and has entered a state of crisis, according to Golfetto and Rinallo. Consumer show organisers and exhibitors figured out that fairs, as live events, have the ability – through direct engagement with participants – to move from showcases into engaging exhibitions, where visitors become participants, placing themselves in active relationships with products and participants. Few still attend events to find out what’s new in the marketplace – that is what the Internet is for. Engagement is key. “The stories told by visitors reveal how a new perspective on organic food or taking care of one’s body is reinforced by interaction with other individuals at the stands of suppliers, or the motivating satisfaction of having tried out and talked about a motorcycle with a champion,” says Rinallo.
“On the other hand, most of the exhibitors at consumer shows have leveraged these trends and increased their demand for experiential stands where the relationship between visitors and products, more than information about products, is crucial,” says Golfetto. “Or they have opted to emphasise the interaction of visitors with others who share their passion, and the perception of a general atmosphere, over a relationship with the supplier.”
In the case of trade exhibitions, this process was relatively late getting going. None the less, from surveys taken at the top international trade fairs, it became clear that the motivations of visitors to have information prior to purchase was marginal. At European trade fairs, visitors are driven primarily by the need to understand where the industry is going, to search for new ideas, and to ensure the choices that they make for the future are appropriate. “Visitors do not form new ideas through imitation of the things they’ve seen,” says Rinallo. “The ideas come from intellectual stimulation, sensation, perception of the market climate, contact with trends taken to extremes, and from interaction with and perceptions of the behaviour of others. Visitors bask in the atmosphere that surrounds the events, fuelling phenomena like off-site events.”
Businesses and cities are well aware of these phenomena, and often respond by organising spaces and opportunities for interaction; and not just commercially oriented activities – recreational and cultural events that enhance the fair experience for participants are crucial. “That’s how it went, for example, in Berlin, back in the day, when visitors from the fashion world went in search [outside the ‘official’ show venues] for the perspectives of taste and traditions of a Europe that was expanding,” comments Golfetto.
The same thing happens today at the furnishing, workspace and lighting fair Salone del Mobile in Milan where the ‘Fuori Salone’, or off-site events, have become a notable fixture. These attract professionals and young people with a passion for design who are looking for inspiration and ideas for new products by participating in the rites and rituals of their community. “And by observing the behaviour of the most sophisticated consumers – the Italians, of course,” Rinallo points out.
The need to experience things expressed by visitors – or ‘participants’ as Rinallo and Golfetto rightly proclaim them to be – is a huge factor in the changing format and content of marketing events, both individual and collective. Ultimately, the driver of experiential activities is inexorably prompting creativity on the part of event organisers, be they individual or collective. In Rinallo’s words, if an exhibition is to be memorable, the experience certainly needs to be different from last time.
In order for these requirements to be met, the show must itself be revised. And in today’s changing marketplace we’re seeing a great deal of evidence that this is indeed happening.
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