Matt Tillotson
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Fixing the broken trade show model

As a vendor, how can you help prospects connect with you before a trade show in a meaningful way? If you are a conference participant, how can you connect with people with like interests before you get anywhere near an airplane?

Last Saturday, I was fortunate enough to talk with real estate agents at the Keller Williams Family Reunion. It was my second Keller event. Much like the first, economy be damned, the agents were optimistic and enthusiastic. And they had good feelings about PODS. The Family Reunion is a great show for us to attend.

Although trade shows are struggling, the model is not dead. Social media technology is evolving and catching on fast, but we are a long way from replacing the connection created by face-to-face communication. Someday, we may get there. But that day remains far off.

That said, the traditional trade show model is very broken. These events are all about making connections. So why don't more shows use social media to help people connect before, during and after a conference? It's a tremendous value add that wouldn't add tremendous expense. And it could great increase the value vendors and attendees get from a conference.

How would I use social media to make conferences more compelling? Here are three ways.

Humanize the company profile

At PODS, our company listing in online (and offline) conference guides usually looks something like this:

PODS Save up to 10% with PODS – the most convenient way to move and store! Use PODS to declutter listed homes. After the sale, PODS can provide storage for as long as needed and then move belongings across town or across the country. PODS is the low-stress moving and storage solution.

http://www.pods.com 1-800-776-PODS

That's what everybody does today. Logo, corporatespeak, corporate URL, corporate 800 number that connects directly to no one. Is that going to drive any connection between attendees and the company? Doubtful.

But what if:

  • A company listing included pictures of, profiles about and direct contact info for the people attending from the business?

  • Attendees could send an email or Twitter or SMS before the conference to the vendor attendees to get the ball rolling on their questions ahead of time?

  • The vendor could post questions about what it hopes to learn from attendees?

Wouldn't that encourage connections far more than corporatespeak? I think it would. And it wouldn't cost a dime more than the way show guides are done today.

Let attendees connect ahead of time around areas of common interest

Conferences have a common umbrella theme, and lots of areas of "sub-interest" that hang below the main theme. At a real estate conference, for example, there may be sub-themes on personal branding, commercial real estate strategies for a down market, and a ton of other topics. Let attendees submit ideas through Twitter or another platform to launch discussions about what they hope to learn. Let the presenter participate and adjust their presentation accordingly.

Creating conversation about breakout sessions before the event would:

  • Improve the final presentation

  • Create a sense of ownership for the attendees, which would increase session attendance, interaction and satisfaction.

Encourage attendees create valuable additional content in real time. And then aggregate and archive it to create next year's online show brochure.

Encourage attendees to blog, photograph and Twitter in real time as the conference unfolds. Then make sure people know how to access this content during and long after the event.

In real time, this lets attendees absorb information they missed by reading tweets or blog posts about sessions they couldn't attend. It builds value.

After the event, the sponsor has an incredible sales brochure for next year! Set up a repository to post Twitter discussions, links to blog posts and Flickr photos from the event. Let the attendees' enthusiasm come through as they document the event for you. The days of a couple of photogs wandering around the trade show floor are over. The crowd can deliver a much more authentic archive of the experience -- and will provide testimonials to push attendance for next year's event.

Obviously, if your conference is lousy, that's going to come through. And there will be some negative feedback no matter what. Conference organizers need to make sure they participate in the conversations to learn from criticism and to communicate changes to correct problems for the next year.

Maybe some of the bleeding edge tech events are doing this today. I hope so. A little injection of social technology could reinvigorate the value and enthusiasm of conferences by creating a sense of connection and ownership for attendees before, during and long after the event. In that way, conferences can use social media to enhance face-to-face connections -- not compete with it.