I just returned from the Central Veterinary Conference (CVC) hosted by Advanstar publishing in Kansas City.

I’ve been attending this conference for many years and had grown accustomed to the floor plan and where our clients and prospects were traditionally located.  Last year, Terry Reilly of Advanstar announced to me they were going to re-format the show by grouping like exhibitors within common areas on the floor.  Terry explained how many trade show organizers were beginning to employ this strategy in recent years, and how this was the first attempt in the animal health industry.  I was intrigued and looked forward to this year’s event. (more…)

Dean LePoidevin | Post a Comment

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In the weeks leading up to a tradeshow I recently attended with a client, I began Tweeting on their behalf. Using the show’s hashtag, I drummed up some pre-show interest, and even caught the eye of an attending editor, who wrote a blog about our client’s product that was going to be on display.

When I arrived at the show, live Tweet boards throughout the exposition allowed people to post comments. Although I continued to Tweet and promote my client, very few others were using this platform. In fact, the number of exhibitors who were also using the Tweet boards was less than 10. And this was a fairly large show with several hundred exhibitors and thousands of attendees. (more…)

Steve Staedler | Post a Comment

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We just got back from the 2011 International Builders Show in Orlando. It was a great show for us with several good meetings and conversations.  The Orlando Sentinel reported total attendance figures to be 47,000. This is about 15 percent less than the 55,000 attendees the show organizers (NAHB) had projected, and significantly less than the peak attendance of 105,000 in 2006. 

While disappointing for the NAHB and likely many of the exhibitors, it turns out this isn’t all bad news.  One of our clients commented that booth traffic was definitely slower, but considerably more qualified. Booth visitors were walking up with specific direct questions and in some cases, actual building plans in hand, wanting to know exactly how to work the product into their designs.  These are people that are going to buy, rather than simply being causally interested or worse yet, looking to fill their bag with free pens and literature. (more…)

Judson Luke | Post a Comment

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