crisis recovery guide for the exhibition industry€¦ · 2 foreword matthias tesi baur we as the...

Crisis Recovery Guide for the Exhibition Industry+++ Push Sales +++ Establish a new Strategy +++ Create Post Crisis USP +++ Execute Digital Innovation +++

By Matthias Tesi Baur, MBB-Consulting Group Founder

CONSULTING AGENCY FOR : TRADE SHOWS, B2B AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

© MBB-Consulting Group - Matthias Tesi Baur Consultancy, Email: [email protected]

© by MBB-Consulting Groupfree to use for associations, exhibition organiser

and exhibition venues

mailto:[email protected]

Foreword2

Matthias Tesi Baur We as the exhibition industry are undoubtably in one of the most critical crises since decades. Nobody expected the COVID-19 crisis and the consequences we are facing a short while ago. Most of the exhibition organisers and venues have done an amazing job in the last weeks to get their communications under control, cancel or postpone a large amount of events and analyse the current situation.

Now it is time to prepare the post-crisis time. How strong your business comes out of this crisis depends on how early and how structured you plan the post-crisis time.At the moment nobody knows how long the crisis will last but preparation work for the time when the crisis comes to an end can’t start early enough.

With this guide we try to provide you with a framework to help plan, organise and execute for the time when the COVID-19 crisis comes to and end and for the time thereafter. This guide is obviously not complete but hopefully provides some clear action points that help to manage the end-crisis and post-crisis phase!

Please feel free to send this guide to all your contacts in the industry who you think might appreciate the insights of this document. Also please contact us if you would like to add or change certain points of this guide. We are more than happy to take all feedback into account to maximise the value for the industry.

Finally please call us if you want to discuss the guide or need more input from our side. We are more than happy to offer free of charge consulting sessions and drill into more detail regarding each of the described action points if you feel that helps!

© MBB-Consulting Group - Matthias Tesi Baur, Email: [email protected]

Please contact us for a crisis recovery -consulting session

We are happy to help and will not

charge for it




How to read this guide?3

Crises such as the one we are experiencing at the moment can be divided into different phases. In this guide we largely divide the crisis into the phase in which we go into the crisis, into the phase when we come out of the crisis and the post crisis phase. This guide is important for the phase coming out of the crisis and the post crisis phase. The first activity you should start, is to set up your sales capacities to bring you out of the crisis as strong as possible. This needs to be followed up by a collaborative


Going into the crisis Coming out of the crisis Post crisis

Chapter sales

Chapter strategy

Chapter post crisis USP

Chapter digital innovation

strategy approach and by the creation of the post-crisis USP.Finally the definition of a new digital strategy is important to be better armed for future events like this.

You know best in which phase your company currently is! We hope this guide provides you with a good list of action points you should work on, together with your team, to come out stronger.





Content of this Guide4

In this guide we provide content in four chapters; “Push Sales”, “Establish a Collaborative Strategy”, “Create a Post Crisis USP” and “Execute Digital Innovation”.

In each chapter we will show consulting slides of workshops we normally provide, regarding each topic.

Unquestionably the situation in each company and for each show is different. Depending on your individual situation the slides might carry more or less insight and practical solutions on how you can manage and organise the end-crisis and post-crisis time.

We are happy to run a session with you to discuss each approach in the individual light of your situation and provide deeper input if needed. Just contact us if you need more information from us!

We also provide further and more detailed information in the appendix of this guide.

1 Push Sales Slides: 5 - 15

2 Establish a Collaborative Strategy

Slides: 16 - 22

3 Create a Post Crisis USP Slides: 23 - 29

4 Execute Digital Innovation

Slides: 30 – 37

5 Appendix Slides: 39 - 41




Push Sales5

Push Sales Pushing Sales: We have put this chapter at the front of our guide on purpose. Your sales team (if not already) will become the most important department of your company to come out as strong as possible of this crisis. Setting the sales team up to “fight” you out of the current situation can’t start early enough.

If you are a commercial and sales driven organisation you might be in better shape here but even then you have important action points to “hunt down”. If your organisation does not carry “the commercial worrier gene” it is now time to stand up and to build a sales team that is skilled and equipped to sell your shows in an environment that is very likely to be more competitive than before the crisis.

This chapter will cover:

• Pipeline Management: Add efficiency to your sales activities• Review your Sales Cycle: When is the money coming in• Building up your Sales Team: Ensuring you have the right resources in place• Agile Targeting & Commission Plans: Make sure you shift resources where

needed and motivate your people• Rebooking: Extend cooling off phases• Sales Days: Push sales by harvesting opportunities





Push Sales / Pipeline Management6


• Company was interested but declined the offer- 10%

• We have the address in our database but we have not approached the company so far

0%

• We approached the company through a mailing or email mailing but have no reaction so far

5%

• We have approached the company and got a reaction with a general interest in further communication

20%

• We had a call or a more detailed email exchange with the company. The company is interested and has already indicated how many m2 they might book

40%

• A first contract is proposed based on the company’s requirement and we wait for either further detailed discussions or the signature

60%

• The proposed contract was discussed a second time and the company indicated when exactly the signed contract will be sent back

80%

• The contract is signed100%

Pipeline Management: Many companies in the exhibition industry don’t work efficiently with pipeline management. An efficient pipeline management must be based on strict KPIs and a scientific form of analysing sales data.

We recommend following action points:

• Define pipeline stages: Many companies have too few, defined pipeline stages. Sometimes companies work with only three or four pipeline stages. This makes a pipeline vulnerable to too many “gut-feel” stages which are defined by the interpretation of the sales person. A proper sales analysis of pipelines with too few stages is not possible. Define a pipeline with a minimum of five to eight stages. Otherwise you will struggle to be on top of your sales cycle

• Define pipeline KPIs: Many pipelines have too few or too loosely defined KPIs which often makes it impossible to shift sales resources or to hand over leads. Make sure your pipeline is built on clear KPIs in each stage to enable a precise analysis of each stage




Push Sales / Pipeline Management7


We recommend following action points:

• Analyse pipeline stages: Pipeline stages can provide deep insight into the sales cycle and how healthily the sales cycle is performing. Pipelines with many leads at the 80% stage will deliver good sales but might “dry - out” within weeks. Pipelines should be analysed by “weighted leads” (leads above 60%) and unweighted leads (leads below 60%). All leads above 50% need to be monitored in terms of further lead nurturing and the time this nurturing needs to ensure leads will close on time. Such analysis will provide deep insights into how “healthy” your pipeline is

• Analyse pipeline and forward planning: Pipelines can look healthy and strong but can often also give indications of future problems your team might face. A pipeline with many strong and only few early leads might dry out. A pipeline with many strong leads that do not close might indicate a closing problem in the team etc. Each pipeline stage needs to be analysed on an ongoing basis to discover issues in the USP, show proposal or team

• Define pipeline reporting: Good and transparent pipeline reporting is important to shift resources and to spot skill-gaps. Pipeline reporting often lacks clarity, transparency and accuracy. Build meaningful dashboards that can be understood by the entire team and management

• Analyse nurturing and closing rates: Closing rates are an indicator of your team skills but also of the strength of your event USP. Analyse which companies and exhibitor segments close in which time frames to shape your sales strategy

Please note:

Pipeline management is a

highly complex task and non-commercial organisations often struggle to define the right level of

pipeline management

Please contact us to evaluate what level

of pipeline management is the right level for you




The Sales Cycle8

© MBB-Media - Matthias Tesi Baur Consultancy, Email: [email protected]

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Traditional Normal Rebooking Optimised Sales Cycle

Traditional = 103%

Normal Rebooking = 110%

Optimised = 125%

Sales Cycle: The sales of your next second shows will change. The current crisis will affect at a minimum the next two show cycles. You should investigate the following points of your sales cycle:

• Sales phasing: Which tier; 1,2 and 3, are delayed in booking the show

• Revenue per sales resource: How much resource is needed to approach and work on all leads in a compressed sales cycle

• Average booth size: Is any change in booking different booth sizes recognisable

• Stretching sales phases: Can you stretch sales phases such as early bird or cooling off to encourage bookings

• Knock on effect: How will a compressed sales cycle influence follow up sales cycles

A well developed data analysis process and pipeline management will help in analysing the sales cycle!




Building up your Sales Team9


Sales Team: Once you have analysed you sales cycle you should plan your sales team resources and skill set to ensure potential sales can be closed as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Your sales team should have the following skills for all sales groups and for all international and national sales so that the appropriate resources can be planned:

Resource & Skills Matrix

National International

Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3

Onboarding 1 /10 /90 1 /100 /200 0 /500 /400 2 /5 /3 0 /20 /90 3 /100 /700

Nurturing 3 /400 /900 0 /90 /90 4 /100 /700 1 /10 /30 1 /10 /8 1 /30 /90

Closing 2 /50 /40 3 /300 /200 1 /80 /90 0 /80 /300 2 /20 /90 4 /10 /90

Resources / leads returning / leads new

• Onboarding: The skill to bring new leads into the pipeline. This can be tier 3 leads that can be acquired through data purchasing, online campaigns or barter deals, tier 2 clients that can be recruited though partnership programs or show visits of competitor shows or tier 2 clients that can be recruited through road shows or round tables

• Nurturing: Skills to gather and understand the needs of potential visitors and translate these needs into meaningful propositions. That can differ from cost efficient propositions for tier 3 or 2 clients to tailormade cross-media proposals for tier 1 clients

• Closing: Closing often requires skills to add the appropriate pressure to a client to close the contract without risking the client relationship. Closing is often a missing or underdeveloped skill which can result in lower sales even if the previous sales steps are executed well




Agile Targeting & Commission Plans10


Agile Targeting is a methodology toallocate targets to different sales teams and to weight these targets differently depending on the strategic importance of a sales target or to support a sales team member’s sales skills.

This methodology enables a portfolio sales strategy that allows to shift resources without losing the focus on specific sales goals.

Each event in a defined portfolio can still have its own sales target and tracking these targets is possible through a dashboard report.

The methodology also enables to check if enough sales resources are allocated to single show targets.

Targets Event Cluster (e.g all B2B Events)

Sales Targets per ShowEVENT

Show A Show B Show C Show D Total

Month January March June October

Target 100,000 50,000 50,000 200,000 400,000

Achieved 80,000 10,000 30,000 12,000 132,000

Still to achieve 20,000 40,000 20,000 188,000 268,000

Increase for sales (4%) 800 1,600 800 7,520

Still to achieve incl increase 20,800 41,600 20,800 195,520 278,720

from Returning 14,560 29,120 14,560 136,864 195,104

from New Business 6,240 12,480 6,240 58,656 58,656

Break Down per Sales Employee PositionEVENT

Show A Show B Show C Show D Total

Tim Sales Exec 6,000 500 3,000 40,000 49,500

Fritz Sales Director 4,000 2,000 12,000 3,000 21,000

Klaus Senior Sales Exec 6,000 7,000 1,000 60,000 74,000

Andy Sales Exec 6,000 500 4,000 50,000 60,500

Total 22,000 10,000 20,000 153,000 205,000

Above / Below 2,000 -30,000 0 -35,000 -63,000

Comparison to Pipeline EVENT

Event pipeline Show A Show B Show D Show C

Pipeline above 60% 10,000 5,000 40,000 100,000

Pipeline below 60% 25,000 2,000 3,000 30,000

Pot. Customer above 60% 5 6 18 44

Pot. Customer below 60% 20 2 8 3

% above 60% vs "still to achieve" 6,000 3,000 24,000 60,000




Agile Targeting & Commission Plans11


The agile targeting methodology is translated into individual commission plans. The sum of all individual commission plans needs to reflect the overall sales target and strategic growth plans.

Each commission plan needs to be developed individually. Targets should be divided into:

• Personal targets based on individual strength

• Team targets serving overall strategic goals

• Soft targets support the right sales culture

Personal Targets

Name Andy Salary 40,000

Total Commission 20% Commission 8,000

Split Personal target 8%

Team Targets 8%

Soft Targets 4%

Targets

Description Revenue Target Weighting Max. Comms Due Payment Date

Revenue Target Show A 6,000 2% € 800

Revenue Target Show A 500 1% € 400

Revenue Segment A 4,000 2% € 800

Revenue Segment B 50,000 3% € 1,200

Total 8% € 3,200

Team Targets

Team Target New Business & Lost Business 60,000 3% € 1,200

Rebooking Target for Show A 100,000 4% € 1,600

Portfolio 1,000,000 1% € 400

Total 8% € 3,200

Soft targets

Achieved Call Rates yes/no 2% 800 €

10 Client Meetings yes/no 1% 400 €

Team Leader in Rebooking yes/no 1% 400 €

Total 4% 1,600 €

Please note:

Creating an agile target plan is as complex a task as pipeline management

Please contact us to discuss how to set up such a plan in more detail!




Rebooking12


Overall Target

Team A

Member A

Lead A

Lead B

Member B

Lead A

Lead B

Team B

Member A

Lead A

Lead B

Member B

Lead A

Lead B

Every team member should have a defined list of leads they need to rebook. The team member should be familiar with the leads if possible. The sum of leads should define the personal rebooking target of the specific team member.

Every team should consist of four to five team members. The team’s rebooking target should be the sum of all individual team member rebooking targets.

The overall rebooking target should be the sum of all team targets.

A well prepared rebooking phase can secure up to 90% of the sales secured during a current show cycle for the coming show cycle. This is especially important to increase the cash flow and to liberate sales resources to grow the show at a later stage through new business. A breakdown of the rebooking targets by teams and team members is necessary to cross check if a target is achievable and to ensure that the right sales people rebook the right exhibitors. The overall target should be broken down as follows:




Rebooking13


The rebooking target must be prepared by intense data analysis of historic rebooking and pipeline data.The following charts show some examples of how data can be analysed.

44%

33%

18%

5%

Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 4

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

% of Total Rebooked Revenue by Tier Group

63%

32%

50% 48%


0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Rebooked m2 vs Last Year by Tier Group

38,000

28,800

16,000

4,500


0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

Revenue by Tier Group

190

144

80

22.5


0

50

100

150

200

Total m2 Rebooked by Tier Group

Please note:

We have specific calculation files to

analyse historic sales and pipeline data

and to allocate this data to single sales

resources.

Please contact us if you want to discuss

this sales methodology in more

detail.




Rebooking14


Rebooking targets must be embedded into a timeframe with targets for each phase in the project. Ongoing monitoring is necessary to ensure the overall rebooking target can be achieved.

Overall Target

(e.g. 10 Million)

Pre-Rebooking Target

(e.g. 2 Million)

Show Days

(e.g. 7.5 Million)

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

Cooling Off

(e.g. 500k)

The Pre-Rebooking Target:

The pre-rebooking target should be achieved by offering reserved locations to tier 1 and 2 exhibitors.This should be communicated as a special loyalty service to reserve the best locations before other exhibitors are given the opportunity to book these locations.

The Onsite Rebooking Target:

During the show days the different teams work on achieving their onsite targets. This time will bring in the majority of the overall rebooking target. The onsite target needs to be broken down by teams and by team members.

Any problems in this rebooking phase need to be solved very quickly which requires an efficient set of meetings.

The Cooling Off Target:

Exhibitors can cancel their booked stands during the cooling off phase without paying a cancellation fee. It is possible the rebooking revenue goes down during this phase due to this reason. However, this can be mitigated through upsell and booking further exhibitors. The target in this phase is normally low and the team should concentrate on preventing cancellations where possible and upselling to exhibitors.




Sales Days & Power Hours15


Sales Days and Power Hours can be a powerful instrument to harvest sales opportunities and to tackle sales challenges. Following action points should be executed during a sales day:

• Reason for a sales day: A sales day should have a specific goal or reason such as pushing a specific segment etc.

• Clarify responsibility: One person should be responsible to plan, execute and analyse the sales day

• Setting sales goals: Specific and clear sales goals need to be defined

• Preparation: A specific sales day pipeline needs to be created

• Planning resources: The leads needs to be divided amongst all available resources

• Briefing: All “guest sales staff” need to be briefed in a morning meeting

• Monitoring: Learnings and successes need to be monitored during the day

• Result announcement and celebration: The results should be announced to the team and success needs to be celebrated




Establish a Collaborative Strategy16

Establish a collaborative

strategy

Establish a collaborative strategy: Creating and pivoting strategy is part of our daily business as a show team or member of the company C-Level. However, creating a strategy in times of a crisis is something different.

Show teams that execute the same shows might get stuck a bit in the strategy process and it may feel like a largely similar or the same process as in the last years. It is now time to proactively change this. Show and company management should ask themselves the question how customer-centric and how collaborative a strategy creation process has been in the past. In this chapter we will present findings and insights of how to set up a truly collaborative strategy process that will help bonding with exhibitor and visitor groups, which is important in coming out of the crisis stronger.

This Chapter will cover:

• Customer Dynamic: What was the customer dynamic before the crisis• Source of Strategy Creation Processes: Anecdotal knowledge and

analysed knowledge• Collaborative Strategy Process: Including stakeholders in the strategy

creation process• Advisory - and Feedback Board: Tools to include a stakeholder• Level of Collaboration: How much involvement is good?





17

Your show was embedded in a specific customer dynamic before the crisis which can be largely grouped in one of the pillars below. Some shows have a neutral dynamic but very often exhibitors feel that the show was expensive or the concept of the show was not customer centred enough. It is very likely that this dynamic will play a more emphasised and important role in the phase when the crisis ends and in the post crisis phase. Exhibitors who experienced a show as expensive will more likely be less willing to return back to the show after the crisis. Exhibitors and visitors who experienced a show as innovative and relevant will likely return. It is therefor enormously important to understand and to analyse the dynamic of a show before the crisis.

We live in times where the truth counts little and the dynamic is everything

© MBB-Consulting Group, Email: [email protected]

Customer Dynamics Before the Crisis17

• People talk negatively about the show

• Team is in an defensive position

• High investment of money and time provides little results

• Negative effect on sales and customer satisfaction

• Customers try to shy away from the show

• Exhibitors feel they have to exhibit at the show

• Pricing is experienced as too expensive

• Exhibitor feels he has no choice and have to accept the offer

• Customer has no negative but also no positive feeling towards the show

• Loyalty is low• Show participation is

often based on a routine and not a proactive decision

• Competitor shows could acquire this customer easily with a better offer

Negative Cornered Neutral

• People are excited• Kickstart “word of

mouth” as the “mother of all marketing channels”

• Relatively low investment provides great results

• Sales become easier• Customers want to be

associated with the show

Positive




Source of Strategy Creation Processes: 18

Sources to create a strategy: The sources of knowledge to judge a dynamic and a business situation can either be anecdotal knowledge and analysed knowledge. Both sources are very important in concluding the right strategy.The definition of these sources are:

Anecdotal knowledge: Knowledge embedded in the show team. Often companies with a low staff turnover rate this type of knowledge highly. The danger here might be that the team “lives” in its own bubble. For example a team will develop the opinion that a show Is too expensive if exhibitors say so for years. In this case a team will likely not increase the sqm price too much. If the show is really too expensive might be unknown.

Analysed knowledge: This is knowledge resulting from of data research (quantitative and qualitative) and concluding strategic decisions from this analysis. New show teams with little experience in the specific show segments often use this knowledge source to build strategies. The danger is that decisions might not be customer - proven enough.


Execution

Strategy Announcement

Strategy Creation

Situation Review

Anecdotal Knowledge Analysed Knowledge

Start Strategy Creation Process

In our experience the best and most customer centric strategies use both sources of knowledge effectively!




Better Collaboration Content featurePositive-Aggressive

Communication

• Advisory Board• Feedback Group• Roadshow• Industry partnership• Social media• Focus on the visitor quality

• Matchmaking• Panel Discussions• Innovation Entrances• Guided Tours• Demo Arena

• 4 campaigns• Advertising• Press Releases• Social Media• PR Activities

• Road Show

The three pillars of a new service strategy


Changing a Dynamic by Changing the Strategy Process

19

When you manage your way out of the crisis it is enormously important to monitor and manage the dynamic between your show team and the exhibitor and/or visitor target groups.We have extensive experience in defining and rolling out strategies to turn around a neutral or negative dynamic between exhibitors and/or visitors and the event organising company into a positive dynamic. This is the basis for nearly everything: securing the show, growing the show and developing the show. We have executed this methodology for shows that were close to collapse due to a negative dynamic and also for successful shows looking to grow further. Such a strategy is based on three pillars:• Creating a Collaboration Strategy: creating a strategy process that involves exhibitors and visitors to increase loyalty and

customer satisfaction• Defining a content strategy: always serving the business of the exhibitors• Setting up an aggressive communication strategy: to ensure a viral multiplier effect for the show

Please note:

Setting up such a collaboration strategy is a

complex task. Please contact us to discuss this further

or to get more details on how a

show dynamic can be changed.




Recipe of a Content and Feature Strategy20


Onboarding Team

Onboarding Exhibitors

Content & Features

Fail fast Succeed

faster

Link Contents

Low / Medium

Investment

Collaborative Strategy Cycle

In the last slides we talked about the importance of understanding the customer dynamic, to use both anecdotal and analysed knowledge to create a strategy and to embed your target groups in some aspects of the strategy process. Now it is time to understand such a collaborative strategy process as a never ending cycle with following milestones:

• Team Onboarding: Let your team discuss and define certain aspects of your strategy to ensure you give enough room to anecdotal knowledge and to increase the team understanding and buy-in of strategy

• Onboarding Exhibitors: do the same with your exhibitor target group. Give this target group decision power for selected points in your strategy

• Content and Features Strategy: set up a holistic and modern content and feature strategy that serves your target group business needs

• Fail fast and Succeed faster: Allow your strategy to fail to a certain extent and build on the successes

• Link Contents: Link your successful content feature to multiply the positive effect

• Low / Medium Investment: Do not invest too much in your first round of new features to allow the “fail and succeed factor” to develop




How to Onboard Exhibitors?21


Round Tables

Advisory Board

The Feedback Group

There are many different ways to include your target groups into a collaborative strategy process. Road shows and round tables are some effective ways to do that. On this slide we want to introduce some of these formats:

Round Tables: Specific round tables to gather feedback and report on the latest strategic developments can be a good platform to increase customer engagement. It is important that these round tables are not one-off events. They should follow an ongoing concept of feedback and interaction.

Advisory boards: advisory boards are a widely used instrument. However, many advisory boards are set up in an non-engaging and non-interactive way. Creating a positive experience in the advisory board is important. The advisory board needs to be nurtured in an open, free-to-talk and trusted round to critically review and openly develop the event strategy.

Feedback group: The feedback group is a format that offers a wider group of customers to participate in the strategy process. Whilst an advisory board often only include the large customers, a feedback group can welcome all types of exhibitors and visitors independent of them representing large or small companies.

Setting up these feedback formats is not easy but very important. For a more detailed explanation of

the differences between a well defined and less well defined advisory board

Please contact us for more details.




Level of Involvement and Collaboration22


This chapter talks about the importance of involving the target groups into the strategy building process and to give exhibitors and visitors decision power at certain points in the strategy defining process. This will trigger loyalty that will arm your show through crisis times in a better and stronger way.

However it is important to plan, manage and moderate this process. The target groups can’t have involvement or decision power at certain aspects of the strategy such as pricing, hall planning or the base set up for the show. This is important as exhibitors from different segments might have conflicting interests and the moderation of these different interests can only be done by the show team.

Other fields such as the content & feature strategy or the marketing plan offer more room to involve the target groups in the decision making processes. Developing these strategic process with a deep involvement will likely lead to a more robust, more accepted and therefore also more accepted strategy by the target groups.

Pricing

Involvement Advisory Board

Involvement Feedback Group

Set Up & Hall Plan Content & Features Marketing

Strategy Creation Process




Create your Post Crisis USP23

Create a Post Crisis USP

One thing is for sure: Our industry will be different after this crisis. We will not move out of this crisis as we entered! It is very important that our shows will have changed in a positive way. It might be difficult to convince some exhibitors to book their stands for the post-crisis show if they have been critical customers before the show. For this reason it is important that after the crisis the show carries a “wow-factor” and that the customer feels that the show team walked the extra mile to create a better, fresher and more engaging show after the crisis than ever. The show teams should start working on a new post-crisis USP.

This Chapter will cover:

• Enhancing your Show USP: What is the basis to create a new show USP?• A combination of content & features: Roll out many content features to

gain more positive feedback• How to Set Up content features: The devil is in the detail. See the world

through the eyes of your customer• A few Examples: Which content feature could work?• Combining content features: Get the best results by combining your

content features





Enhancing Your Show USP24

Often people make the mistake to disregard “the old” when they try to invent something new. In the tradeshow industry people joined our show to purchase, build their brand and see industry trends. When you create your post-crisis USP these factors of your previous show success should not be disregarded but you should refresh your show by building on these factors. People still want to sell, buy and see what's going on in the


industry. They just want to do these things in a fresher and more engaging format. For that reason it is important that you keep the USP factors that made your show unique in the past and enhance these factors through new interactive formats for people to meet and to do business with each other. Some examples include:

• Build content features: Show the products of your exhibitors in new ways. A booth is not the only place for an exhibitor to promote his products and services

• Build peer 2 peer formats: Encourage more peer 2 peer and visitor 2 visitor interaction additionally to exhibitor 2 visitor interaction

• Create infotainment formats such as product tours, innovation entrances etc.

Do all these activities to enrich your old show format, not to replace it!




25 A Combination of Contents & Features


When setting up a content & feature strategy it is important to set up a variety of different features and to match each content against a business reason. Very often show teams set up content features without embedding the features into a business context. Just enhancing an entrance situation will not affect the show result if this enhancement is not serving a customer benefit. Enhancing the entrance situation through exhibitor innovation would instead serve such a business reason. Another reason why it is important to set up a combination of content features is that not all features will be successful. By setting up a variety of content you increase the likelihood of increasing the overall show USP even if individual features might be not successful. You should follow these rules when you specify your content & feature strategy:• Set up a larger number of content features so that you create the feeling that the entire show has a fresh start• Match each content feature to at minimum one business USP such as matchmaking, networking or education to ensure

each feature serves a customer benefit• Define the content features in collaboration with your exhibitors (previous chapter) to get the buy in at an early stage

Please contact us if you want to find

out more on how to set up a holistic

content & feature strategy to create a

post-crisis USP





How to Set Up Content features 26

Whatever content feature you chose to build your post crisis USP the success will not depend on the fact you created new show features but on how you set up these features. The same feature can either provide great benefit to your target groups or absolutely no benefit depending on how the feature is set up and executed. Or in other words: it is hugely important how a feature is experienced by your target group. Most often the devil is in the detail.

One example is a product tour we executed some years ago. The tour was well prepared and the content was relevant. However, most participants struggled to understand the moderator during the first tours and often the tour lost 50% of the participants during the tour. We then created a “silent tour” and handed out earphones to all participants with the effect that they could concentrate more on the content. Exhibitors and visitors started deep conversations and we did not lose anybody during the tour. This example shows how a small detail in planning a feature can make a big difference in the result.

All content features must be planned having the psychology aspect of a specific business situation in mind and all features need to serve a specific business need.

When planning a content feature strategy ask yourself how the customer will experience the feature and which business need will be supported by the feature.





A few Examples27

On these slides we want to show you some examples of content feature best practices that helped shape show USPs in the past and the increased customer satisfaction rates on both sides: exhibitors and visitors. Please contact us if you want to know more about why these examples have been successful at trade shows and how it could work at your show.

Innovation Entrances: We turned the entrance of a trade show into an innovation zone with following effects:• A negative situation (queuing) turns into a positive situation (inspiration)• Matchmaking starts before the show through product inspiration• Bonding with exhibitors as we specified this zone in collaboration with

the advisory and feedback board• Enhanced credibility as we let independent experts choose the displayed

innovations

Show floor panel discussion: We organised panel discussions directly on the show floor instead of discussions in separate rooms with following effects:• The visitors are not led away from the show floor. The show remains busy• Short presentations and short discussions had the effect that visitors get

an inspiration but then moved back to the show to do business • We only offered a few seats on purpose. The idea was that visitors stop

by with a take away coffee in hand but then go back to the show• All presentations and discussions were linked to innovations on the show

floor to stimulate business





A few Examples28

Global Partner Program: We have experience in setting up global partner programs to reward loyal and large exhibitors. The key aspects and benefits of the program were:• We offered visibility to a defined group of global exhibitor partners beyond

their show participation to reward loyalty• We created an exclusive feel based on limitation. The defined criteria of the

program qualified around 40 exhibitors to be a global partner but we gave the title to only 25 exhibitors

• We created a logo, a webpage and a marketing campaign for that program only

• We suggested marketing actions for all global partners to promote themselves in the program

The result was a measurable increase in exhibitor loyalty and credibility plus an increase in the NPS score

Further best practice content features we can discuss with you are:

• A “You said – we did campaign” in which you pick up your customer feedback and report back the improvements you put in place to address this feedback

• Show TV which reports on innovations and all content features• A loudspeaker announcement system onsite

Please talk to us if you are interested in discussing one

of the content features in more detail




Proactive Help Onsite

(Ops-Team)

Online research on all channels

(Digital Team)

Push on Social Media Channels

(Marketing)

Match through team

(Digital or Show Team)

Publish success on Social Media

(Digital Team)

Use as Sales Argument

(Sales Team)


Combining Content Features29

A Concierge Matchmaking processExample of a Concierge Matchmaking System:

Very often the success of a content feature only comes into full swing by combining different content features into a holistic service. We can gain great results through a concierge match making service that combines different digital and non-digital service points. To offer this service we had following customer touch points:

• Proactive Help: A team proactively offered help on the show floor

• Digital Back Up: The team handed over visitor requests to a digital back up team for further research if needed

• Open Communication: The team openly communicated the request on all channels if needed

• Match: If a match was found the visitor was informed AND guided to the matching exhibitor

• Social Media: Successful matches were communicated on social media

• Show TV: The TV team interviewed the matched parties to get feedback regarding the service

The secret of success often lies in the combination of content features. Talk to us to find out more.




Execute Digital Innovation30

Execute Digital Innovation

The exhibition industry has not been at the forefront of digital innovation in decades and has struggled to embed deep digital developments into their business model. Digital tools are more used to support the traditional model instead of developing the traditional model. This crisis might demonstrate that we as an industry need to take digitalisation more seriously in future. This chapter will not show all possibilities of digitisation but we hope to provide you some answers on how digital can help in the crisis.

This chapter will cover:

During the Crisis:• Digital Event Service Suppliers Who's Who: Our database of digital tools

that might be helpful• Digital exhibition service providers with solutions that help in the crisis :

Some examples of digital service providers that can help now

After the crisis:• What is a hybrid event?: The devil is in the detail. See the world through

the eyes of your customer• WoW – a best practice example: Which content feature could work?• Artificial Intelligence: Where can it help the exhibition industry?






During the crisis: Digital Event Service Suppliers Who's Who

31

Our Digital Event Service Supplier Who’s Who

We have created a database for you to bring all digital service providers of the exhibition industry together.Please use this database as a resource during the crisis to find the best digital solution you need now and after the crisis to build your digital strategy further. You will find service providers regarding the following categories in our database:

Event Services

• Mobile App Platform• Digital Content• Digital Research• Lead Generation• CRM• Matchmaking Services• Website Platform• Floorplan Tool icon • Room & Hall Plans• Directory Platforms

Visitor & Delegate Marketing

• Registration & Ticketing• Visitor Marketing Tools• Online Marketing• Email Tools

Exhibition Services

• Exhibitor Shop• Exhibitor Portal• Sales & Rebooking

Software

Back Office

• Planning Tools




http://mbb-media.com/directory/


During the crisis: Digital Service provider that can help

32

COVID-19 Resources for Venues & Events

Ungerboeck is committed to serving our customers during these tough times. Now, more than ever, we need to work together and support each other in our industry. We have made our EMEA and AP conferences virtual and free so that we can continue to offer our customers the best experience possible during this time.

At Ungerboeck, we have ensured that all our employees are equipped to work from home and provide all our customers the service they need. As you and your team deal with the response to the pandemic and its impact on the business, we want to offer these additional resources:

Venue Guide to COVID-19 Cancellation and RebookingInformation sessions on managing the impact of COVID-19COVID-19 process and software consultation hotlineA special forum for our customers to discuss strategies and issues on our support centerBusiness continuity statementYou will find all these resources on this web page.

In addition, while the situation is grim, we are also providing resources for your team to get ready when this recedes and we are all open for business. We are offering various training courses so that your employees can use the time to learn new technology and processes.

Your customer success manager can get your team access to our new Ungerboeck learning platform with a variety of courses as well as live instructor led virtual courses.

If you think we can support you in any way, we are here for you.

Manish ChandakPresident & CEO

Link:

https://ungerboeck.com/covid-19-resources







33

Link:

https://www.explori.com/

Email:

[email protected]

Industry Reports

Industry insight reports form a cornerstone of any digital revenue strategy. As the gateway to engaged industry communities, event organisers are uniquely placed to offer high value insight products to their markets.

Explori offers a turn-key service to allow organisers to deliver products that bring fresh insight to their audience and support digital sponsorship revenue.

Industry reports offer:

• Positioning of your brand as a thought leader• High value exposure for sponsors• Unique insights for your community

With clearly priced packages, fast turnaround and in-house editorial and design services, Explori makes it as simple as possible to bring insight reports to market.

Resilience Studies

When an event has been cancelled, postponed or has switched to a virtual format, Explori can help organisers to understand the resilience of their event and brand in the eyes of their visitors and exhibitors.

• What has been the impact on brand equity, including loyalty to future events?• How effectively was the crisis handled?• What alternative solution best meets the needs of stakeholders?• How successful have digital events been for visitors and sponsors?

Explori can offer a mixture of quantitative and qualitative techniques to help you deeply understand the priorities of your community and make data-backed decisions in times of uncertainty.

This service forms part of a partnership with UFI to help create a wider picture of resilience within the industry.








34

Link:

https://expoplatform.com/

In response to the incredibly difficult situation we have augmented our exhibitions platform with the tools to support both, hybrid and purely online exhibition formats. To do this, we've added online meeting rooms that are natively built into the product (no additional installs or external tools or platforms are necessary). The meeting rooms provide video, voice, screen sharing and chat functionality.

We are also in the process of adding the ability for exhibitors to host webinars on their profile pages, as well as Twitch-style live-streaming of sessions directly on the platform.

Our aim is to provide exhibition organisers with the adaptability and resilience to deliver the event under even the most restrictive of circumstances by supporting participation online and offline together, seamlessly.




https://expoplatform.com/

After the crisis: What is a Hybrid Event?35

What can be an online / offline hybrid tradeshow?: It is relatively easy to answer this question. All aspects of a trade show that can be translated from a face 2 face environment into a similar digital proposition can be the aspects of a hybrid tradeshow. Future concepts might offer these elements either in the real world or as the “digital twin offer”. These aspects are:

• Matchmaking: Matchmaking can be done offline and online. There are enough tools on the market already. A tradeshow ticket can easily cover both worlds

• Live Streaming: A conference ticket can enable a participant to join a conference live or via a web environment in future

• Digital Show Room: This feature might work better in future as augmented reality is expensive to assemble but digital show rooms as an extension of the exhibitor stands might play a more important role in future


Match Making

Live Streaming

Digital Show Room

We have plenty of more best practice cases and insight of how an event could be developed into a digital hybrid event. Please

contact us for more details.




36 After the Crisis: WoW – a Best Practice Example


WoW Factor(World of Watson)

The conference and exhibition “World of Watson” (WoW) can be seen as a best practice example in terms of live events that make the most out of digital and AI supporting tools. The show has interactive intelligent navigation systems, an “alexa - type” transport system and stand features that react in real time to user online behaviour. Over all the show uses digital and AI tools to lead visitors to and through the show and support the visitors through decision prediction and matchmaking.

The statistics of WoW prove a successful use of highly developed digital tools:

• 500,000 sq ft trade show• 20,000 invited / 17,000 converted (85%)• Of 17,000 attendees 90% visited • The trade show target was 50% (180% increase)• Overall Results: Attracted more than 90 percent of

conference attendees, generated 15,000 leads, and contributed to a 37% uplift in sponsorship

Digital Works




37 After the Crisis: Artificial Intelligence


Busy Exhibition Entrance

Small Talk in Conference Breaks

Stepping into a booth and start a conversation

Matchmaking

Matchmaking

The best starting point to define an Artificial Intelligence strategy for a trade show is to think about the biggest participation “pain” points. AI Tools are most accepted and appreciated if they solve “painful” user problems and make life more convenient.

Some “pain” points for visitors are the entrance situation, show preparation, networking situations, the situation when a conversation starts at the exhibitor stand etc.

All these situations will result in less business and therefore less show value for the exhibitors and visitors if they experience the situation as a “pain” point. A conversation at a stand might be more meaningful if the exhibitors know if the visitor has a specific question or if he is browsing. Networking is more convenient if the conversation partners discover a common interest more quickly.

AI can add to the positive experience in many ways.An AI concept is not trivial to create but it will be inevitable to lift up the overall value of our industry.




We hope our Crisis Recovery Guide could provide some helpful thoughts and an idea of how you can possibly manage to get out of the crisis as strong as possible. As we tried to launch this guide as quickly as possible we may have forgotten some points or we could have explained

some points better or more clearly!

Please contact us if you want to discuss a specific point or if you need more information.

We are happy to help wherever we can.

Driving event profitability, customer satisfaction and efficient M&A

Matthias Tesi BaurFounder and Consultant, MBB-Media





39 Appendix


Appendix:

• Our consulting topics• Our education & training topics




Our Consulting Topics40


Strategy M&A &Due

Diligence

Sales & Pricing

Digital Education &

Training

Management Courses:Strategy

International Project Management

SalesMarketing

SustainabilityDigital

Team Building

Digital TransformationSocial Media

Digital Revenue StreamsDigital Onboarding

SEO

M&A consulting Targeting ResearchTarget Qualification

Commercial Due Diligence

Integration ManagementFinancial Modelling

Pricing StrategiesLocation-based PricingRebooking StrategiesProfitability Review

Pipeline ManagementSet-up of Sales Structures

& Reporting

Company StrategyPortfolio Strategy

Geo-cloning & Geo-adaptation

Show DevelopmentMarket Research

Company Set-up and Structure

Innovation ReviewContent & Feature

StrategyRescue Strategies

Team Coaching

We proudly partner with Explori in our research and many consulting projects




41 Our Education & Training for the exhibition industry

International Project

ManagementVenue

Preference

Competitive Digital Strategies

New Starter in the Industry

State of the Art Event and Exhibition Content and Features

Effective Exhibiting

International Event Sales

International Event Marketing

Rebooking Strategies

New Starter

Executive &Middle Management

Senior Management& Director Level

Strategy Sales Marketing Venue

Conducting Business in an International and Globalized World

We offer a wide education and training program for al levels and disciplines





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