What Do We Sell?
“What and How Do We Sell?” are age-old strategic questions that show managers should be constantly asking, but in today’s events environment these inquires seem to be screaming out more than ever for a response. With the intense pressure on delivering ROI (driven by less than stellar economic circumstances), the rising cost of show participation, the flow of content and money to the Internet and the impact of new technology on events, show management and exhibitors are experiencing stresses that are often self-inflicted. As all of these forces collide, should our industry start questioning many of the foundation principles upon which the exhibition business models have been built?
Center to these questions are the attendee data collected for the lists that are built, maintained and sold. Since this data is core to registration and lead retrieval services, when exhibitors pay to participate in shows, what do they pay for? What is included?
Join this panel of event industry thought leaders as they wrestle with the basic ‘pay for access to the show audience’ premise that show managers charge exhibitors.
What is the value of that access granted in the form of the opportunity to interact face-to-face?
Should we grant (or include) access to the data related to that audience in the form of lists perhaps, or in the form of a lead retrieval service?
Does show management sell access to an audience and that should include unfettered access to all the data that is associated with that audience?
Will some old constructs have to change, including how show managers handle and pay for registration services?
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