Sam Lippman asked the audience what they thought was the biggest new thing in the show industry. Gary Shapiro said BD Metrics and was seconded by Bailey Beeken.
We agree, but not necessarily for the same reasons - or at least not by arriving from the same path of reasoning.
Rick Geritz of BD Metrics was kind (and patient) enough to listen to some of my rants last night regarding my feelings on how organizers have historically been willing to sell exhibitors anything and everything regardless if had any tangible or intrinisic value. To put it another way, while many marketers are looking at the long tail, most show organizers were selling innies, which as we know, collect lint.
For those who don't know, BD Metrics is (more or less) a data management company that works with organizers to mine registration data in such a way (using a patent pending methodology) as to divine who the true prospects are from a show floor of potential tirekickers. That's simplifying things a bit, but it would take a detailed discussion to get into it. Visit their website if you want to know the hows and whys.
While the value to both exhibitors and organizers of realistic, accurate, parseable data from show attendees is undeniable, of all the things Rick told me last night, one thing stood out: a significant percentage of attendees were going into the BD Metrics dashboards for the events they were attending and ALTERED THEIR REGISTRATION INFORMATION.
Why?
Because they had either over or under exaggerated their demographic info, hoping to influence the information they'd receive. Once the organizer gave them INFORMATION OF VALUE based on their stated preferences, the attendees realized they were dealing with a show organizer that actually GAVE A DAMN about their needs and their time.
So they dropped their guards and turned over data relating to their actual needs. Quid pro quo.
To me, that's a indicator of how we as an industry can regain the trust of attendees - and by extension, exhibitors - that we've managed to burn these many years.
We've always said that the easiest way to boost exhibit and ancillary revenue is to pay attention to attendee needs. BD Metrics has developed a system of collecting data that allows organizers to do exactly that. While not cheap (and hopefully we'll have more about that later), it's a process that's eminently worthwhile for show organizers serious about staying in business in the long term.
Think about it.
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