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Director at Solid State Group
25 February 2004 18:28pm
Hi,
We are considering exhibiting at the upcoming Content Management Europe 2004 exhibition.
I just wanted to know what the general consensus is about these types of exhibitions. Have you ever been to one of these expo's?
Did you find it useful?
Were you a vendor or a customer?
and most interesting question for me...
What would you pay for a 2m square bit of carpet in an expo for 3 days?
Answers on an ecard.
Cheers,
M@.
Solid State Group
Technical Director at Box UK
26 February 2004 11:17am
Hi,
We attended a couple of expos last year (as a vendor), and found one of them to be utterly useless (more of a regional expo), and the other (Internet World) to be pretty good - we're back again this year with a bigger stand, so that should tell you that we think it's worthwhile.
As far as Internet World goes, there was good exposure to potential customers - we'd take maybe 5 quality leads away for a given day (from maybe 20-40 meetings per day), and it certainly paid for itself with contracts won.
Of course, it's also useful for weighing up the competition, and in that respect, be aware of the sheer number of anonymous 'IT Consultants' that approach you with a hotmail address - you'll no doubt see these same people on the competetion's stands the following day (you can usually identify these people within 5 minutes of talking to them - they're more interested in the fine details, rather than how the system can generally benefit them).
As for cost, I'm afraid I can't remember; but the cost of the materials (stand, brochures, give-aways), A/V rental, and staff will out-weight the cost of the space by a large ratio, I should think.
Another thing I'd recommend is to get on the 'speakers list', and give as many talks as possible, possibly a case study in conjunction with a well-known client. These generate a great deal of interest in your product, and you'll notice the rise in people at your stand for a couple of hours after a given talk.
Of course, the bottom line - if you've got a good product, then the customers are usually there, so give it a go!
Hope some of that helps,
Dan
Director at Solid State Group
26 February 2004 11:48am
Dan,
Thanks for that info, thats really helpful.
I'm really hoping to get away with minimal spend on the actual show. The estimate is £300 for lighting, furniture and electricity.
Which leaves all the presentation props and staff, and some kind of hook.
Are you going to the Content Management Europe Exhib?
Thanks,
M@.
Technical Director at Box UK
27 February 2004 11:35am
Hi,
Sorry for the delay - I was getting some figures from our marketing dept, thought they may be useful. IW last year cost us (all figures are approx):
3m x 4m shell stand: £5k (we're upping this, this year, to give us more room to handle all those interested people!)
Additional furniture: £200 for storage hire + about another £200 for stools, tables, etc.
Internet access (256kbps) £400
Electrics: £400
+ van hire, hotels, food, marketing collateral, plasma hire, staff wages, supplemental promotion, preparation time...
So, lots of 'hidden' costs, but the cost/benefit ratio was good. We're doing a few exhibitions this year, but we decided not to go for Content Management Europe, from a purely 'timing' point of view, nothing else.
I hope you can get away with £300 - certainly, across the walkway from us in IW, there were a couple of 'extremely' basic set-ups (e.g. a person, poster, and a stand of brochures), which were stimulating some interest, as the product had some interesting usps. At the other end of the scale, there were some mammoth stands - obviously 20/30k+ - which were mainly empty, and actually had quite a detremental effect on their image.
Good luck!
Dan
Director at immediate future- social media consultancy
01 March 2004 17:21pm
And if you are going to make this sort of investment then do look at how you can maximise it. Especially if you are taking a small stand, you need to make sure that you get the most amount of stand traffic that you can. After all you will be competing with the big flashy stands and those offering freebee etc.
Make sure you tell all your customers and prospects – invite them for a special clients day, or to collect a new report, or just to share a glass of wine. A simple email will do if you can't stretch to a piece of direct mail.
Do link up with the exhibition organisers PRs. They can be a great source of information and will do a good job of attracting media attention on your behalf. If memory serves me right, Internet World always had a good PR office and looking at the content management show they seem to have organised a pretty good press office.
Free publicity can help you gain more exposure at the event and keep the leads coming well after it has ended. Do complete all your forms and guide entries and you should make your small piece of carpet a valuable marketing exercise.
Kate
Director at Solid State Group
09 March 2004 00:57am
Thanks a lot guys, this is all fantastic info.
I wondered about other areas which offer this kind of opportunity.
For instance there is a site called Content Management 365.com
http://www.contentmanagement365.com/
This is supposed to be a virtual exhibition with visitors browsing all the time. The sales guy has given me impressive figures about the site and why I should join up.
It actually sounds quite tempting, but I'm not convinced yet.
Has anyone tried this site?
Also, are there any other shows that you might recommend between now and November?
Cheers,
M@.