the May 2008 Issue in PDF Format - Trade Show Executive

The number one concern of exhibiting companies today
is the lack of ROI [return on investment] metrics, according to
the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR). In today’s
world, where justification is increasingly required for every
dollar spent, the dearth of data has the potential to impact an
exhibitor’s decision to participate in a show – and not in a good
way.
So the International Association of Exhibitions & Events
(IAEE) created an ROI Task Force to address this problem.
Working with CEIR, Exhibit Surveys, Inc. and the Professional
Convention Management Association (PCMA), the committee
created an ROI Tool Kit designed to help exhibitors determine
ROI and, as a result, to also help show
organizers better market and sell their shows.
“From the organizer’s perspective, it
gives them a chance to raise the level of
professionalism of the sale, making it less of
an art and more of a science. And the same is
true on the exhibiting side, where exhibitors
finally have an independent third-party tool
that enables them to take a scientific approach
to evaluating the shows they should be at and
their level of exposure,” says Glenn Hansen, president and CEO
of BPA Worldwide.
Elusive ROI
“The term ROI itself is somewhat elusive because people
have different criteria for measuring returns,” says Skip Cox,
president and CEO of Exhibit Surveys, Inc. Small companies
tend to focus on leads while many larger companies incorporate
additional criteria related to branding, messages, awareness,
relationship building and/or acceleration of the sales process.
“Their definition of ROI is much broader and not the true sense
of ROI — i.e. where you invest one dollar and get back 10 in
return,” says Cox.
But companies can no longer take ROI on faith, even when
the criteria are intangible. Beck Wentz, director of customer
events for AmerisourceBergen Corp., believes there is a sea of
change where it is no longer enough to be at a show because
the competition is there. He offers as evidence the standingroom-only
seminars at Exhibitor Show that addressed topics of
measurement, event justification and ROI. “Exhibitors have
to respond to their management’s growing pressure to prove
value,” says Wentz.
Beck Wentz
Glenn Hansen
Tool for the Masses
The question now is: How can
exhibitors get the data to respond intelligently
to management? The idea of an ROI Tool
Kit was born within IAEE’s ROI Task Force,
which decided to build a tool for the masses
– the 80% to 90% of exhibitors focused on leads, rather than
the smaller percentage of larger exhibitors concerned with more
individual marcom objectives.
Exhibit Surveys, a member of the task force, was able to
draw on formulas the company has been using for years when
it set out to develop the ROI calculations used in the tool kit.
Input was gathered from all segments of the industry. PCMA
joined the efforts later, contributing funding and marketing
efforts. The tool kit was formally introduced at the PCMA
Annual Meeting held earlier this year.
Free for the Asking
The new ROI Tool Kit is available free online at
www.roitoolkit.exhibitsurveys.net and accounts can be created
by the exhibitor or show organizer. If the exhibitor visits the
site on their own, their information remains confidential; if they
go through the show organizer and complete the data together,
the information is shared. Exhibit Surveys hopes to eventually
be able to create normative information by industry using the
anonymous data.
Getting Started with the ROI Tool Kit: Pre-Event Planning
The tool kit organizes information into two sections:
pre-event planning and post-event measurement. The preevent
section requires show data, such as net attendance, the
percentage of attendees that fit the exhibitor’s target audience,
the percentage interested in the exhibitor’s product or service,
total show duration, the number of visitors each staff member
can handle hourly and the amount of exhibit space required
for exhibitor items, such as counters, pedestals and storage.
With this information, the system automatically calculates the
potential audience, the number of exhibit staff needed and the
open and total exhibit space required.
Garbage In, Garbage Out
Accurate data is essential. Ideally, the data input on the show
has been audited. “If an organizer or exhibitor plugs in bad data,
they will get misleading results. Garbage in, garbage out,” says
Gia Carunchio, senior director of global exhibitions for SEMI,
organizer of SEMICON and other related events.
Audited data helps to assure that exhibitors are focusing
on the right approach. “Exhibitors are trying to hold down
costs by not oversizing their booths, but they also don’t want to
miss opportunities by undersizing their booths,” says Cox. He
offers the example of a show with 10,000
attendees of which 1,000 fit the exhibitor’s
target audience. “That could be enough to
justify participation, but the approach needs
to be targeted and selective, which drives the
show strategy,” says Cox, citing pre-show
promotion and exhibit graphics as areas that
can be adjusted to hit the right nerve.
Skip Cox
Continued on page 34
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