We had our virtual conference last month and the trade show - though completely different from any live event we'd normally do - was pretty successful. Like a life event, the exhibitors got out of it, as much as they put in. If they went to a lot of effort to design their virtual space to be engaging and interesting, they got good traffic. If they didn't put any effort into their content, no one bothered to click in to see what they had.
Some of the components our exhibitors could add included:
Product Videos
Welcome Videos (the CEO welcoming people etc.)
Resources Documents (PDF downloads)
A live, public chat box
A private message with staff option
A meet the team space (photo, bio, contact info etc.)
Images: logos, products, other graphics
**Attaching a screenshot of one of the better booths for reference.
We also had opportunities for our exhibitors to sponsor various things to get more exposure:
- Sponsor a session included: 15 or 30 second welcome/intro video that played before the session, logo during session and in program.
- Sponsor of our lounges
- Gamification "Visit x booth to receive 50 points... person with x points wins a $50 Amazon gift voucher!"
------------------------------
Sharna Pascolo
Program Director
Texas Society of Architects
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 11-23-2020 10:46
From: Megha Jetley
Subject: Huddle of the Week #10: Executing a Virtual Tradeshow
Hello and happy Monday! We're back with another Huddle of the Week discussion. If you can believe it, we are on the tenth week of our Huddle of the Week series, and with that wanted to provide some insight in case you are new to the Community. Every week, the Community Team will be posting a relevant industry topic and discussion questions to spark strategic conversation and best practices in the Open Forum. The topics so far have ranged from virtual event KPIs, agenda content in a virtual setting, hotelier and venue communications on their health and safety measures, and much more. We hope each week you can look forward to a creative and thoughtful discussion where you can learn from your peers, and share your own experiences and thoughts, as well!
Now onto this week's discussion – we have had a ton of great dialogue surrounding virtual events, and sponsorship within that. However, we wanted to take the conversation to the next level and hear how you are executing a virtual tradeshow. For Cvent CONNECT Virtual (US and Europe), we used the Virtual Attendee Hub to offer virtual booths and appointments and had various opportunities within the event itself for our exhibitors.
- What are your top tips or ideas for executing a virtual tradeshow?
- What opportunities overlap between in-person and virtual vs. what new tasks or opportunities are you seeing in a virtual environment?
Please share your insights below, even if you have not yet experienced this yourself! Feel free to ask any questions to other users, too. #HuddleoftheWeek #VoiceIt
#ManagingVirtualEvents
------------------------------
Megha Jetley
Team Lead
Community Marketing
------------------------------