USA - A new US survey of exhibition and convention exhibition executives has reported social media marketing and market research to be the two biggest organiser concerns.
Social media marketing beat other attendee acquisition techniques including telemarketing, advertising and public relations as the strongest area of concern for 61 per cent of surveyed event producers.
“Event producers haven’t found the key to social media marketing,” survey author and producer of the Attendee Acquisition Roundtable (AAR) Sam Lippman claimed. “Many best practices have been established, but they change daily – along with the underlying technologies.”
The second greatest source of worry is market research, with 55 per cent of event producers reporting it as a top attendee acquisition challenge. Jacobs, who conducted the survey, attributed these concerns to a lack of skills within the exhibition industry.
“Market research may be an issue for event producers because designing and conducting a valid study and applying the results appropriately can be difficult for anyone who isn’t specialised in research,” Jacobs president Wayne Jacobs said.
The survey of 100 executives running exhibitions with 125,000+ net square feet (11,000sqm) of exhibit space was conducted in January.
The AAR workshop runs in Washington in March and complements Lippman’s Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum (ECEF) and Large Show Roundtable (LSR).
Despite concerns around attendees, UFI’s recent Sixth Global Barometer Survey claimed the international exhibition community has emerged from the recession and is moving positively ahead.
Got a news tip for Exhibition World? Email the editor: exhibitionworld@mashmedia.net
