Stephanie Selesnick reports from Oklahoma City on the SISO Summer Conference
One hundred and sixty delegates descended on Oklahoma City, Oklahoma’s year-old $288m Convention Center, for the annual SISO Summer Conference in early August. Attendees for the two-day event were a mix of young leaders, directors, vice-presidents and CEOs in the US exhibition industry.
Unlike other countries, the US exhibition market is composed of approximately 65% association and not-for-profit shows, with the remainder being for-profit organisers. This means many trade shows in the US are one-off annual or biennial events. SISO represents for-profit show producers.
The conference kicked off with a dinner reception at the First Americans Museum which celebrates the 39 Native American tribes still residing within the State’s borders. Guests were permitted to roam the museum and entertainment by Native dancers and musicians riveted all.
Michelle Metter, partner, Fast Forward Events and co-chair of the Conference, said: “In approaching this year’s education we wanted to get our heads out of Covid and stop talking, as much as possible, about our industry’s recovery. We wanted to address present-day realities while looking ahead at what the future of work within our industry will look like in the years to come.
“We have some real opportunities as industry marketplaces and many of those discussions come to light in both the Women’s Leadership Forum, as well as during the breakout sessions over the conference’s two days. The way we market our shows, build our communities, drive value and experience, sell across omnichannel assets, employ and retain diverse talent on our teams, etc., are all critical discussion points that became part of this year’s dialogue.”
The opening general session, Becoming a Must-Attend Event: The Rise of Quality Over Quantity featured a panel moderated by Jess Taylor, MJBiz, a division of Emerald and co-chair of the conference, and included Jenn Heinold, Taffy Event Strategies; Kevin Thornton, Informa Markets and MK Goodwin, Emerald. The first three speakers work with traditional exhibitions, Goodwin with consumer (fan) events.
Some of the trends they identified:
- We’re doing more with less. (Tyler)
- SS: This is all of us post-pandemic world!
- It’s about continuous engagement all year round – and using data to discover, on a deeper level, who our audience is, and what’s important to them. (Thornton)
- Since so much content is available online, concentrate more on show demos, offer experientially designed workshops. (Heinold)
- Conference revenue is slower coming back than anticipated. We are partnering with other organisations and associations, plus using digital to drive people to shows. (Thornton)
- Marketing is about finding and messaging to the right people. We’re concentrating on bringing influencers (and their followers) into our communities. (Heinold)
- SS: There are influencers out there who have more followers than you have visitors at your show. If you’re not presently engaging with them, it’s a big mistake.
- Invest in making the show identity and experience the best it can be. (Goodwin)
- SS: You must invest money to make money. Attendees and exhibitors notice when a show is being cheap. They do.
- Think about visitor personas and match them to onsite experience offerings. Market it that way. (Heinold). Goodwin concurred.
- Target buyer groups your exhibitors most want to see. Incentivise them to attend with free registration, hotel rooms, etc. (Tyler)
- Corporate and user group conferences are coming back. (Heinold)
- Exhibitors are looking at or producing their own events, so proving our events’ value is important. (Thornton)
All panellists agreed that proving an exhibition or event’s value is necessary going forward. It remained a theme throughout the conference.
After other sessions on retaining and recruiting talent and sustainability, the remainder of the first day consisted of operations, marketing, and business development tracks. While there’s not enough space in Exhibition World to share all highlights, here are a few worth sharing with your sales and marketing teams.
From the It’s Not Your 2019 Playbook: What Marketers Need to Know about the New Face-to-Face with Sarah Varner, Emerald, Sophie Fasano, Clarion Events, and Liz Irving, Clarion Events North America moderating:
- We must redefine the value proposition through the lens of attendees – and it’s not just one value proposition. (Varner)
- SS: It can’t be said enough: Value in attending any event is in the eye of the beholder, whether they are visitors, exhibitors, or sponsors.
- Pre-registration data is more valuable than ever. The challenge: people are registering later and later – which is not going to change anytime soon. (Fasano)
- Marketers should help sales out by sharing true and transparent data on pre-registration, so sales may then communicate realistic expectations to the exhibitors. (Fasano)
- SS: It’s more common than one would expect for sales and marketing to communicate poorly. If that describes your organisation, now is the time to stop the damaging behaviour.
- Help exhibitors focus on their return on engagement and return on opportunities instead of the number of leads. Frame it as a chance to speak with clients and prospects face-to-face. (Varner)
- SS: Yes, yes, and yes again! It’s NO LONGER ABOUT THE NUMBERS!
Price Methodologies: Registration, Exhibits, Sponsorships and Beyond featured RX Americas Fernando Fischer and Clarion Events North America’s Mike Carlucci who discussed value-based selling, and addressed one of the biggest challenges show organisers worldwide are encountering: convincing exhibitors to commit to their participation earlier rather than closer to the expo.
Suggestions for solving this problem included concentrating on selling new opportunities instead of solely booth space (think experiences/activations/unique sponsorships) as well as proving the value and benefits your show will deliver for companies contracting earlier rather than later.
Remember: It’s all about proving the value to your stakeholders.
Next year’s SISO Summer Conference takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah.
