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What's REALLY Happening to Events in a Post COVID World · Business Roundtable

0:31
Speaker 1: All right, welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast. I'm
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Speaker 1: your host, David Carr of Steward your Business bringing people
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Speaker 1: together to accomplish great things. And today we hea a
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Speaker 1: brand new guest, Heidi's Barrell of E to Excel Marketing.
0:43
Speaker 1: I'm super excited to have Heidi here with us. Heidi's
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Speaker 1: got a wealth of experience and we're only going to
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Speaker 1: cut into a little slice of it today because she
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Speaker 1: has done so much in the marketing world and we're
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Speaker 1: going to tie into one aspect of that, which is
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Speaker 1: trade shows and conference and how can you be successful?
1:02
Speaker 1: How can we you know, after the or five years
1:05
Speaker 1: past COVID, how do we think rethink conferences and trade
1:07
Speaker 1: shows for real business growth. So welcome to the podcast. Heidi.
1:12
Speaker 1: So glad to have you.
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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me tonight, David, I
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Speaker 2: really appreciate it.
1:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, it's so great you and I got to
1:19
Speaker 1: meet and we're a part actively apart members of Success
1:21
Speaker 1: Champions Network, which is a great place for networking business
1:25
Speaker 1: to business connections, and I really appreciated what you've shown.
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Speaker 1: You're a leader in the group that I'm a part
1:30
Speaker 1: of right now, and just step us back a little bit,
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Speaker 1: Heidi about what got you to you to excel marketing,
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Speaker 1: your journey, your passion. We always love to hear kind
1:41
Speaker 1: of the business owner's perspective and journey a little bit
1:45
Speaker 1: before we dive into the topic here.
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Speaker 2: Okay, fantastic, Thank you so much. Well, I spent before
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Speaker 2: I started you to Excel in twenty eleven, I spent
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Speaker 2: twenty years on the client side, working for companies such
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Speaker 2: as Sony, Western, Union Test which is now in Ritsu
2:02
Speaker 2: and in progressively higher marketing roles and product management roles
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Speaker 2: as well, and I wilso work for some nonprofits. And
2:13
Speaker 2: as I was going through my career, there were a
2:16
Speaker 2: couple of things that stood out. Number one, I kept
2:19
Speaker 2: launching business units and and uh products, and then the
2:24
Speaker 2: companies would be sold. So that was, uh, you know,
2:27
Speaker 2: something they'll take a step back at right after the
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Speaker 2: Great Recession, you know, did I keep wanting to help
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Speaker 2: build companies and you know, make them great and then
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Speaker 2: they get sold And for their technology, I am you know,
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Speaker 2: I am a technology type of person that is like
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Speaker 2: my sweet spot, no question about it. Though we work
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Speaker 2: across many different industries, I am definitely UH. Tech is
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Speaker 2: definitely my sweet spot. But one of the things when
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Speaker 2: I started You to Excel and all of my partners,
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Speaker 2: what you know is really important to us is we
3:01
Speaker 2: look to help businesses create their future. When I was
3:05
Speaker 2: on the client side, I used to tell vendors of mine,
3:09
Speaker 2: you have a choice. You can me as I'm going
3:12
Speaker 2: to help you make your number this month, this quarter,
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Speaker 2: this year, or you can look at me as a partner.
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Speaker 2: We are business partners, and my success is going to
3:22
Speaker 2: be your success because I am going to either take
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Speaker 2: you to the next project, the next company, or I'm
3:27
Speaker 2: going to recommend you to a colleague. Okay, And so
3:33
Speaker 2: that was really important. That was really important to me.
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Speaker 2: I didn't move many businesses or many many providers you know,
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Speaker 2: down the line with me, and you can imagine in
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Speaker 2: twenty years, I worked with a lot of agencies. So
3:46
Speaker 2: when I started You to Excel and every one of
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Speaker 2: my partners, that is a really critical thing. Okay. We
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Speaker 2: are all about long term partnerships. Okay, we want long
3:57
Speaker 2: term clients, and that is like really really critical. We
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Speaker 2: have clients who have been with us for over ten years. Okay,
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Speaker 2: we have great referrals. So it's been really important to
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Speaker 2: me and the approach I think that we take here
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Speaker 2: at E to E is one. We took a really
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Speaker 2: holistic approach. Everything is unique, okay, you all every client
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Speaker 2: has their own unique goals and challenges and we doesn't matter.
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Speaker 2: Even if you come to me and say, Hei, do
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Speaker 2: I want you to build a brochure for me? And
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Speaker 2: people think it's just a graphics and content, We're going
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Speaker 2: to ask you the question, so how are you going
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Speaker 2: to use that brochure? Are you going to use it
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Speaker 2: in a digital campaign you're going to put on your website?
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Speaker 2: How are you using it and social? How are your
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Speaker 2: salespeople going to use it? Really? Look at everything you
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Speaker 2: know in a full way. And you know you brought
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Speaker 2: up a little bit about events. I've produced almost six
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Speaker 2: hundred events in my career, so yeah, it's a lot,
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Speaker 2: but I love it. And across trade shows, conferences, sales kickoffs,
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Speaker 2: ye partner events, you know what have you across the globe?
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Speaker 1: Well, I want to dig into that, Heidi. I mean,
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Speaker 1: so number one, thank you so much. You've you've got
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Speaker 1: you've come from, I like to say, an entrepreneur to
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Speaker 1: an entrepreneur creating your own company and now been successful
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Speaker 1: for fourteen years going on that here and it's great
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Speaker 1: to have you here. I love having guests like you
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Speaker 1: and podcast. So I want, whether you're a business owner
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Speaker 1: or another leader, seeing somebody be successful and what they're
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Speaker 1: passionate about, how to bring that the market, how to
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Speaker 1: help others. And I do really believe yes, absolutely, partnership
5:43
Speaker 1: coming in together being more than transactional. We're building relationships none.
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Speaker 1: That's one of the things I want to have you
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Speaker 1: on the podcast here, and you mentioned so I want
5:53
Speaker 1: to dive into this. The kind of the meat of
5:55
Speaker 1: this episode of the podcast is, you know, we're it's
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Speaker 1: everyone I here keeps talking about COVID this and that
6:01
Speaker 1: was five years ago to twenty twenty. Now we're recording
6:05
Speaker 1: this all in there at the end of May twenty five.
6:07
Speaker 1: So you know, I think people are like, you know,
6:11
Speaker 1: remembering what it was and what it is now, and
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Speaker 1: I think, you know, walk us through a little bit
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Speaker 1: what has changed. What are you seeing in conferences and
6:18
Speaker 1: events now that you know in a lot now that
6:21
Speaker 1: things have kind of kind of return to normal. But
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Speaker 1: at least it's definitely not what it was.
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Speaker 2: No, No, it definitely lasts. I wouldn't say, two years
6:32
Speaker 2: has changed a lot. COVID hit this industry really hard,
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Speaker 2: as everyone can probably imagine, and a lot of businesses
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Speaker 2: were trying to do what we'll call virtual trade shows
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Speaker 2: or virtual conferences. They were, okay, that's where I put
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Speaker 2: it to keep people in touch, Okay, and they were
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Speaker 2: trying to they were, you know, I'd equate it almost
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Speaker 2: to a webinar type of activity, and I'm a lover
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Speaker 2: of webinars. But that's got a place. We're back in
7:02
Speaker 2: trade shows. Okay. Businesses are spending money on trade shows
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Speaker 2: and events because they see the value in the relationship. Okay.
7:13
Speaker 2: But what I would say is where pre COVID, when
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Speaker 2: you went to a trade show, it would be talked
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Speaker 2: about lee generation meetings and so forth. But trade shows
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Speaker 2: were more an entity unto themselves, and they were one
7:27
Speaker 2: component of the marketing mix. Today you really and this
7:32
Speaker 2: is I think where an agency like ours comes in
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Speaker 2: is you have to look at how does what you
7:38
Speaker 2: do at a trade show? How are all the other
7:40
Speaker 2: marketing disciplines integrated? We go to twin we produce a
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Speaker 2: trade show, and it's whether we are producing everything, you know,
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Speaker 2: the social media, the public relations, you know, we're looking
7:53
Speaker 2: or the or the company that we're working for, if
7:57
Speaker 2: they have their own social media manager, or they may
8:00
Speaker 2: have their own PR for you know, what we're looking
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Speaker 2: at is how do we integrate everything? Because even more
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Speaker 2: critical today than before was making sure that everything is
8:12
Speaker 2: on message. Okay, everything has to be everything has to
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Speaker 2: be coordinated. You cannot have people like saying two different
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Speaker 2: things in one place. So that's one thing I would
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Speaker 2: say that has really changed. The other thing that we're
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Speaker 2: seeing with clients that we didn't see as much before
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Speaker 2: COVID is this nature of I'm putting, I'm filling the
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Speaker 2: top of the funnel with leads so that I'm in
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Speaker 2: MQL Okay, you know, marketing qualified leads. But now there's
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Speaker 2: much more. What I'm seeing with my clients is there
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Speaker 2: is much more emphasis place and many more eyes placed
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Speaker 2: on how do I get how do we get those
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Speaker 2: mqls from a show or a conference, how do we
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Speaker 2: get SQL? So now what I'm seeing is boats. I'll
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Speaker 2: call both sides of the house, the marketing side, sales side.
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Speaker 2: A lot more integration and accountability there. They're a lot
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Speaker 2: closer than they were before COVID.
9:09
Speaker 1: No, I mean that's good. I mean, I think we
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Speaker 1: got to I appreciate that as one that I don't
9:15
Speaker 1: come from the marketing place, but I definitely come from
9:18
Speaker 1: more of the business development side of things than my
9:21
Speaker 1: career and my background. I think hearing what you're saying
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Speaker 1: and and now maybe people are looking at cost to you,
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Speaker 1: I would love to get your thoughts. It was not
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Speaker 1: as costly because you need to pay for a physical space,
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Speaker 1: send somebody travel, right, there's a different obviously costs and
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Speaker 1: the previous in the virtual space. But now if we're
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Speaker 1: going to invest all of this money, like what's the
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Speaker 1: return on investment? Like you know in this like what
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Speaker 1: what do you see maybe how attended behaviors change or
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Speaker 1: booth expectations? What are the ro o A measurements? Has
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Speaker 1: that shifted at all? Or or is that the same
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Speaker 1: be pre COVID? What are you what are you seeing there?
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Speaker 2: I think I think two sides from the like for
10:01
Speaker 2: let's say our client side. Okay, they are looking very
10:05
Speaker 2: closely at the metrics on the ROI. Okay, now they
10:08
Speaker 2: have to consider what is there, uh, you know, what
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Speaker 2: is their sales cycle? Okay? We deal with clients who
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Speaker 2: you know, they can have a sale on the show floor,
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Speaker 2: or they can have a sales cycle that takes two years. Okay,
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Speaker 2: but they need whether it's an internal person or internal
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Speaker 2: group doing their events or a company like ours. You know,
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Speaker 2: you have senior management on that side of the house
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Speaker 2: really looking at what are the metrics okay, where you know,
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Speaker 2: where where are these things moving the experience that uh,
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Speaker 2: you know, attendees are looking for a lot of education. Okay,
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Speaker 2: they are looking at there. I mean because it's costly
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Speaker 2: for them to go uh to these events as well,
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Speaker 2: so they're looking for the education. They're looking for meetings.
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Speaker 2: We do a lot of you know, as part of
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Speaker 2: trade shows and conferences, we do do a lot of
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Speaker 2: meeting space, you know, acquisition on top of the trade
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Speaker 2: show floor. We do partner dinners and you know, at
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Speaker 2: these and events because there's that what I can learn
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Speaker 2: on the trade show floor, okay, I can. I can
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Speaker 2: either you know, get intrigued by what you know you're
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Speaker 2: you're promoting. But then if I want to learn more,
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Speaker 2: I want you know, I as the attendee, want to
11:28
Speaker 2: learn more about what your offer is. And now instead
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Speaker 2: of waiting for a meeting or something like that, I'm
11:37
Speaker 2: looking for that opportunity to have a meeting, you know,
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Speaker 2: at you know, at the show, one on one meeting.
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Speaker 2: So that's happening a lot demos. If you're a tech company,
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Speaker 2: you know, having those demonstrations is really important, you know,
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Speaker 2: if I can get my questions answered very quickly. And
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Speaker 2: the other thing is, you know, one of the things
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Speaker 2: is that I would say, is you need to do
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Speaker 2: your marketing in advance without spamming. Okay, a lot of unfortunately,
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Speaker 2: there are a lot one of the changes that I
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Speaker 2: really have seen, and it's probably not in the good
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Speaker 2: way from before COVID. Before COVID, a lot of companies
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Speaker 2: that were exhibiting, they would just send out so many
12:20
Speaker 2: emails and on and on and on and on that
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Speaker 2: they were becoming spammers.
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Speaker 1: Okay.
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Speaker 2: What has happened now on post COVID, and with also
12:28
Speaker 2: the regulations that are out there like GDPR and Compass
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Speaker 2: and so forth, is that organizations like mine or you know,
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Speaker 2: the company that is exhibiting, they have to be really
12:39
Speaker 2: cognizant that they don't offend if they are lucky enough
12:43
Speaker 2: to get an attendee list from the organizers. That's becoming
12:48
Speaker 2: that is one area that is becoming very very difficult.
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Speaker 2: They have to be really respectful of the attendee okay,
12:55
Speaker 2: like send them on email maybe too. But the technology
13:00
Speaker 2: also to set up meetings at trade show flores has changed.
13:03
Speaker 2: This is a big thing COVID. Pre COVID, you were
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Speaker 2: using typically like a lead scanner, like a physical lead scanner.
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Speaker 2: You're waiting for someone to come to your booth. Today
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Speaker 2: there are a wide variety of applications that the you know,
13:18
Speaker 2: the staff, the organization's staff. Now you have it on
13:21
Speaker 2: their phones, okay, and if they are lucky enough to
13:25
Speaker 2: get an attendee list, you know in advance, maybe a
13:27
Speaker 2: week in advance of a show, they can start setting
13:30
Speaker 2: up those meetings okay, before they go. Yeah, so there's
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Speaker 2: a lot. That's one of the areas I would say
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Speaker 2: also post COVID that has changed a lot. You have
13:40
Speaker 2: to be really really respectful of people's time.
13:43
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. No, those are some great thoughts. Actually, Uh,
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Speaker 1: I want to follow up, so you've seen is there
13:51
Speaker 1: any difference in these maybe mega trade shows that were
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Speaker 1: just gigantic versus maybe more industry specific or niche down
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Speaker 1: Are you seeing any difference in there and the way
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Speaker 1: they're trying to target and attract people.
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Speaker 2: I'm seeing a lot I'm seeing smaller shows. Okay, you
14:06
Speaker 2: still have the shows with twenty five thousand people there
14:09
Speaker 2: there there, there's no question about it. Okay. It really
14:12
Speaker 2: is dependent on the industry. But I am seeing a
14:17
Speaker 2: lot more niche okay. And what we're being asked to
14:20
Speaker 2: work on are shows that are anywhere from one thousand
14:25
Speaker 2: people maybe seventy five hundred or ten thousand people is
14:28
Speaker 2: what I'm seeing. It's a lot more manageable. Also, you know,
14:33
Speaker 2: you're not I'm not seeing as many you know, booth
14:35
Speaker 2: sizes of you know, twenty by twenty, forty by forty
14:39
Speaker 2: as you did before COVID. I'm seeing more you know,
14:42
Speaker 2: ten by twenty in line still twenty some twenty by twenties,
14:46
Speaker 2: but these are much more targeted. And another component that
14:52
Speaker 2: is really important, and a couple of different facets is
14:57
Speaker 2: who are the speakers? What's the education that you're you
15:01
Speaker 2: as the attendee, are going to. So it's a it's
15:04
Speaker 2: a collaborative effort. So you know, as an exhibitor, okay,
15:09
Speaker 2: you're always a good exhibition opportunity is one where you
15:13
Speaker 2: also have sponsorship where you have gotten a speaking slot, okay,
15:19
Speaker 2: whether it's something that you've had to pay for or
15:22
Speaker 2: you know, depending on the industry, if you're lucky enough
15:25
Speaker 2: to be selected as a topic speaker, keynote or a panelist, Okay,
15:31
Speaker 2: that's really you know, on the exhibit I'll call that
15:33
Speaker 2: the exhibitor side, that's really an important thing, okay, because
15:37
Speaker 2: then you know that you're going to have people you
15:38
Speaker 2: know coming to you know, listen to what you have
15:41
Speaker 2: to say. But also on the attendee side, where you know,
15:45
Speaker 2: years ago, and I've been doing this a long time,
15:47
Speaker 2: you know, people were going to look more at the products,
15:50
Speaker 2: okay or the services. Today, I'm going to say they
15:55
Speaker 2: are looking for that education. You know, we live in
15:58
Speaker 2: the world of AI, okay, and I don't care what
16:01
Speaker 2: industry you're in. We actually have a we have an
16:04
Speaker 2: AI client, but I don't care what industry you're in.
16:08
Speaker 2: People are looking at how technology and AI is changing
16:14
Speaker 2: each every industry. Okay. So there's a lot of education happening.
16:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I think I can see that. If you're
16:22
Speaker 1: going to this, you want to get as many angles
16:24
Speaker 1: as you can. Education to the network. I really put
16:27
Speaker 1: you brought up earlier too about thinking about this from
16:31
Speaker 1: a marketing perspective and an attendee perspective. Oftentimes, when I
16:34
Speaker 1: would go to these in the past, more of us
16:36
Speaker 1: an attendee, not so much in the marketing side, but
16:38
Speaker 1: I would be working with our marketing folks, and like
16:40
Speaker 1: you said, you could get an attendee list, great, but
16:42
Speaker 1: at least you could know. I like what you said
16:44
Speaker 1: the strategy of like who's going to be there, start
16:46
Speaker 1: setting up meetings ahead of the time. Don't just wait
16:48
Speaker 1: till you show up on the floor and then try
16:50
Speaker 1: to get a game plan. You're already way behind, right,
16:53
Speaker 1: You're way behind.
16:54
Speaker 2: If you have the if you have the opportunity either
16:57
Speaker 2: to get an attendee list in advance, or if you
17:00
Speaker 2: get one of these apps, and the apps are very
17:02
Speaker 2: very popular now and get those apps, you really need
17:07
Speaker 2: to be working, you know, working and looking at you
17:10
Speaker 2: know who is going to be there and setting up
17:12
Speaker 2: those meetings. Some individuals they have they may not go
17:15
Speaker 2: for the entire show, and you want to really meet them. Now.
17:19
Speaker 2: Now is the time. Now is the time. And you
17:21
Speaker 2: know what I also see with our clients that we're doing.
17:25
Speaker 2: You know, creating the booth experience for them is they're
17:29
Speaker 2: looking at how does attending a trade show? Okay, the
17:35
Speaker 2: cost the cost benefit of Let's say I can have
17:38
Speaker 2: my sales team, have you know, forty fifty meetings in
17:41
Speaker 2: a three day show? Okay, what is the what is
17:44
Speaker 2: that compared to if I have to send those sales
17:46
Speaker 2: teams across the country or across the book whatever it is.
17:51
Speaker 2: You know, where's the where's the cost saving? So you know, companies,
17:56
Speaker 2: really salespeople really need to take these seriously. This is
17:59
Speaker 2: not part of time. I mean, yes, there can be
18:02
Speaker 2: there can be parties, you know, but I mean, but really,
18:08
Speaker 2: what you have to look at when you, as a
18:11
Speaker 2: salesperson are asked to intend an event, you really need
18:16
Speaker 2: to look at how are you going to maximize it?
18:18
Speaker 2: And you know, our job, you know, as marketers, you know,
18:22
Speaker 2: is to create the experience so that you know, people
18:27
Speaker 2: as they're going up and down the aisles okay of
18:29
Speaker 2: an exhibit floor, like there there is something that draws
18:33
Speaker 2: them into If they haven't ever heard of your your
18:36
Speaker 2: company or your product line, something's drawing them in. So again,
18:41
Speaker 2: coming back, the other thing is that you know, having
18:44
Speaker 2: that experience, okay, and making sure, like we make sure
18:48
Speaker 2: that everyone in our client organization is you know, tied together.
18:54
Speaker 2: You know, we have a process here at you to
18:56
Speaker 2: excel every single show that we do. We create a workbook, okay,
19:01
Speaker 2: whether we are responsible for producing every element of the
19:06
Speaker 2: show or we have you know, all of the logistics.
19:09
Speaker 2: But let's say they have a PR firm and a
19:11
Speaker 2: sale you know manager. Excuse those those are two easy examples.
19:16
Speaker 2: You know, you're making sure Okay. Ultimately, we're making sure
19:20
Speaker 2: that every one of those elements is working together and
19:23
Speaker 2: messaged appropriately and is on schedule, on target, because you
19:28
Speaker 2: are spending today. The cost of going to a trade
19:30
Speaker 2: show or a conference today is a lot more than
19:34
Speaker 2: it was before.
19:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, everything's gone up right, all the prices, everything.
19:40
Speaker 2: Is everything, I mean, And some of the some of
19:43
Speaker 2: these very smaller show, very targeted shows. You know, I'm
19:47
Speaker 2: seeing I'm seeing booth property ten by ten space. It's
19:52
Speaker 2: not big, Okay, I'm seeing some right now that just
19:56
Speaker 2: the space not outfited, is costing anywhere from forty to
19:59
Speaker 2: ninety thousand dollars for that space.
20:02
Speaker 1: Just that space, Wow, just that space.
20:04
Speaker 2: So I'm not saying that's every industry, but some industry
20:08
Speaker 2: some industries, that's the cost that I'm seeing. And then
20:11
Speaker 2: you start outfitting everything. You're in the two hundred thousand
20:14
Speaker 2: dollars plus range, not every industry, but so you have
20:18
Speaker 2: to maximize the experience that you have at that event.
20:23
Speaker 1: Well, one thing you brought up that I would I've
20:26
Speaker 1: seen recently in the last few years is, like you
20:29
Speaker 1: mentioned apps and technology, how have you seen where technology
20:33
Speaker 1: is being integrated more in these trade shows or conferences,
20:36
Speaker 1: Because I went through a couple this year, and one
20:39
Speaker 1: of them, actually both of them were the probably the largest.
20:42
Speaker 1: They're not huge, probably three to seven hundred people. I
20:45
Speaker 1: think they're not huge among us, but in the sense
20:48
Speaker 1: that there was still an uptick in the people. And
20:51
Speaker 1: also in one of them they're used an app. The
20:53
Speaker 1: other one did not use an app, and I saw
20:55
Speaker 1: much more interaction and particularly at least I'm fifty one,
20:59
Speaker 1: but I saw a lot of i'd say gen zs
21:01
Speaker 1: or millennials definitely using the apps more and engaging with
21:05
Speaker 1: each other.
21:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, no, Ques, no question. Again, you see different
21:11
Speaker 2: industries have different demographic profiles, but I would say across
21:17
Speaker 2: across the spectrum, technology is important, okay, you know, the
21:23
Speaker 2: apps are important, and it's both on the organizer side
21:26
Speaker 2: but also on the exhibitor side super important. Making sure
21:31
Speaker 2: that you have something that is going to attract people
21:36
Speaker 2: to your both using technology to draw people to your booth.
21:41
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of ways to do that, okay,
21:43
Speaker 2: you know, using audio, video, you know, what have you.
21:47
Speaker 2: But people are coming looking for an interactive experience today, Okay.
21:54
Speaker 2: Gone are the days where you know, I take my literature,
21:58
Speaker 2: you know, I might have a pull up band or
22:01
Speaker 2: you know what have you. That doesn't fly anymore because again,
22:04
Speaker 2: you really, if you're selling, if you are selling especially
22:08
Speaker 2: technology services okay, or anything where I'm going to have
22:12
Speaker 2: to interact with something, you have to be able. People
22:15
Speaker 2: want to touch and feel what you have, okay, or
22:18
Speaker 2: they want to see how easy is it going to
22:20
Speaker 2: be to use? Do I want to have a meeting
22:23
Speaker 2: to delve into this further. That's that's one key thing.
22:27
Speaker 2: So technology plays a really good part. The other thing
22:30
Speaker 2: that's become even much more critical is the messaging. Okay.
22:34
Speaker 2: Corporations have their messaging, but again in a trade show booth,
22:39
Speaker 2: in regardless of the size you have nanoseconds okay, to
22:43
Speaker 2: grab someone's attention. Okay, So you need to make sure
22:48
Speaker 2: that you if someone is walking by that booth, that
22:51
Speaker 2: you have something that is going to engage them or
22:55
Speaker 2: intrigue them. So either you've got a message that is
22:58
Speaker 2: going to be hit a sweet spot or hit on
23:02
Speaker 2: a problem that they're trying to solve, okay, or your
23:07
Speaker 2: booth has to be so different in appearance, okay, so
23:15
Speaker 2: different in appearance that someone is going to stop and say,
23:21
Speaker 2: you look so different. I need to understand what it
23:24
Speaker 2: is that you do.
23:25
Speaker 1: Okay.
23:25
Speaker 2: There's there's two things that are really in play today,
23:29
Speaker 2: whereas in the past, you know, I mean we we've
23:33
Speaker 2: always tried to make you know, great booths, but there
23:37
Speaker 2: it is definitely shifting.
23:38
Speaker 1: You just interesting. I hear what you're saying, you know,
23:43
Speaker 1: being more experiential, and you don't want to see the
23:46
Speaker 1: same thing, rows of tables in the line, the same
23:48
Speaker 1: thing with the same you know, pan or brochure out
23:52
Speaker 1: there or whatever it is, and it's like that's they're
23:54
Speaker 1: just gonna keep walking by.
23:56
Speaker 2: You have to use an example, a show that I
24:00
Speaker 2: just did about a month, about a month, a month
24:03
Speaker 2: and a half ago. Okay, so again giveaways are still there, okay,
24:09
Speaker 2: but we used we gave away fifty pairs of metal
24:13
Speaker 2: glasses okay as a raffle for people coming and watching
24:19
Speaker 2: a demo. Okay, we wound up. There were a thousand
24:24
Speaker 2: people at the show. We wound up. I won't say
24:25
Speaker 2: who it was there. We got over five hundred leads.
24:30
Speaker 2: But we had to get creative, Okay. The nature of
24:35
Speaker 2: the nature of the industry that this client is in,
24:37
Speaker 2: we had to be creative on how to bring people,
24:40
Speaker 2: you know, into the booth. Okay, they have very unique
24:44
Speaker 2: they'd be very unique branding. But you know this actually
24:49
Speaker 2: and we did a lot of promotion around it beforehand,
24:53
Speaker 2: but also the experience on the show floor. You know,
24:57
Speaker 2: we had people talking about it. Okay, we had a
25:00
Speaker 2: great locate. You have to booth. Location is critical, Okay,
25:04
Speaker 2: whoever you are, If you are someone in in a
25:06
Speaker 2: marketing department for a company and you have you've been
25:10
Speaker 2: given the task to find figure out which location you
25:13
Speaker 2: should get on a trade ship floor. Locate its location, location, location,
25:17
Speaker 2: that's the first that's the first thing, and then maximize
25:20
Speaker 2: that location. And in this case, we gave away the
25:25
Speaker 2: meta glasses. We had a raffle, we had other swag
25:28
Speaker 2: that was going on. We were having our team was
25:30
Speaker 2: having fun in the booth, but we had we had
25:34
Speaker 2: demos going on, like it was scheduled demo like constant. Okay,
25:40
Speaker 2: So you have to make it engaging, especially for you know,
25:44
Speaker 2: gen X, gen Z millennials. They want to they also
25:48
Speaker 2: do want to be entertained as well.
25:50
Speaker 1: So interesting. No, I think that's important. So you help guide.
25:54
Speaker 1: So I love this. You're helping the folks that are
25:58
Speaker 1: listening to this ideas were connect you with you by
26:00
Speaker 1: the way, we'll have all your connect all your links
26:02
Speaker 1: and all that stuff and are hiding and are connected
26:05
Speaker 1: on linked The reason I have guests like Heidi on
26:07
Speaker 1: the podcast is I want you guys to hear the
26:09
Speaker 1: ideas and the things that she's coming up with. Here's
26:11
Speaker 1: an advocate, here's something that you can come and work
26:13
Speaker 1: together and come up with a plan so you're not
26:15
Speaker 1: caught flat footed. And how many people I've seen go
26:18
Speaker 1: to a trade show, they're just kind of standing by
26:21
Speaker 1: and they're not engaging, they're not interacting. There isn't any
26:24
Speaker 1: plan for how are you talking this up? Maybe even
26:27
Speaker 1: some kind of script or something. And so what I
26:29
Speaker 1: hear you saying, you're guiding, You're saying, hey, here's here's
26:32
Speaker 1: our plan. This is how we not just before, during,
26:35
Speaker 1: and then even even after.
26:37
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, that's exactly that's exactly right. You have to
26:40
Speaker 2: you have to plan. It's all about a plan, and
26:44
Speaker 2: you know, people have to be people have to be engaged,
26:47
Speaker 2: and yeah, it is it. Trade shows are not something
26:51
Speaker 2: today that you can say, you know last week saying
26:54
Speaker 2: oh I'm going to go to a trade show next week.
26:57
Speaker 2: You have to have the best experience possible and have
27:00
Speaker 2: the most engagement. You absolutely have to plan that. There's
27:04
Speaker 2: no question about it. And for me as a marketer,
27:08
Speaker 2: and it's how I run my whole business, not just events,
27:11
Speaker 2: is you have to look at how every single element
27:14
Speaker 2: of marketing comes together. So for a show, you need
27:17
Speaker 2: your strategy. Okay, what why are we going? What are
27:20
Speaker 2: we doing? You need to know? Well, okay, of course,
27:23
Speaker 2: how are you going to build it? How are you
27:24
Speaker 2: going to engage your prospect or your customer or your partner? Okay,
27:29
Speaker 2: you know, how am I going to educate? How am
27:31
Speaker 2: I going to bring people to the booth? And is
27:34
Speaker 2: that is that doing email campaigns, using apps in advance,
27:38
Speaker 2: you know, to set meetings. Is it doing having some
27:41
Speaker 2: fun with you know, giveaways? Okay, you know, and you know,
27:48
Speaker 2: how do I bring in pr especially when there's a
27:50
Speaker 2: product major product announcement? How do I engage social media?
27:54
Speaker 1: You know.
27:54
Speaker 2: One of the things that I always tell social media
27:56
Speaker 2: managers if we're not managing the social media is like,
27:59
Speaker 2: it's one thing to put out some posts while you're
28:01
Speaker 2: on the show floor, great, okay, But at the same time,
28:05
Speaker 2: don't just talk to the people that are on the
28:07
Speaker 2: show floor. We need to make sure that those who
28:09
Speaker 2: couldn't make it to the show, they're kind of having
28:12
Speaker 2: that like that moment. I was like, oh, yeah, exactly,
28:16
Speaker 2: I wish I had that. I wish I was there
28:18
Speaker 2: because this looks really good, you know, but knowing that
28:21
Speaker 2: they should if they missed out, you know, meeting a vendor,
28:25
Speaker 2: you know on a show floor that hey, you know,
28:27
Speaker 2: we're just a phone call and email or a form
28:30
Speaker 2: fill away. So to look at all those and then
28:34
Speaker 2: you know, council to clients post any type of event
28:38
Speaker 2: is make sure you follow up and you follow up
28:40
Speaker 2: really quickly. It can't be you can't. It's not a week, okay,
28:45
Speaker 2: it's like the day after you come back from the show.
28:48
Speaker 2: Make sure and that's got to be planned in advance of.
28:50
Speaker 1: Your right at that time. I think people don't sometimes
28:53
Speaker 1: I'm sure, how do you get this? But I think
28:55
Speaker 1: if you're a business, they're just going going on that,
28:57
Speaker 1: you've got to, like you said, help help, you're helping
28:59
Speaker 1: them plan block out the time it's going to take this.
29:01
Speaker 1: You need to make sure you do these things and
29:03
Speaker 1: then you're helping them. I'm sure right craft the follow
29:06
Speaker 1: up language, both on the front end and the aft
29:09
Speaker 1: end too, like to make it as impactful, right.
29:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely absolutely they're getting.
29:13
Speaker 1: People that they hear this, they resonated, and it takes
29:16
Speaker 1: somebody like you, Heidi, I found to get I'm not
29:19
Speaker 1: getting that and learning thing shift right? What what worked
29:23
Speaker 1: maybe six months or a year ago? Right in the language
29:25
Speaker 1: or how that is, it's not completely off, but you
29:27
Speaker 1: got to just tweak it, manipulate that.
29:29
Speaker 2: Right.
29:30
Speaker 1: In a you always have to look.
29:32
Speaker 2: You always have to look fresh all the time, and
29:34
Speaker 2: you can't from if you go to if a company
29:37
Speaker 2: goes to a show one year and they go to
29:39
Speaker 2: the next year, to the same show. You can't look
29:42
Speaker 2: the same, you can't sound the same. You have to
29:45
Speaker 2: and not saying it has to be one hundred and
29:46
Speaker 2: eighty degree different, so okay or even ninety ars. Yeah,
29:49
Speaker 2: but you have to show something new that is going
29:53
Speaker 2: to bring, you know, attendees to your booth or to
29:56
Speaker 2: your conference or if you're hosting an event, what is
30:00
Speaker 2: going to bring them there. That's critically important.
30:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're getting close to end of the podcast here, Heidi,
30:05
Speaker 1: but we've only, like I said, we barely scratch the
30:08
Speaker 1: surface here, and I'm hoping I'm hoping people are getting
30:10
Speaker 1: excited because I do think I agree with you. I
30:13
Speaker 1: think it's important that people really get back and then
30:16
Speaker 1: there I've seen it, and make these conferences and trade
30:19
Speaker 1: shows and anything they're going on in person to be
30:22
Speaker 1: as meaningful and beneficial for both the exhibitor and the attendees.
30:26
Speaker 1: It's both a two way stream here, I think for everybody.
30:30
Speaker 1: And so I'm very grateful for you to come talk
30:33
Speaker 1: about this and bring this to life because I think
30:35
Speaker 1: a lot of times, at least I didn't think of
30:37
Speaker 1: business marketing and what you do thinking about as a business,
30:40
Speaker 1: how can I benefit strategy wise and either being an
30:43
Speaker 1: exhibitor or even honestly, if I'm going to attend, and like,
30:46
Speaker 1: what's the follow up there in thinking through all these
30:48
Speaker 1: steps and planning to be as successful instead of just
30:51
Speaker 1: kind of throwing money at it and just trying to
30:53
Speaker 1: figure out, well, we've done this in the past, how
30:55
Speaker 1: are we going to measure this? And I really like
30:56
Speaker 1: how you've broken it down for us here on the
30:58
Speaker 1: podcast today.
30:59
Speaker 2: Heidi, Well, thank you, thank you. No, I love I
31:02
Speaker 2: love doing these. You know, my team, same thing. You know,
31:06
Speaker 2: we all work together, you know, and and again we
31:10
Speaker 2: do as much or as little as a client needs.
31:12
Speaker 2: But at this at the heart, even if we're only
31:15
Speaker 2: going in to build the booth, we still look at
31:18
Speaker 2: it strategically because oftentimes we're working with people who are
31:22
Speaker 2: either new to events or they know their specific area
31:27
Speaker 2: of marketing or sales, but they haven't looked at you know, this,
31:31
Speaker 2: this is a different trade shows and conferences are different animals.
31:36
Speaker 2: And the other thing is, and we didn't even touch
31:38
Speaker 2: on it when you go into global markets, okay, even
31:41
Speaker 2: in particularly European countries. I think we're focused a little
31:44
Speaker 2: bit more here on us, but you know, we do
31:47
Speaker 2: global events, and we take into consideration the cultural aspects.
31:51
Speaker 1: And that's a whole other thing. Yeah right, that's.
31:54
Speaker 2: A whole other area that we look at and counsel
31:57
Speaker 2: our our clients on well of some of the things
32:01
Speaker 2: that they have to take into consideration if they're dealing
32:04
Speaker 2: in another culture.
32:05
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, as as I mean, so here's what we're
32:10
Speaker 1: gonna have to have you come back, Heidi, my pleasure. Yeah,
32:15
Speaker 1: and more marketing and all the other elements that you
32:18
Speaker 1: cover you to excel marketing. They're fantastic and I hope
32:21
Speaker 1: you guys will take amount. We'll write the links and
32:23
Speaker 1: any other resources you want to share, put them in
32:27
Speaker 1: the show notes. And folks, of course, they can connect
32:30
Speaker 1: with you through LinkedIn your website. We're connected. Come visit
32:35
Speaker 1: us in Success Champions network as well as a visitor.
32:39
Speaker 1: Any any last thoughts as we're wrapping up here today,
32:42
Speaker 1: just as as folks are considering going back into the
32:45
Speaker 1: trade show's conferences, what you know, any last thoughts that
32:48
Speaker 1: you just really in part here Heidi.
32:51
Speaker 2: You know what I'd say is, you know, if you're
32:54
Speaker 2: considering an event, you need to have a plan, Okay,
32:58
Speaker 2: and it's it's ever too early to start planning. I
33:02
Speaker 2: am actually right now for a number of my clients
33:04
Speaker 2: planning for twenty twenty six. But it's not anything to
33:08
Speaker 2: be afraid of. Is If you have a plan, you
33:11
Speaker 2: will be successful. And thank you so much for having me.
33:14
Speaker 1: Oh it's a pleasure, Heidi. Thank you so much. Thanks
33:17
Speaker 1: everybody for listening being a part of our journey in
33:19
Speaker 1: the Business round Table podcast. Every week we get to
33:21
Speaker 1: bring new guests like Heidi. We're so grateful for that.
33:24
Speaker 1: If you found this podcast informative, enjoyed it, please like
33:29
Speaker 1: and subscribe, Share with others in your network. If you
33:32
Speaker 1: want to be a guest on the podcast, reach out
33:34
Speaker 1: to me podcast at Targio Business dot com. We'd love
33:36
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Thank you, Heidi once again for
33:38
Speaker 1: being on the podcast. Enjoy for having you. Thanks so
33:42
Speaker 1: much for having me.