The only object missing when attending a trade show from your desktop may be the casino.
Everything else familiar to trade show attendees—the exhibit hall, the auditorium, a lounge to chat with other visitors—can be found digitally.
As companies slash travel budgets to deal with the deepening recession, virtual trade shows and other events are proving to be a practical way to reach people.
Just ask professional services firm KPMG LLP, which held a virtual job fair in September to showcase the international nature of its practices. It promoted 1,000 job opportunities across 144 countries. About 11,000 people from 167 countries attended.
"We can go out with one voice and meet people around the world," said Paloma Alos, a London-based director of global marketing for KPMG. "It's much more than having a static Web site, it's people interacting with each other."
Two of the top virtual trade show producers, Chicago's InXpo and California-based Unisfair, expect to double their growth this year from 2008 in large part because of the economy but also thanks to the reach of these events.
Meanwhile, the traditional trade show business expects a rough 2009, with 87 percent of executives who manage show facilities expecting flat or declining revenues, according to a February survey by Tradeshow Week magazine.
Unisfair hosted about 120 virtual events last year and is on tap to produce 200 in 2009, according to the company. The shows feature live chats—audio, text and video—Webcasts, content sharing and resource libraries. At the KPMG event, for example, one Webcast had 700 attendees and featured a question-and-answer chat session.
"All you need is a browser to attend" a virtual event, said Guy Piekarz, chief executive of Unisfair, which provided the software platform to host the KPMG fair.
Generally, organizers pay to host a virtual trade show and attendees log on for free after registration. Virtual events can have up to 20,000 attendees.
"The basic program costs about $30,000 to $40,000, and you build on top of that based on the size of the show," Piekarz said. Costs decrease for companies that host multiple shows.
Virtual trade shows are not intended to "replace the trade show business because nothing can replace a handshake," said Malcolm Lotzof, CEO and co-founder of InXpo.
Since it launched in 2004, InXpo has managed more than 500 events. In 2009, it expects to host 500 more.
"Right now, it's hard for us to keep up with the demand for existing customers, let alone add new customers," Lotzof said. InXpo has about 100 clients.
Over the past five years, InXpo has gained a better understanding of what works online.
"When we got started, we thought we would aim at replicating the big, physical trade show," he said. "But we found out that people did like to travel to bigger shows, where they could see a lot of people, a lot of vendors."
So, InXpo has focused on smaller events. "The conversations can be intimate, more focused, " Lotzof said.
In addition to saving on travel expenses, companies and event organizers can track attendees. That's because, like most Web-based tools, virtual shows are measurable.
"We know everyone who's been there, how long they were there, who they spoke with and what materials they read," Lotzof said. "We know that the average time someone spends at a virtual event is two hours. We can even send an e-mail to people who haven't attended."
So what's it like to attend a virtual event?
Like any show, you can interact with a sales representative at a vendor's booth or kibitz with other attendees in a lounge.
At an InXpo or Unisfair event, you point your browser at the entrance of the conference hall, exhibit center, lounge or resource center. In each room, visitors can interact with other attendees, vendors and speakers.
Some rooms have a group chat function that allows people to see how others respond to questions or comments.
At a booth in the exhibition area, vendors can employ video, audio or text chats. Vendors also can staff the booth on demand. So if traffic picks up, the company can add workers to handle the volume.
That was a benefit for KPMG at its virtual job fair. The event was very busy, Alos said, lasting 48 hours.
"We planned for 5,000 people, but we had about 11,000," she said. "We were very tired when it was all over."
Just like a real show.
Source:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/
