That one graph we (exhibition organisers) know too well...

Look at that lonely peak and the emptiness that surrounds it above and make a wild guess what that is...

Yes, you're right, that's the yearly web traffic for a B2B tradeshow. I showed this graph in a recent presentation I delivered at the Shanghai CEO Summit and sadly for our industry, no-one was shocked. (by the way, this actually is a real graph from one of our shows)

There are three very clear phases here:
1- I have other business to do
2- I'm preparing my visit
3- I want to register and attend
Then sadly back to "I have other business to do" phase for a full year...

The time limited nature of our business clearly limits the interaction window we have with our visitors and thus the industries we serve. But what exactly are we doing about it other than talking about it? Remember the "see you next year" banners we all hang-up on our venue exits? They pretty much sum up the whole story.

I have attended many exhibition industry CEO conferences and heard many speakers talk about the 365 day interaction with the visitor (admittedly myself being one of them). But perhaps we're focusing on something that cannot be found. The show actually is there only for a few days, lets start by accepting that. Ergo people will/can not interact with it at other times. 

Instead we should focus on why exactly the visitor comes to our show in the first place and see if there are ways for us to keep on providing that beyond the show. That is the only way the visitor will keep on engaging with whatever we're providing. And yes, digital is a great and proven way of doing just that.

Whether it be product search, general industry knowledge, networking; There are ways of creating digital platforms to cater for those needs. Perhaps just not on a 'show' website...

With this thinking we've launched our first digital product WorldBuild365 to cater for one of the industries we serve, but more on that on some other blog post and also at the UFI Open seminar in Chiang Mai in a few weeks where I'll have the privilege to make the opening speech.

See you there.