DALLAS — The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) released the fourth part of its 2024 Maximizing Attendee and Exhibitor Engagement on the Exhibition Floor series, which is titled Exhibitor Future Outlook – Areas to Improve and Interest in New Models.
The study covers North American exhibitors and organizers who are active in the U.S., Canadian and Mexican markets.
“We did this study in 2017 and have run it this year to update insights on what’s working now,” Nancy Drapeau, IPC, CEIR’s Vice President of Research, said. “Based on organizer and exhibitor observations, it identifies which attendee engagement approaches enjoy high attendee use. The end goals are to identify attendee engagement tactics exhibitors use that generate high attendee use. It tracks how attendee engagement supports overall goals for exhibiting and influences key performance indicators for exhibiting. Where attendee use is high, it suggests engagement offerings that resonate with attendees, that they are valued. So ultimately it pinpoints options that support exhibitor and attendee engagement, a win-win scenario. This new report, the fourth in the series, provides exhibitors’ outlook for the future. It details where exhibitors aim to improve or enhance their approaches. Overall, it indicates an exhibitor-base committed to building on their successes, with enhancements and improvements. The future looks bright.”
Shifting Exhibitor Preferences and Areas for Improvement
According to the report, 75% of exhibitors want to improve their attendee engagement strategies and 50% of exhibitors are advocating to organizers for updates, an increase from the report’s 2017 edition.
Additionally, 46% of exhibitors indicate that they are interested in new models or layouts and 62% of exhibitors are looking for new ideas for their exhibit programs.
CEIR provided exhibitor requests to organizers to enhance attendee engagement, organized by popularity:
- 33% of requests are for better attendee traffic flow
- 22% of requests are for the ability to access real-time attendee registration data
- 16% of requests are to make registration fields more helpful for post-show follow-up efforts
- 14% of requests are to standardize registration data fields to minimize scanner errors and importing data
- 14% of requests are for the flexibility to change booth location
Where new models are concerned, the most common preference among exhibitors is for alternative, in-person settings that exclude standard pipe-and-drape or are smaller and more personalized. CEIR revealed that digital alternatives, such as hybrid and virtual trade shows, are unpopular, which marks a shift from 2017, when approximately 20% of exhibitors were interested in these formats.
“When it comes to considering new models or floor layouts for the next several years, exhibitor interest is highest for in-person, physical settings, while digital options see single-digit interest, likely due to virtual event burnout from the pandemic,” Drapeau said.
The report also shares that exhibitors are 24% more likely to find new attendee engagement ideas in B2B settings than in consumer settings.
To learn more, download the full report here.
