DALLAS — Freeman has released its Freeman Trends Report: Pre-Event Edition to gain insights about how attendees and exhibitors are discovering, evaluating and preparing for trade shows and conferences.
Based on the data, it’s clear that event organizers still have the in-person advantage when it comes to being the external resource of choice for professionals, but their challenge is to identify and market a clear value proposition that will drive attendance and sales.
The value an event provides can outpace costs, which are identified as a hindrance for some attendees from attending in-person events. Events with targeted programming and differentiated learning, and that provide more bang for their buck when compared to other external resources, will win attendees over despite rising costs to travel.
To explore how organizers can clarify and best showcase their event’s value, and the benefits doing so has on registration and sales, Trade Show Executive dove into the new Freeman Trends Report and connected with Ken Holsinger, Freeman’s Executive Vice President, Industry Research and Insights to get the scoop.
Discovery
Attendee Perspective
According to the data, attendees are most likely to seek out resources outside of their organization to discover new products and solutions, identify and build awareness of industry trends and advancements, and build upon their skills and competencies.
For those attendees in the 23-46-year-old range, also known as the Now-Gen Event Goers (NGEG), 75% say skill-building is pivotal for seeking out events.
“There’s a flag there on the NGEG that we keep talking about,” Holsinger said. “That tells me that the value proposition around our learning should be targeted to young professionals more in their language. I’m not talking about slang; I’m saying in their value terms and career stage, and the education should reflect that.”
Another insight about how attendees are discovering events showcases that people trust referrals from their colleagues and peers at their own organizations and their partners/suppliers/vendors.
Highlighting the importance of designing your event website and marketing with LLMs in mind, 21% of attendees reported having used AI to discover relevant professional events.
“For a lot of the events that we and the mdg team consult with, the missing or error information is incredibly high,” Holsinger said. “I would organize your event website around what the structure of findings (through AI) are. I would group things according to how they’re being looked for, and candidly, I think the biggest mistake most events make is they pop up their content for the registration period, and then they kill it and start the cycle over.”
Attendees also want to know who else will be attending the event, including the types of organizations they’re coming from, other attendees’ goals for attending, their locations or regions, and titles.
Exhibitor Perspective
Like attendees, exhibitors also rely on word-of-mouth referrals from individuals and organizations to learn about events.
When it comes to what objectives exhibitors have that prompt them to consider participating at an in-person event, the top five objectives are: build brand awareness (70%), need to acquire new leads and prospects (64%), efficiency of meeting a large number of customers and prospects in one place (62%), need to maintain relationships with existing customers (61%), and introduce new products or solutions to the market (56%).
AI comes into play for exhibitors discovering events as well. The report finds that 25% of exhibitors have used AI to discover professional events where their company could participate. For those using AI, 90% said it is helpful for creating a short list, 63% say it’s more effective than other options for identifying relevant events and 52% say it has changed their perspective on what events to participate in.
Evaluate
Attendee Perspective
When it comes to evaluating the potential return on investment from an event, attendees are tuned into their objectives. Fifty-four percent say they determine if an event will deliver the required ROI to attend by if there are learning opportunities that meet their needs. Another 49% say they evaluate the strength of the program relative to their professional needs while 38% say they look at if they’re going to be able to evaluate products and solutions effectively.
How do attendees evaluate these things ahead of registering? Event websites and specific information pages are critical to showcasing relevant up-to-date details to attract registrants.
Fifty-five percent of attendees say they look at the exhibitor listing page or floor plan, while 70% of commerce-focused attendees say they use that page. When it comes to learning-focused attendees, 59% check out the detailed program list and 62% look at the education sessions listing, compared to 49% and 41% of all respondents, respectively. While 40% of attendees overall check out the networking and connections opportunities listing, 57% of those that are networking-focused reference that page to determine if they’ll attend.
Based on those insights, it’s clear event organizers need to ensure their program information and session schedule, along with the exhibitor list and featured products, are easy to find and updated as soon as possible.
“I use the cheesy phrase that perfect is the enemy of good. Attendees tell us they want to know who’s going, who’s speaking and what products are being launched,” Holsinger said. “And sometimes, you don’t have all that information yet. But turn that into an opportunity and drop the content as you have it and make it part of your campaign. Then, personalize it based on their objectives.”
The new report also explores what helps an attendee move from interest to conversion. As 82% of attendees require sign-off for funding to attend an event, it’s important for organizers to help attendees show what products and solutions can benefit their organization and how attending will enhance their skills to do their jobs.
FOMO also plays a role in deciding to attend for just over 40% of attendees. The fear of missing out on new products or solutions that will be featured, experts available for networking and reconnecting with peers or experts they’ve previously met ranks as one of the top contributors to FOMO.
Being clear on what an attendee will see and learn at a show is just as important as showcasing who will be at the event in securing attendance.
Also important is flexible registration terms. The data shows that 84% of attendees know they’re coming four or more weeks before an event, but about 50% register in the final four weeks. To help boost earlier registration, discounted rates, flexible cancellation terms, access to preferred room blocks or airfare rates, and VIP or early-access perks to lounge areas or F&B are some of the features that would make an attendee commit earlier.
Exhibitor Perspective
Before exhibitors commit to attending an event, they head to the event’s website to help them determine if an event is worth attending. The most popular pages they look at: the exhibitor listing and floor plan (67%), the attendee prospectus or demographics (61%) and the networking opportunities listing (41%). Thirty-five percent check out the high-level schedule/program overview.
Since these pages are the same ones that attendees prioritize in their evaluation phase, event organizers should take note that keeping pages as updated as possible will help them attract both groups.
Pre-event, only 16% of exhibitors say that events are effective at explaining the ROI they’ll get from exhibiting. Having information on which customers will be there, which competitors will attend and whether the right organizations or roles will show up is essential to determining what their ROI will be ahead of an event.
The lack of attendee information, like role, level and responsibilities ahead of an event is the area where the most exhibitors (46%) find organizers fall short in helping them determine if they’ll participate. Forty-two percent say it’s difficult to determine if the event will deliver ROI and 39% say there is a lack of compelling attendee profiles.
When it comes to what exhibitors want to see on an attendee prospectus, while 51% want to see attendance numbers, 56% want to know the types of organizations/segments that are attending, 43% want to know attendee titles and 39% want to know the attendees’ goals and objectives for attending.
“Everything is fixed if [organizers] get the right attendees there. Expectations are the issue,” Holsinger said. “When we talk about being engaged, it’s an upfront proposition of saying, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do for you. Tell us more of what you’re looking for.’ And then people say we can’t because of data privacy, but if you give the attendee the value, they’ll opt in. … The attendee solves the value proposition for everything upstream from it. If you solve the value proposition, everything else begins to take care of itself.”
Sharing this kind of attendee data early will help build FOMO, which while not a compelling reason to participate on its own, does play a moderate role in decisions to participate for 44% of exhibitors.
“They want more information earlier. They want you to be transparent, and they suspect you’re not being fully accurate with them,” Holsinger said. “Imagine going in and saying an exhibitor your size should expect this; if you up your square footage, you might expect this result or this type of traffic patterns. … There is information you should have out there that feeds exhibitors’ FOMO.”
Preparation
Attendee Perspective
A majority of attendees are preparing ahead of attending an event, but the level of their preparation depends on how much information is available from the organizer early on. That insight from this report reflects the emerging trend that attendees are no longer coming to events during the discovery phase of their buying journey; they’re prepared and ready to evaluate their short list.
Sixty-three percent of attendees prepare by identifying exhibitors they should visit, 58% determine what products and solutions to investigate, 57% identify which sessions they should attend, and 56% identify what other attendees or experts they want to connect with.
And while the event website and event app are the two most popular channels for attendees to use as their go-to resource for determining if they’ll attend, two-thirds of all attendees said they’d welcome AI to play a role in their preparation, specifically to help them identify exhibitors to visit, create a personalized schedule based on their needs and map areas of the event to check out.
Early adopters of AI are already using the technology as a personal event planner, helping them create personalized schedules for what to experience while at an event.
Exhibitor Perspective
Similar to when an attendee is evaluating whether to attend an event or not, attendee insights once again come in handy during preparation. In order to successfully prepare for an event, 40% of exhibitors want attendee intelligence, 26% want schedules and guidance, and 25% require logistics and booth planning.
Combining those needs with exhibitors’ timeline for preparing — 74% of exhibitors start preparing six or more months out from an event — the need for organizers to share available insights earlier is even more clear.
That need is also demonstrated by how exhibitors are using AI. Of the 17% of exhibitors utilizing AI to prepare for an event, 52% are using it to identify the typical profile of attendees, 52% are using it to get up to date on current industry trends, and 48% are using it to learn best practices for trade show or conference presence.
The opportunity to provide stronger exhibitor education or training, especially for SMEs coming to be in booths, is a place where organizers can differentiate themselves from competition and provide more value.
Find the Full Report
Those interested in accessing the full Freeman Trends Report can find and download it here.
