LAS VEGAS —Insight Media Enterprises, producer of the Mopar Vendor Expo, an annual automotive trade show held Sept. 8-12 at Caesars Palace, was the first trade show producer to partner with Connector, an AI-driven networking app created by Connector Technologies.
Available on the App Store and Google Play, Connector uses a patent-pending Value Score technology that considers location, profile similarities, category matches and user behaviors to create high-quality connections that can be viewed on a searchable list or map.
The app can be used before, during and after an event and a show’s branding can remain visible throughout its life cycle as “digital swag” with calls to action.
To promote the app, Connector Technologies sent email campaigns to registrants before the Mopar Vendor Expo and performed guerrilla marketing at Caesars Palace, posting QR codes around the venue, engaging with attendees and exhibitors from a table near where they received their badges and walking booth-to-booth.
Informed Connections
The app created networking opportunities for Mopar Vendor Expo attendees and exhibitors using its Value Score technology, which showed users why they were offered a specific connection.
“Our algorithm, which is driven by machine learning and AI … shows transparency, [and] here’s why we think you should connect: you went to the same school, you’re in the same industry, you were in the same fraternity, you both speak French,” Steven Eppinger, Founder and CEO at Connector Technologies, said. “That transparency I think is really what makes us different and what’s going to make people more likely to connect.”
During the Mopar Vendor Expo, around 15-20% of attendees installed the app and created an account and approximately 40-50 people were online at a given time. The app’s user demographic was split evenly between attendees and exhibitors and Connector reported around 150 connection requests during the event, which is an average of approximately three to four per-user, and an 85% connection acceptance rate, a 15% pending rate and no connection rejections, indicating its algorithm’s success.
Eppinger believes that the app’s connections map is also a unique networking resource in the business events industry and allowed Mopar attendees to easily find their connections, even after the event concluded.
“In the young person’s social media world … you have something like the Snap Map, right, where you can see where your friends are around you — that doesn’t exist in the business networking space … [or] it didn’t exist until Connector. Connector will show you, even when you’re not at the event, that ‘hey, here are the people you’re connected with that are around you.’ … the ongoing, genuine connection opportunities are something that Connector brings to this industry that nobody else does,” Eppinger said.
Looking Ahead
Based on their discoveries at the Mopar Vendor Expo, the Connector team will tweak the app’s user interface to help people register more easily.
Additionally, Eppinger plans to encourage users to add details to their profiles, which he called their biggest challenge, because the app requires certain types of information for the Value Score technology to work most-effectively.
“Part of how we’re solving that is that ongoing marketing after someone registers … [but] I think that’s always going to be a challenge. It’s a challenge with any sort of social media product,” Eppinger explained.
The Connector team plans to expand the app’s presence at trade shows and beyond.
“I see it being very successful,” Eppinger said. “Trade shows are obviously one of the best use cases for this product … let’s be honest, vendors [and] attendees, they’re spending a lot of money to be at these shows, they need to maximize the value of being there. They can’t necessarily hit every single booth and talk to every vendor at the same time, but this is another layer of potential connections.”
To learn more about Connector, email info@connectorapp.co.
