Tag Archives: Association Manager

Why We Don’t Make Browser-Based Apps for Tradeshows

As a conference manager, you may have found yourself asking this question: Why bother with a mobile app when you can use a browser-based app?

That is a question that comes up frequently. Like Evernote and many other app developers, we have chosen to develop what are known as “native apps”, rather than offering browser-based HTML “apps” for mobile lead retrieval.

HTML apps can be developed more quickly and easily. One version can be used on all mobile devices that can access the Internet. A significant amount of time is saved by developing a single app that can be used universally. So what’s the downside?

A native app must be developed specifically for each mobile operating system. One size does not fit all. There must be individual native apps: One for Apple, another for Android, for Blackberry, for Kindle, etc. Costly? Yes. Time Consuming? Yes. Worth it? Yes!!

As Phil Libin, Evernote’s CEO,  says, “…people gravitate towards the products with the best overall user experience. It’s very hard for something developed in a cross-platform, lowest-common-denominator technology to provide as nice an experience as a similar native app.”

Browser (HTML) apps make things easy for developers. Native apps make things easy for users. With a native app, for example, an on-line connection is not necessary. For a browser-based app, it is essential. Now, whose life do you want to make easy…your vendor’s or your attendees’ and exhibitors’?

If you are an event organizer, this is a critical distinction. Many, probably most, venues lack reliable Wi-Fi. Even when Wi-Fi is available on a trade show floor, when thousands of attendees and hundreds of exhibitors are vying simultaneously to access it, quality is inevitably going to be degraded. Don’t risk frustrating you attendees and exhibitors by offering browser-based apps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Keep Event Attendees Coming Back

Key to increasing attendance at your tradeshow is understanding why people attend your show in the first place. You need to understand why attending your show would benefit your potential audience.

This sounds simple, but it’s something many associations take for granted. It’s worth reviewing your value proposition today  – people have so many more options available to them.

Host a brainstorming 20 minute meeting with a few key team members, make sure everyone knows your meeting topic in advance and is prepared with 2-3 points to contribute.

Why would anyone want to attend my show? Here’s a few reasons:
  • Keep current with trends in our industry.
  • Attend seminars with lots of take-home value.
  • Meet prospective suppliers.
  • Scout for prospective employees.
  • Forge relationships with prospective partners.
  • Raise the visibility of our organization.
  • Do all of the above in a cost effective way.

For exhibitors, add these items to the list above:

  • Competitive intelligence.
  • Meet with current customers.
  • Leads! Attendees are prospective customers.

Your tradeshow affords exhibitors a range of opportunities to obtain qualified leads. The show floor is an obvious place to obtain leads, but you no doubt provide other opportunities, such as seminars, coffee breaks, receptions, golf and tennis outings and so on.Exhibitors should be encouraged to take part at these extra events and attendees should be encouraged to be receptive. They may need reminding of the importance of exhibitors and sponsors to the success of the event.  Attendees should be encouraged to view exhibitors as colleagues, not as adversaries.

Your tradeshow offers a very cost competitive means of accomplishing these objectives.

Here are some of the top reason’s we’ve heard why people attend:

  • I’ll meet other attendees with whom I can share ideas, perhaps partner with, gain access to their networks.
  • Meet exhibitors who offer solutions to my needs.
  • Find products and services that address problems that heretofore I had not even identified.
  • Hear speakers who inspire, fire the imagination, inform.
Keep these objectives in mind when you develop your show plan and promote it. Attendees need to be reminded why it’s so important to exhibit.
Any work you do on your show should have the same objective: increase attendance.  In times like these – any activity that does not directly contribute to increased attendance should stop.

 

 

New Video, New Offer – Mobile Platform Free for All Registration Contracts

Claim your free show directory app for your event with any registration agreement signed by June 30th. Your limited time offer includes our mobile platform for zero additional cost.

Our limited time offer includes our mobile platform for zero additional cost.  Get started now: Event Profile and Planning Tool

Check out our new video:

Free PDF Download: LinkedIn Tips for Tradeshow Managers

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Today’s webinar, LinkedIn Tips for Tradeshow Industry Marketers was a huge hit.  As promised, here are the PDF slides of the webinar. No registration is required.

Click here to download the PDF slides  

We hope you will join us again next time for one of Bartizan’s Thought Leadership webinars.

Question for Meeting Planners and Event Organizers – What Topics Do You Want to Learn About?

We are building our webinar schedule and really would like to know what you are most interested in learning about.

Is it Twitter? Is it helping exhibitors succeed? Go Green tips?

Looking forward to hearing from you!  Email me and let me know, thanks: joanna@bartizan.com

The Art of Exhibitor Follow Up Part One

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If your first thoughts about tradeshow sales lead follow-up occur only as work crews start furiously rolling up the carpets and tearing down exhibits around you, you ‘re in trouble.

Prepare
Effective tradeshow follow-up begins long before the last business card is exchanged, long before the last farewell to your fellow exhibitors. Follow-up preparation begins before the tradeshow and continues as the show progresses.

Set Goals
Going into a show you must have written goals. Showing the flag is not a goal. (“We’ve got to be there: all our competitors will be attending, and people will think something is wrong if we don’t show up.”) Acquiring new customers is. Regaining lost customers is a good goal. Retaining current customers is as well.

Add Value. When following up on a lead, focus on this question: What can I offer this prospect that will add value to his product or service and help differentiate it from those of his competitors? You may not have been able to sufficiently analyze his problem on the spot on the tradeshow floor. In the follow-up phase you have the opportunity to do this and to offer the value add that will begin a “decade-plus customer” relationship.

Free Tradeshow Industry Report: Staying Connected

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Learn how surveyed trade show attendees give an honest assessment of how they view the show experience and how they deal with what they’ve learned from the show when they return home. When we analyzed our data, we were struck by how ineffective post-show interaction was between attendees and exhibitors.

Download the free report here, no registration required.

Specifically we focus on:

1. A profile of the “curious” Attendee.

2. The breakdown of the connection between Exhibitors and those Attendees.

3. The problem that breakdown causes.

4. The collaboration between Exhibitors and Organizers that can repair that connection.

World’s Best Motivational Videos for Busy Tradeshow Managers

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At Bartizan, we love motivational videos. We all know how tough it is to manage tradeshows, it’s a multitasking nightmare and it takes a super motivated person to accomplish a great show. Here’s some videos, for you our fearless event organizer to give you that extra push. Here is a link to BNET’S World’s Best Motivational Videos. Which one was your favorite? Let us know.

This one is a bit long and starts slow, but has a huge payoff. Bonus: it stars David Beckham.

Mobile Lead Retrieval a Success at 2011 ASAE Meeting

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At ASAE 2011, Bartizan launched new event registration services and QR Code services at the meeting.

Bartizan was the official mobile lead retrieval vendor at the show providing iLeads to all exhibitors. iLeads Smartphone lead retrieval is easier to use than most traditional lead retrieval equipment, offers exhibitors portability and instant access to leads. To download iLeads App exhibitors may go to the Apple App Store or Android Market and search for ‘iLeads’.

Here are highlights from the 2011 ASAE Annual Meeting & Expo in St. Louis, MO. Bartizan gave product demonstrations of the iLeads app, new event registration services and QR code event services.

With the addition of registration and QR Code event solutions to Bartizan’s line of services the goal is to increase event attendance, decrease costs, simplify attendee and exhibitor connections and speed up the sales cycle at events.

For booth giveaways, Bartizan offered its 2011 Social Media Tips for Event Organizers Guide and free personalized QR Codes at their booth. Bartizan’s Personalized QR code Generator tool allows users to relay contact information directly into someone’s Smartphone. This QR code can be used to network and exchange contact details for all show participants throughout the show and beyond with any Smartphone.

The iPad2: What it Can Mean for Trade Show Exhibitors

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The iPad2: What it Can Mean for Trade Show Exhibitors

Lots of companies have found just how useful the original iPad can be at a trade show. Now comes the iPad2. Is it any better than the original?  Darn tootin’, in my opinion.  It can be used to show videos better than ever. You want musical accompaniment? No problem. Maybe you want to call the home office and give the folks back there a look at the show. If they have an iPad2, you can do it. As for lead capture, currently there is no better way in my opinion. So, install your video, download iLeads and you are set to go.

Slides Now Available from Yesterday’s Webinar: Secrets to Help Attendees and Exhibitors Stay Connected After the Show

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Secrets to Help Attendees and Exhibitors Stay Connected After the Show