5 Reasons to Encourage Exhibitors to Upload Digital Media

September 22, 2013

Are you still on the fence about enabling your exhibitors to add rich content such as product listings, press releases, specials and videos to their listings on your event website? Here are five compelling reasons which may just persuade you to change your mind.

  1. Save Paper

By providing an online forum for exhibitors to showcase their products and services, many show organizers are significantly reducing, and in some cases completely eliminating, dependency on thick printed directories. By going digital, you will not only be saving costs and precious natural resources, but are bound to be also recognized by the industry for your green initiative.

When Penton Media’s Natural Products Expo West 2011 event was reconginzed as the leader in green initiatives amongst the trade show industry for the fourth year running, the director of exhibitions and conferences for Penton Media explained the event’s eco-friendly strategy in words which highlight the importance of going digital: “We are committed to being progressive in our strategies to drive quality attendance to our events. We are passionate about providing an in-person experience aligned with our market. The variety of recognition we have received is a testament of our holistic approach in delivering leading events in the tradeshow industry.”

  1. Get Noticed by Search Engines

It’s no secret that leading search engines like Google and Bing give heavy weightage to photos, slideshows and videos for ranking in search results. If a large volume of digital media is hosted and viewed on the event website, it’ll definitely boost the event’s online visibility. Conversely, if the search engines crawlers find more text-heavy pages on the event website, other websites with richer content will be considered more relevant by their indexing programs.   

  1. Provide Value to Exhibitors

Exhibitors are always eager to use every opportunity to get in front of the attendees. Being able to showcase their innovations and specials to attendees before the event pleases exhibitors tremendously and helps strengthen their relationship with the event organizers.

  1. Engage Attendees

Most of us are spending more and more of our waking hours browsing the web and using apps to plan our lives. Attendees, no matter which industry they belong to, now prefer to use the feature-rich event website and mobile app to search for exhibitors and plan their personalized agenda ahead of the event.

This is how an attendee at PACK EXPO 2012 explained the value provided by the official mobile app solution: “It’s much better than the printed show guide, you can search the exhibitors by product categories.”

Exhibitors with rich and engaging content are, of course, going to generate more interest in their brands when attendees are able to view their product listings and watch their promotional videos before deciding which companies they are going to engage with at the event.

  1. Generate Additional Revenue

By building upgrade packages that enable exhibitors to pay for additional digital media listing options, show managers can generate additional revenue from their online assets as well as provide visibility to featured exhibitors and sponsors.

Click here to check out how USITT conveys the value of upgrading their eBooths to exhibitors on the event website.

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