Find Me in the Exhibit Hall! Using Geolocation on your Tradeshow Floor (Part 2)

Last week, I blogged about the basics of FourSquare. If you read that post you may be thinking that FourSquare sounds fun but wonder what application it really has for the conventions industry.

And really, I must admit that when I first started using the program, I thought "This has no value for my life." But as my friends and I started using it, it became entertaining to jockey for mayorships and badges, and it's really fun to get notifications about where my friends are hanging out so I can decide whether to join them.

Though its roots are in social networking, I think there is a real place for FourSquare at a convention and specifically on the tradeshow floor. Show managers could pre-populate the meeting facility with points of interest such as the internet café, association booth, bookstore and/or stage area. Exhibitors could create a FourSquare record for their booth, and advertise a special just for FourSquare users. Individual users could add tips about a specific location, telling other attendees what's cool there and who they enjoyed speaking with. And the possibility of badges is endless – what about badges for visiting 10, 25 or 50 exhibit booths or for checking in at specific locations?

There are, of course, technical considerations; the area must have decent cell phone density from a variety of carriers or wireless internet coverage. This may be a problem in some meeting facilities, especially if the meeting rooms or exhibit hall are underground. Pay special attention to cell phone coverage on your site visit if you are considering using any sort of GPS navigation platform.

It’s a brave new world out there in meeting technology. FourSqure is free – why not give it a try for your next meeting?

Creating a Hybrid Expo Hall

Organizations are looking for ways to expand their audience, engage their members, and demonstrate return on investment of their precious conference dollars. Hybrid meetings that combine the real-life with online are gaining some traction.

Virtual tradeshows are an innovative way to increase value to exhibitors and sponsors, extending the show both in scope and duration. Meetings & Conventions magazine recently profiled a Cisco conference that successfully utilized Chicago-based InXpo’s virtual exhibit hall as part of a live event. The conference was marketed under a single brand, and included both physical and online components.

A virtual exhibit hall supports many methods of interaction, including instant messaging, video chat, e-mail, and business card exchange to create qualified, trackable leads for exhibiting companies. InXpo also offers “Intelli-booth," an interactive company experience that allows customers to engage with your company’s products and services in ways that are meaningful to them. Both platforms provide detailed metrics regarding when and how often customers visited and what content was of interest. The firm also offers webcasting, online job fairs, and other HR-type tools.

The InXpo software is pricey – ranging from $50K – $100K for a standard configuration and more for a highly customized event – but provides options for conferences currently constrained by space, time, or geography.

Streamlining & Simplifying to Protect your Bottom Line

All across the conference sphere, organizations are looking for ways to minimize the financial risk associated with holding their meetings. If you haven’t already done so, tying registration and housing together provides one-stop convenience for attendees and allows you to better manage your housing block.

When implemented correctly, a unified housing and registration system increases registration numbers and collects your revenue earlier in the registration process, optimizing your cash flow. It also ensures that all persons in the housing block are registered for the conference and prevents non-registrants from cannibalizing your housing block – which is important if you have an excellent rate in a popular city. Most importantly, you have ultimate control of your housing block, which minimizes wash and cancellation exposure

A number of registration providers now offer housing as an add-on service to the basic registration package, including RegOnline , eShow, and EventRebels. Alternatively, some housing bureaus are also offering convention registration. For a small cost, these companies can also collect attendees’ housing data and transmit it to the hotel(s) at a predetermined time. Housing deposits can also be processed directly through the registration interface allowing organizations greater control over last-minute cancellations and refunds.

Packaging registration and housing together protects organization and provides a one-stop shop for your conference delegates.

Get More out of your Conference with Swift Mobile

There’s not been a lot written about convergence in the meetings industry. Most of us stay connected though our mobile devices (iPhones, Blackberries, and the like), but we’ve not been able to use our trusty handheld device to connect with others during a conference. Until now.

Enter Swift Mobile for your smartphone: a veritable paintbox of features combining conference content, social networking, and mobile geolocation in the palm of your hand. The Swift application – which works best on the iPhone but is also supported on the mobile web and accessible by any wireless handheld device – allows users to create a personal profile to share information about themselves and connect with other convention goers with similar interests.

Swift allows conference delegates to navigate through educational content on their phone, essentially providing the conference program in the palm of their hand. The application also combines conference-related Twitter posts (“tweets”) into a single, relevant stream that can be customized for each user. Real-time feedback lets attendees keep tabs on other sessions, even those that they aren’t able to attend. In this way, Swift expands the conference experience beyond the limits of physical space and time.

On the revenue side, Swift offers branding opportunities for sponsors on the splash screen as well as long-range potential publications phase-out. Exhibitors and sponsors also have access to fee-based tools including polling, video publishing, and user messaging.

The Swift Mobile application is still in beta testing, but the implications for long-term use in the convention industry are encouraging. Keep up the good work!

Twittering Onsite: A Real-Life Case Study

In an earlier post, I wrote about the utility of Twitter for communication with attendees onsite at conferences. Well, last week I used Twitter’s GroupTweet mechanism for the first time to communicate with conference delegates. Here’s what I learned during the test.

1) Twitter is only useful if you have critical mass. Even at a conference for a computer-related association, just 101 of our 2400+ attendees signed up to follow the conference feed. If you are planning to use Twitter for critical announcements, ensure that you have other mechanisms in place for those who don’t participate.

2) Mobile access is a must. I admit, I am an early adopter of the iPhone and rarely go anywhere without it. I was able to use the Twitterfon application to send updates while on-the-go, which made it easier for me to stay in touch with the group. Folks with another mobile device such as a Blackberry or PDA can find similar freeware. Text message updates are also possible though do deplete your monthly text allotment. I would never have been able to manage the feed if I had to run back to my office to post the updates.

3) Updates can be time-consuming. Even with my handy iPhone app, I had to make a conscious decision to keep Twitter at the forefront of my mind to remember to post the updates.

4) Network access speeds the pace. I was lucky that our convention location had good, reliable wireless access throughout the space. This allowed me to make updates in real time, instead of texting my updates to the Twitter server and waiting for them to be posted.

I’m not convinced that Twitter will replace morning announcements or the message board right away, but overall I would say that our use of this communications mechanism was a success. Considering using Twitter for your next meeting? Click here to visit our conference feed and see how we used this free tool to improve communications to and between delegates.

Instant Feedback = Improvement

I recently learned about an exciting new online tool designed to help staff and managers improve their performance. It’s called Rypple. The online tool is designed to allow users to solicit and collect feedback on their performance, one question at a time. It’s quick and easy, both for the user and for the people from whom they are seeking feedback. Everything is done by email, and it’s completely anonymous so that responders can be candid. Rypple is not designed to replace the annual performance review, but rather to supplement it at regular intervals and allow employees to act on the feedback immediately.

Beyond the obvious implications for employees and managers, it seems to me that Rypple could also be used to engage conference attendees, both before and during a conference. It’s a fast and painless way to gauge attendee satisfaction, without making them complete a lengthy survey form. Just a few conference uses might be:

• Did you have any problems with the registration process?
• What’s one thing we could do to make your conference experience better?
• What did you think of this morning’s plenary session?
• How’s the food at the coffee breaks?

Rypple provides quick results so you can identify and resolve problems on the fly. Best of all, attendees feel the personal touch, and know that you value their input.