There are many factors that go into coordinating a successful event but persuading the right people to bring their products and services to attendees can often be the biggest hurdle. Your prospectus is the perfect way to convince exhibitors to invest. Consider highlighting the key differentiators that your event offers, including the following:
Engagement Opportunities
Participant profiles. Smaller events that have the capacity to do so are able to offer participant profiles. These profiles are completed ahead of time, listing interests and information that will help everyone identify the people they most want to engage with. While larger events don’t have this capacity, they often have technology in place that allows the same information to be captured with a scan of the attendee’s badge.
Lunch & Learn Roundtable discussions. Exhibitors can participate in these mini sessions and also offer to host them, as a means of enhancing their visibility.
Pre-arranged one-on-one meetings. Smaller events have been using this option for some time, and now, larger events are embracing the idea. In addition to walking the floor, these meetings are guaranteed to be the best use of onsite time. Every participant is given the opportunity to preschedule meetings with the people to whom they already know they want to speak.
Executive Dinner Series. Many trade show managers are launching these invitation-only dinners as a means of attracting both attendees and exhibitors.
Lead Generation
To attract exhibitors, you must not only invest in the right technology but also understand how it functions. Consider ways to include hybrid and virtual opportunities for brands, whether those occur during or after the in-person event.
Show managers must expand the capabilities of their lead retrieval. It’s all about ROI. Unfortunately, more than 80% of companies fail to follow up with the leads they generate at events, because it’s often a labor-intensive process. But new technologies are making it possible to capture leads more effectively, whether they are in person or virtual. Highlighting the capabilities of these technologies in your prospectus can be powerful. Invest in a lead-retrieval solution that:
Digitally manages registration
Allows exhibitors to scan attendee badges, to capture all their information
Gives brands the ability to qualify and rate leads, as well as make notes
Easily imports into the brand’s existing CRM
Offers real-time reporting and download capabilities
Ensures data privacy
In addition, the lead-gen technology should offer the ability to provide as rich of an experience for virtual attendees as it would for in-person attendees, with features such as:
Networking tools that promote 1:1 video meetings
Live streaming options for panels, keynotes, and virtual-only events
Live-chat capabilities
Polling capabilities
Video chat rooms
Quality of Attendees
Your prospectus should mention the quality of the audience you attract, highlighting the seniority of the attendees as well as emphasizing the vetting process that trade show managers use to attract them. Some managers are now interviewing their industry delegates, asking them what type of service and solution providers they want to have onsite.
Current Challenges and Areas of Interest
Prospectuses need to “convince” exhibitors and delegates that the best and most relevant service and solution providers are in attendance, and that both attendees and exhibitors are like-minded people with the same backgrounds and interests. These senior-level executives are looking for opportunities to network and benchmark with peers.
Sponsorships
For an in-person event, you can quickly line up a few major sponsors; for a hybrid event, however, there are many additional moving parts that offer brands the opportunity to showcase themselves. You can offer more sponsorship opportunities and levels at a virtual event, but it’s important to keep the offers realistic in terms of investor ROI. And there should be some incentive for those who choose to exhibit in person, whether it’s a free virtual booth or the ability to produce content for the virtual audience as well.
Benefits
Your prospectus should clearly communicate incentives for both in-person and virtual participants. Not only can you outline how you will be able to explain the benefits of the expanded audience, but you can emphasize your capability to provide detailed analytics for online attendees, including what sessions they attend, what booths they visit, and lead-generation options. Be sure to include how long attendance data will be available after the event. Make sure you include exclusive opportunities for both your in-person and your virtual brand participants.
The Modern Event Prospectus Is a Powerful Tool
Much of the information you provide in a prospectus will be the same for both in-person and hybrid events: who, what, why, when, and where. What is different in today’s hybrid prospectus is the emphasis on technology, consumer data captured by that technology, lead-generation and ROI, and unique sponsorship opportunities. With 72% of corporate sponsors indicating in a recent survey that they are interested in participating in a hybrid event, the prospectus is your opportunity to give them the information they need to say yes.