• by Serge Rubinstein
• Mar 27, 2018
• EXHIBITORLIVE 2018, Temporary WiFi for Event Marketers

At the end of February, Trade Show Internet (TSI) exhibited at EXHIBITORLIVE at the Mandalay Convention Center in Las Vegas. TSI had exhibited at EXHIBITORLIVE a few years back and it felt great to be back. Billing itself as “The Conference for Trade Show and Corporate Event Marketing,” the show was focused squarely on helping educate live event industry professionals on what’s top-of-mind in 2018. If you need proof, check out the list of workshops offered – truly an exhaustive list of topics.

The Show Floor

The larger booth footprints – those taken up by large format booth manufacturers and exhibit builders - were amazing structures to behold. Some of these exhibit areas, or compounds, were built to mimic living rooms, lounges, conference rooms; even bars. The need to have your brand stand apart, drive interest and ultimately create face-to-face engagement is the name of the game here, and we were witnessing the masters in action at EXHIBITORLIVE. Surrounding the larger exhibit areas were the medium-to-smaller sized booths. I quickly realized that most of these vendors – from lower tech trade show giveaway firms to high tech event project management platforms – all had one thing in common; an in-display dedicated connection to the internet. The need for trade show managers to make sure their exhibit spaces are connected is driven by the need of products and services to be interactive. This holds true if the product the company is exhibiting needs connectivity, but it also holds true if the company decides to use interactive tools to demo their non-connected product or services. A non-connected exhibit area is almost a non-starter in today’s trade show environment. Obviously providing internet solutions for live events is what we here at TSI do. That said, when you’re walking the aisles at a trade show that’s dedicated to live event marketers, that type of validation kind of makes you feel good. Further, after ten years of building a company focused on providing internet solutions for live events, and usually at a lower cost than the incumbent provider, we’re excited at the prospects for the future. 

What We Heard at Our Booth

The traffic at our booth was heavy for all three days of the exhibit – which is a testament to the show organizers thoughtfully putting together a schedule that works well for attendees and exhibitors alike (kudos). At most shows, exhibit hall traffic slows each successive day of the show, but this wasn’t the case for EXHIBITORLIVE. We actually had a few people rushing to our booth at the very end of each day exclaiming, “you’re on our list of companies we had to meet…show us what you do!”

So, what did we hear from booth visitors? Well, overwhelmingly people told us how frustrated they were with the high cost of internet connectivity at trade shows (not to mention almost every other line item in the typical trade show exhibitor guide, but that’s another story). This was usually followed by 1) “Wait, you do that…and for that price?!” 2) “Can you give us a demo?” 3) “Please scan my badge and can I take your card and product sheet?”

We also heard from event producers that had larger connectivity and/or specialized needs, especially those putting together experiential marketing activations. Providing internet at a convention or meeting center is one thing, but how about in the convention center’s parking lot? Or in the middle of a field, in an empty warehouse, or on a river barge? Trickier stuff, but situations we encounter and relish regularly when working with event marketers. Social media and digital marketing are driving change in the way marketers present their solutions to the public. Facebook, Instagram, and other mobile apps are redefining how prospective customers or fans interact with a brand at a live event. The need for a reliable temporary internet connection to facilitate all that social traffic is now top of the list for experiential event planners.

Lastly, another topic of conversation we heard frequently was the need to better track booth activity to more effectively quantify event ROI. Big Data continues to be a hot buzzword and many event producers and promoters are looking at the guest WiFi network as an opportunity to capture prospect data in exchange for branded content and fast Internet access. Our response to this trend is to develop splash pages for sponsors via our Captive Portal and Splash Page solution. Using our Captive Portal and Splash Page solution, clients can capture a larger number of leads, and combined with a known customer acquisition cost target, can easily assess the success of their event.

All in all, EXHIBITORLIVE 2018 was a successful event for Team TSI. The conversations we had with live event industry professionals at our booth, as well as at the many social events surrounding the show, definitely made it a worthwhile event. We’ll certainly return to EXHIBITORLIVE!