Kiki L'Italien streaming #assnchat from the trade show floor. The sign is powered by LEDs and requires human power from the bike! |
A heat map provides a digital visualization of where people are traveling through your event. It shows by colour or density higher volumes of traffic, and each beacon can indeed tell you exactly how many devices (presumably with their people attached) have gone past any specific area. This is useful for understanding flow, for managing in real-time movement of participants and allows for adjustments that can positively impact the guest and exhibitor experience. When combined with smart gamification strategies, push messaging and 'near me' tech, the possibilities become very interesting.
The suggestion from this guest was with a heat map and its data "we can show unhappy exhibitors how many people walked past their booths and provide evidence we have 'done our job' as organizers and provided them people to talk to". The conversation continues to note that any lack of success of a particular exhibitor at a show could be attributed to any of the following - if their booth staff wasn't good / were on their phones / talking to people they already knew / were understaffed or had uneducated staff, etc.
Anyone who has been an exhibitor knows how many resources - human and financial - are invested in participating in a show. Nobody takes this lightly, and while not all booths are visually stunning, and not all exhibitors stand out front with a smile waiting for the next guest to come and talk to them - there are many factors at play on both sides - flow, timing, placement of food and beverage, time of day, competing events within the overall program, and reasons the participant has attended and may be interested in talking to or meeting with as examples.
Other shows will deliver success based on conversations which build or grow relationships; others when show education offers a way for thought leadership from the exhibitor to be shared. "Success" requires thoughtful activation and a responsible investment - understanding which shows get a tabletop and a banner with limited staff, vs. the shows where you bring out the big booth and a significant portion of your team, and focus on demonstrations, opportunities available and conversations. For busy people attending a show where the majority of the suppliers they are interested in meeting are also in attendance makes sense from a resource perspective - time and financial. As organizers we need to ensure we allow enough time on the show floor at defined times for there to be adequate traffic flow for both exhibitors and guests - it is more than just a numbers-passing-by game.
To put this in perspective if you don't regularly follow or otherwise know me, I believe deeply in the power of technology and its ability to benefit human interactions. I have been actively using all types of #eventtech for some time. I have been a planner, producer, trade show designer and exhibitor; I have been the organizer and the client and I have also been responsible for spending tens of thousands to create memorable on-floor activations for multiple clients. I have also worked at QuickMobile and been behind the scenes where beacons have been used to heat map entire shows and tracked traffic patterns through a venue, a city and even back to origin airports. This data is used for real-time adjustments as well as future planning by many organizations working with a variety of savvy vendors and analysts to interpret and apply recommendations driven by the data. There are great success stories from PCMA, CES and SXSW who all used beacons in ways that made a positive difference to the experience.
Ultimately success is defined by each person who attends, and perfomance is not defined or defended by a heat map. We need to consider the technology we implement - why and how it is applied to achieve interaction, knowledge retention, contact exchange and data collected within the realm of what is most useful - and take advantage of this ability to measure more clearly the impacts of face-to-face business events.
Hi, Tahira.
ReplyDeleteI couldn’t agree more - success is defined differently by each participant - and heat maps aren’t the key to determining exhibitor performance.
If an exhibitor is unhappy, heat maps are only useful for addressing one objection: “We’re not exhibiting again next year because we didn’t get enough traffic.”
If indeed they didn’t, you’ll know. If they did, then you can start to uncover their real concerns about returning next year.
With all that said, we can’t completely dismiss Steven’s comments: as you mentioned, there are many reasons that an exhibition can fail. Traffic is only one factor and can’t always be blamed.
Either way, I think beacon technology and heat maps are most useful for organizers of large events - they no longer need room monitors and scanners or NFC transceivers - and they can start to measure things they couldn’t before, such as people congregating in common areas instead of being in sessions or in the exhibit hall.
The technology is also more convenient for attendees, as they aren’t burdened with the tap-in/tap-out of NFC or badge scanning.
Oh - and thanks for listening! ;)
Hey John, oh how I can't wait to show up at an event, walk into a room and have my continuing education credits automatically upload to my learning management system for the various certifications that require ongoing updates! Definitely not dismissing the comments, they really made me think again about how we should be using technology.
ReplyDeleteAs for listening - your podcast has lots of great information that helps eventprofs navigate the ever changing world of eventtech - thanks for that! Have a great trip.
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