Are you committed to finding ways to add value and implement new ideas for your trade show program?  In this interview with Christine Gahler, Convention Manager at Medtronic, we discuss the value of the convention channel.  The face-to-face opportunity makes it a unique way to reach the highest number of people in a short period of time.  Sometimes it can be easy to have the mentality “if we build a city they will come” and it is time to do more proactively to drive meaningful attendee traffic to your exhibit.  Christine shares how important it is to make sure your staff is meeting with the right people and come up with new ways to integrate meetings for each exhibit experience. Find out how you can apply proven strategies to enhance the value of your trade show program in this episode.

In addition to adding value, you will discover ways to expand results if you are a destination booth on the show floor and how to stand out from the competition. 

“Numbers can be an elusive thing-not everything you measure has value”- Christine Gahler. 

Christine asks the question-while we can track how many people walked through the exhibit, is that the most important measurement or does it really matter the 10 people you had meaningful conversation?  Companies should focus on increasing the number of key interactions by having scheduled meetings to measure and be able to watch the customer journey. 

5 Ways to implement what you learn and Take Action!

1. Create hands on experiences. Christine works with Cardiac and Vascular groups, where there are a lot of hands on demos which is critical to the purchasing decision.  There has been an increased interest by attendees to learn in an Innovation Lab setting, where future technologies can be shared.  Creating an innovation lab can be private for VIP attendees only.
2. Focus on showing attendees what they care about most:

• What’s new
• What’s coming
• Innovation application

1. Implement multiple ways to show endorsements. When you plan testimonials, it is important to know the attendee landscape and understand the customer. Live interviews may not be for every type of attendee. People don’t always want to be videoed.
2. Know how people make buying decisions. Think about you as a consumer and how Yelp is used.  People look for reviews and want to know what other people think.  We are all human after-all-and people look for information to evaluate buying decisions.
3. Integrate data to underscore your product or company’s value.  For some attendees, what matters most is data- sometimes even more than testimonials.  Your convention strategy should be tailored to specific audiences.

Overall trade shows have a huge impact on our economy.  People crave now more than ever when making a big decision, to see a product and have a conversation.  More important than ever before is the need to make genuine connections.  Attendees want to really feel they are being heard and have someone interact with them.  Surgeons for example, like to make comparisons and having a hands-on opportunity which is different than watching a video.  Only at trade shows is there an opportunity to interact with a specialist and product engineers and be able to get answers to complicated question.

Looking to find ways to create value for your program or have a question about our topic today?  Reach out to me at Rock Your Trade Show

Gratitude: A big thanks to Christine Gahler for meeting live at HCEAConnect and sharing her insights live in person!

Credits: As always, thanks to Christy Haussler at Team Podcast for editing this episode.