Just imagine…

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Just imagine …there are no conferences, tradeshows, exhibitions and corporate events. A blank page.

I know, it’s hard, but you can do it.

Then imagine you are sitting at home, thinking about your work, the subjects you really care about, the friends you have made over the years, the people you met in other countries, during your education, school, neighbors, family… What would it be like to invite all or some of them to meet, mingle and work towards a common goal?

How would you combine the experience, knowledge and ideas they share or have hidden in the back of their minds? How would you make sure that they would all have a great time AND learn and grow? What could they come up with?

Just imagine. At first chaos, and then some sort of order? Or the other way around? Groups and smaller groups evolve naturally, or a need of leaders to step up? Will you group people as you have met them, or mix business contacts with childhood friends? Or your older relatives with the neighbors children? Maybe just see what they come up with themselves?

Will they meet face to face, or online? In a building or on the beach? Will they show and tell, or just talking and discovering shared hobbies and experiences? Maybe playing a game….

How will you all get the most of it?  

And THEN realize there ARE conferences, tradeshows, exhibitions and corporate events. Are they different from your imagination? Somehow I have a feeling, that you will have thought of something out of the ordinary, something that you haven’t tried before. A new mix of people and settings.

Then it is time to start a change.Turn a page. And now’s time to do it. A new year, new ideas and lots of imagination.

Happy innovating!

Shared experiences

Remember that session when the speaker turned a tech failure into a tech success?  Or the ICCA network event when we tasted Dutch herring? Or the great fun we had in an Amsterdam pod connected to EventCamp Twin Cities?  

Well you probably do not – unless you were there.  But you have other memories  of events and tradeshows much like mine.  And more of them , I know most #eventprofs  get out a bit more than I do :-) . But that is not my point here.. it is about the power of events.

We share the same experience of venue, program, tradeshow, booths, sessions. The event provides a common ground, a framework and a shared interest even before we say Hello.

We are all out of our comfort zone, in a different setting, out of our day-to-day routine. That makes us more eager to connect and reach out to others.  And if we  already know people from previous events, even better. Than we can add another chapter  to our joint story.

That is why events, conferences and tradeshows  are so effective and irreplaceable. You do not just remember  the content and innovations, you also include the people you meet . They become a part of the story, and often turn into long term, valuable relations.

And  we keep running into each other. Through face to face meetings  maybe, but also online. We connect and re-connect in the events LinkedIn groups, on its Facebook pages, websites or via  hashtags. Giving us another umbrella to build relationships.

In fact the phrase ” long term relationships through a shared experience” was one of the tweets I sent  during an online event, the weekly #expochat that  @tracibrowne invented .  Another  way of building relationships…and a great way to share experiences!

Probably this topic was  inspired by the festive season, peace on earth, bringing people together and all that, but nevertheless it’s true.  

So any resolutions for next year? Adding to the story, I guess. Happy 2014!

Let's keep in touch!

(workblog) 

The other week I was going through some old files, just looking if there were any data or details that I needed to get into the main database. And it struck me, that these pieces of paper really showed the big changes we have had in communication and connecting. In a way, a history just like the rings on a tree.  Busy years with a lot of letters and brochures , and slow years with almost no communication at all.

The best files are the oldest ones. You can see a change in pace, vocabulary and technology instantly.

We used to send letters in a very formal tone of voice and keep the carbon copies of them. So the file of association X starts in the ‘70’s, with these formal  letters and replies. If there were urgent issues, a telex was sent.  In the 80’s things were getting less formal, but we still kept in touch via letters. The occasional fax message appears in the files. Funny thing,  we had to put in a request  to send a fax and needed to get approvals  signed by  a manager before we were entitled to send it….imagine.  Then in the 90’s, communication via internet kicks in. The latest entries in file X are printouts of important e-mails, a signed contract (yey!)  and a message to check the database. Hah. I feel like an archaeologist.

Interesting to see how we connected with our customers and stakeholders over the decades.. . next to face to face, obviously. 

Did we do a good job? Probably…but it’s a new world now. We are connected all the time. We talk via mail and social media, via whatsapp and other tools, wherever we are - mobile and  free. We are updated  on a real-time basis, and are used to getting  answers to our questions even before we send them..

In 2013, “let’s stay in touch” means keeping the conversation going all the time. It means being in touch with machines, objects and  services, as well as talking to friends, delegates, companies and clients.  Whoa. Talk about connecting…

What does this mean for the events industry? How do we merge all these connections into our face to face meetings? We are talking with delegates, exhibitors and other stakeholders on a day to day basis. How do we do that?  Are we truly connected all the time?

I often see events with “see you next year” banners at the exit . Pretty old skool, don’t you think? I hope to see  “see you tomorrow” pretty soon…

(inspiration for this blogpost came from our  new Connected Society report.  Made me feel both nostalgic AND anxious for the future J . If you like, have a look and let me know what you think: http://www.rai.nl/en/amsterdam-rai/News-Press/nieuws/Pages/Connected-Society.aspx

Exhibitions say more than a thousand words

First of all: I am really proud of the research we (my company and partners) just concluded. It is a study under Gen X and Y visitors of trade shows and exhibitions. We wanted to know what makes them tick. What do exhibitions and trade fairs mean to them?

I have to say, even though we all belong to one generation or another and can predict  some of the answers, the results  were pretty amazing. We matched the answers with overall generational trends and studies, and this gave some interesting points of view. If you want to check out the research, you can do so here: Gen X & Y research

So what is my point in this post? 

Well…as I was reading through the results of the study, one thing really struck me.

A thing that I wasn’t aware of or did not think about before. A simple thing, really.  Just the word: exhibition. What does it say? What does it mean to you? What image or feeling, which sentiment comes to mind?

An exhibition or an event? Searching on images gives an idea.

As it turned out:

Gen Y sees a possibly  outdated product. Just in the label “ exhibition” or “trade fair”.

Hm. Do they have a point?  Truth is, no matter how much we engage in renewing and reinventing the product, the overall word has stayed the same. We added hybrid components, apps, interactive features, show-and-tells, talks, peer-to-peer sessions, experiences, surprises, communities, a whole new live look, feel and world……but still call it an exhibition. Or a trade fair. 

The content might have changed, the label did not. 

As a result our potential Gen Y visitors have an old idea about a new product. Wow, that IS something to think about.

So I am wondering…should we include the terminology in our reinvention package? Add a new vocabulary to reflect the new meeting architecture and exhibition design?

Anyway, food for thought . Should we  give "trade fairs" and "exhibitions" a new image, a new interpretation? Or do we need to come up with new brands to make sure that generations to come will find excitement and learning in events that we used  to call trade fairs? 

What are the words that sum up an exhibition?

I bet we can come up with more than a thousand!