Are online shows here to stay?
Having delivered three hugely successful online shows and with a return to live shows on the horizon, where does that leave the future exhibition landscape?
24 Feb show stats
How does that work online then?
The simple truth is that online exhibitions aren’t really new - I’d attended several pre-lockdown. A couple of years back I even looked at designing one for a global brand who wanted a show to appear simultaneously in different international territories. The technology had been around for a while, but the purpose was a little fuzzy, and despite the allure of potential reach and precise metrics it never rose above being a curiosity. Exhibitors just didn’t see it as an integral component of a marketing strategy. Well, not in the way live exhibitions have traditionally been anyway. Live events just seem more tangible, even if in reality they are more of a scatter-gun approach to meeting potential customers.
Webinars were more of a natural fit: the more focused nature is absolutely perfect for discussing singular issues with like-minded folk and already interested parties. However, straight webinars lack the architecture to become shows with all the trimmings, and as such didn’t really fit our content. A show has to house multiple brands and allow simultaneous speakers / events to be appealing for our audience.
Then lockdown happened and as the cold reality set in that live shows were off the deck for the foreseeable future, the possibility of online shows slid back into focus. I’ll refrain from a lengthy explanation of the process, given it’s been covered in previous issues, but suffice to say we knew there was an audience hungry for information and we needed to find a way to deliver it.
As we prepare for our fourth online event I’ve been scrutinising the figures for the three online events we’ve already delivered. Obviously, the figures fluctuate between dates, but even a cursory glance at the stats from our last show on Feb 24 is impressive. The big difference is the day, which tends to be more condensed than our live shows, is geared towards the seminars. At live events, some people attend just to move from stand to stand and build contacts. Although this is very much available at our online shows, attendees tend to be more focused in terms of what they want to engage with. Even without the 'mooch factor' of a live event, our Feb show still saw a total of 2732 unique registrations. That’s 2732 people looking for highly specific advice, skills and content. Given we are a specialist and fairly niche event which occupies the tricky space between B2B and B2C, that is extraordinary engagement in a single day. Testament to the skills of the management team and quality of exhibitors, even if I say so myself.
Like the live shows, we spread the seminars across 4 rooms so there was a nice flow throughout the day. In total there was 1000+ minutes of content available, crowned with a superb ’Stick or Twist’ panel debate chaired by Paul Shamplina - who I’m sure you all know from hosting the great show Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords. As Founder of Landlord Action Paul was the perfect host and panellists were picked from the cream of the UK property community, including Ben Beadle (NRLA Chief Exec), Kate Faulkner (Property Analyst & Commentator) & Jonathan Schuman (MD, Magnet Properties). The aim of the debate was to set out the stall for the next 12 months, given the myriad challenges facing both landlords and property investors. As always it was a lively session and can still be viewed in full via the media section of our website.
The other stat which leaves me catching flies is the number of seminars added to agendas. For those who’ve not used the platform, when you join you are encouraged to build an agenda for the day. Every seminar we feature has this facility, with the aim for attendees to move through the day with some structure. Throughout the day on Feb 24 we had over 10,000 seminar agenda requests. Impressive, however you slice it.
The LIS team post November 2020 Show.
Yes, but what about the future?
I am getting there. Live and online shows both have their unique benefits. Live events are undeniably more of a spectacle. A great venue with rows of polished exhibitors putting their best foot forward is hugely attractive for both sides of the fence. As I alluded to previously there’s the 'mooch factor' as well. It’s a day-out and a fantastic way to build contacts and engage in meaningful face-to-face convos with expert suppliers. Personally, I love the bustle of a busy exhibition, although building contacts is very much an analogue process here. Obviously, we have the registration data, which we can use to help connect people, but it is largely dependent upon face-to-face interaction.
Online exhibitions on the other hand are weighted differently. There’s no avoiding the fact that you don’t get the bustle and atmosphere of a live event and that does mean there’s not as much passing trade. However, they do have huge benefits beyond that. First and foremost, during the lockdown, they have offered safety to all involved. We were hit with a bout of Covid in the office and have lost friends to the awful disease. Needless to say, safety was the premier issue for us. The other huge advantage of online shows is the quality and precision of the data. In the age of Google Analytics, it offers a tangible overview of who connects with what. This is an extraordinary benefit to both exhibitors and attendees as we can connect our audience with services and products based precisely upon what we already know they are interested in. This is just reflective of the modern media landscape and it's great to be utilising these tools for everyone’s benefit at our shows.
In terms of the future, I see it as being a blend of the two. Online events are certainly here to stay, they just offer us another platform that we can use to showcase content to the maximum number of viewers.
In three decades of creating visual and verbal stories, I’ve seen (and adapted to) a lot of change. The first was from the fug of spray-mount and art-board to the brave new world of Photoshop and Apple products. I only caught the tail-end of the old world, and although (sadly) many fell by the wayside in the digital revolution, the thing which struck me was that although the production tools had changed irreversibly, the end product was pretty much the same. The availability of the new technology was unarguably democratising, but it was only ever used to create the usual combo of magazine & newspaper ads, billboards and maybe the occasional TV spot (we shall not speak of the CD ROM). If anything, quality took a nosedive for a couple of years as the more provincial exponents of the graphics industry set about catching up.
Next was the move to online, which was hugely exciting, but the technology was way ahead of purpose for around the first decade. Unless you were in the top-tier of e-commerce vendors a website was something companies just felt they should have, instead of being the cornerstone of your business as it is now. In fact, I’d go on to say that the move online didn’t really impact the aforementioned mix of printed communications for a fair few years. To many of my contemporaries, this offered a sense of false security. As those around me espoused that it was ‘just a bubble’ I quietly winced as I knew a tidal wave of change was coming, and once the genie was out of the bottle it was never going back inside.
The biggest shift by a country mile was the advent of social media and precision analytics. It absolutely turned the way we approach marketing upside down, shook it vigorously, and threw the box in the recycling. For the first time ever connecting with a community became a science. No more guesswork based upon peaks and troughs of quarterly bar-charts. No more overblown campaigns in an attempt to cut across all demographics (NB for the record I still like a bit of overblown advertising). No more looking blankly at a client when they asked how you can support ‘your claims’. You could now track in real-time exactly what was prompting viewer engagement (ie working) and more importantly, what was not. This was real media democratisation, with pin-point accuracy. That’s incredibly powerful when combined with well crafted content.
With all of this in mind, I can only conclude online exhibitions are here to stay. For us, at the Landlord Investment Show, online shows are an invaluable platform. Obviously, there is nothing like a live event for truly connecting. There’s no arguing that people buy from people. Creating that bond in a live conversation is a hugely important part of our philosophy and is still the foundation of what we do - and we’re itching to get back to it. There’s also no arguing that the world has changed forever, and our online shows are now a major part of the exhibition landscape. It’s inconceivable we won’t continue with them as a component. The interesting challenge is how we balance the two mediums. For the National Landlord Investment Show the prospect of combining the energy of live events with the intelligence and immediacy of online shows is as appealing and transformative as any of the above.
Best Online Exhibition
It is with a huge sense of pride which I relay that our November online show was shortlisted by Mash Media’s prestigious Digital Events Awards for Best Digital Exhibition. From a standing start last October, to the Best Digital Exhibition shortlist in six months is quite a feat in anyone’s kindle, and we are absolutely thrilled. Again, it’s the people which make it happen, so we’d like to say a huge thank you to our sponsors, speakers, exhibitors and guests for their support. You can find out more about our forthcoming online show on May 26th and the two live shows in Manchester (12 Oct) and London (26 Oct) via our website. Our London show has an awesome new venue btw. Find out more and register for free admission here.
