How UFI Global Congress reinforced our vision for trade shows
Earlier this month, we had our first UFI Global Congress as official partners of the exhibition industry association. This year's congress was hosted by Rotterdam Ahoy and Rotterdam Partners for 3 days and gathered around 350 delegates, all senior management from exhibition organizers and exhibition centre operators.
This was an incredible opportunity for Eventmaker to get insights from the industry and share thoughts with our peers regarding the future of exhibitions.
At Eventmaker, we have a conviction: trade shows now need to lead communities all year round to enable better networking and business as well as generate new revenues.
Community was actually one of the two most important concepts which were emphasized at this 88th UFI Global Congress. It has become clear that trade shows are no longer isolated physical moments, they are the climax of 365 strategies made of online touchpoints and onsite events that gather a given community.
We believe that community leading has become the new condition of success for trade shows for many reasons:
- Trade show strategies are considered in a more continuous term
- Online and onsite events feed each other in a virtuous circle
- Customer loyalty is an easier objective to be reached (both exhibitors and visitors)
- Exhibitors have the opportunity to generate leads all year round
- There is an opportunity to create new, complementary business models
- There is room to provide value to all stakeholders at different moments throughout the year
A community platform is the opportunity to sell speaking opportunities (webinars) with lead generation to exhibitors. It is also a way for a trade show to organise live streaming with industry leaders to keep on inspiring a specific market.
The second concept that was everywhere at UFI Global Congress is sustainability. Our industry is now very conscious of its potential negative environmental impact. And we also know that sustainability is key for the future of events, along with the people who are building it. It was really nice to learn about best practices from venues and organisers. Commitment is getting really strong and we particularly want to pay tribute to UFI and the Joint Meetings Industry Council's action, The "Net Zero Carbon Events" pledge presented at COP26: https://netzerocarbonevents.org/
In that perspective, Eventmaker is proud to be in the process of acquiring the ISO20121 certification. It is very important that event platforms are committed and help event organisers reduce their negative impacts on the environment.
Besoin de conseils ?
Vous souhaitez bénéficier de notre expertise pour vous aider organiser un congrès ?
Nous sommes là pour vous accompagner !
Parcourez nos autres articles...
