I am not always available

When you are managing a booth there are going to be times when you cannot just simply walk away from the booth to meet the demands of someone else. What I am trying to explain is when some has taken it upon themselves to try and get possible sponsors or speakers for a community.

I understand that we are always looking for the various sponsors or speakers, but you also have to understand the people that are running or involved in the booth cannot simply walk away from their duty at the booth to talk to someone that you think might be a possible sponsor/speaker.

Last year when we were at the booth there was someone from within the community that took it upon themselves to talk to various booths. At first it was nice when he would come back to the booth to get some to possible scan the person but after a little while it started becoming that he was demanded our time when he had someone that he thought we could talk to.

The outcome of all these conversations what that we didn’t get any possible sponsors or speakers which didn’t help at all. So here we are going into the next year, and this same person has demanded me to give him a list of the people that he spoke to last year. Well, there is a huge problem with that as we do not keep track of when we scan someone and who is doing the scanning. There are times that we are scanning a bunch of people, and it might be at the booth, and it might be somewhere else, but we don’t know where it is happening.

If you want to help, find possible sponsors or speakers and the best thing you can do is to talk to a booth and pick up a business card and give them to me, so that I can get to speak to them when I have time to walk away from the booth. Also, I never said that I would get you a full pass, all I said was I would try and see what happened. If you didn’t get a full pass maybe that is because there were other things that happened that you didn’t see.

How events/conferences are changing

We recently went to an event and noticed that the size of the booths has started to decrease in size. I think a lot of that is due to the price of a booth has been increasing and the business that you get from an event may not be increasing compared to the price increase.

The other thing that is changing is the items that are being given away at events. You are no longer seeing t-shirts or items like that being handed out freely because of the cost of them as well. I think that other thing that is deterring companies from having a nice give away is that there are quite often a few individuals that show up and their entire purpose is to see what items they can get for free. So many of these individuals don't care about the company or product at all, they just want is the item that is being given away. 

It can be difficult for any company to have a booth at any conference because there are so many additional costs that they must also think about. It isn't just the cost of the booth; it is being able to have the individuals available to man the booth for the entire time of the conference.  Do you need to put staff up at a hotel and provide them meals to be at the conference or are they local and the only thing you need to do is provide them with the ability to man the booth?

All conferences have been changing and some events there were free in the past have now started to charge you to attend because so many people were only there for what they could get for free. It didn't matter if it was a meal or a drink or just a lot of items available from events.  I am not complaining about the events that have had to start charging to attending because there are a lot of costs that attendees don't realize that the organizer is incurring.

Too many t-shirts

When you go to conferences, especially those with vendors and a vendor area, you will discover that one of the items that are given away will be t-shirts. Of course, these t-shirts are going to be advertising the company that you got it from but for some people, it’s free, so I need to have it.

Yes, what is interesting is seeing how many t-shirts you can get at a single conference, because you could possibly come home from a two-day even with enough t-shirts to last you for over a week and that is wearing each t-shirt for only one day. T-shirts are also interesting because there are so many different qualities of shirts. We have received t-shirts at conferences that are nice, and you want to wear them quite a bit and then there are the t-shirts that you wear a couple of times and then they either stretch out of shape or wholes start to appear.

For us, we don’t get a lot of the t-shirts that are being given out because over the wears we have got quite a few, and we will only wear t-shirts that apply to what we do for our business. We have been to some events, and you can watch some attendees just grab all the different t-shirts because it means that they don’t have to purchase as many t-shirts to wear in the summer months.

Yes, t-shirts do some in handy and have those t-shirts that you can wear when you are working around the house and don’t want to ruin a good t-shirt are nice. I have received t-shirts that I could wear as a night shirt because they are either extra-large or even extra-extra-large and given, I only wear a medium t-shirt they are extremely large on me. We will talk to the vendors that we want to talk to and if they happen to have a t-shirt that we think we might wear, we will accept it, but we will not stop at a vendor for no reasons besides just getting the t-shirt.  I have too many t-shirts, and I need to ensure that I only have enough t-shirts that will fit in one section of my dresser.

T-shirts are ok, as a giveaway but remember you don’t need every t-shirt from every vendor that is at each show because you are going to be seeing these same vendors at multiple shows through the year. Yes, I will wear some vendor t-shirts but we both don’t need any more t-shirts so it’s time to go through those shirts and maybe say goodbye to some of those older shirts.

How conferences have changed

We were recently at a conference, and I can honestly say that it has really changed since the Pandemic. What I was noticing was that there were a lot fewer people at it. I am not certain if it was weather related or the location of the conference. This conference was in downtown Toronto, and I figured it would have good attendance, or at least that is what I had hoped.

I know that, even for the two of us, it was a decision that we made the day of the event. When we first talked about the event, we were going to be heading down right after rush hour so that we could spend the day down there. The morning of the event we had a decision to make and that was are we going down as planned, going at all, or going for just part of the day? Sure, our own desire of going to this one event had changed, so we needed to sit back and figure out what was best for the two of us and our business.

The result of our decision was we went for just part of the day and spent the morning at home/office getting some work done. It was nice to be able to have that time to get some work done and then head down. When we got to the event, the first thing that we noticed that it wasn’t as busy as we were expecting. Of course, we arrived when some of the sessions were in, but even after the sessions let out it didn’t feel busy at all.

We did stay through to the end of the event and the prize draws, but didn’t win anything. The one thing that I did notice that even during the prize draws that wasn’t the normal crowd so that was very different. The event was pretty good, and I know that we didn’t talk to a lot of the vendors, as there weren’t the one there that were of a big interest to us. Now to see if there is going to be the fall event next year or not, I guess we will have to see next year what happens.

Events have changed since the Pandemic and the biggest things are the number of vendors that are at the shows but also the number of attendees. The price of running an event has increased a lot with insurance and all the other things, and when you must pay staff to travel and man a booth it can become too expensive if you don’t get the business from the show.

Events and conferences continuing to change since the Pandemic, and they will continue to change as businesses change how they find customers. For now, we will attend the events and conferences that we can if they feel that they will also be of an advantage to our business and customers as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Conferences, how they have changed

 

So, the conference cycle has started again, and it looks so much different than it did prior to the Pandemic. We were recently at an event which before had a lot of vendors as well as a lot of attendees. This time, the number of vendors was way down, which made it a little disappointing to attend. The number of attendees also seemed to be way down, and I think that is because so many people still don’t want to go to events that could be crowded.

The other thing that I noticed at this event that the number of physical things that you could see was way down as well. I understand that it has become more of a virtual world but if you are offering phones or services or other equipment it would be nice if you would have the equipment so that I can see it. Pictures or plastic copies of the items just doesn’t cut it.

Being able to talk to some of the vendors is nice when the show isn’t as busy so that is one of the advantages that I am seeing, but it also means that the vendors aren’t making as many connections so probably not going to be making a lot of money from attending the conference and paying the cost of having a booth.

The other thing that has been happening, and I heard it again at this conference, is there are a bunch of events all on the same day, so people must decide which one they are going to attend. This does make it hard, especially if you are a reseller or provide managed services because it means you could miss the best opportunity because you decided to go to one event over another.

It is going to be interesting to see how conferences are like even in another year because I think more and more of them are going to be going virtual only because then you don’t have the cost of a booth or the cost of staff to man the booth. The staff can remain at their desk (either at home or in the office), so any travel is eliminated. I hope that not all conferences go virtual because what is also important is the networking that happens between attendees.

Yes, conferences have changed, so now to see what they are going to become in the future.

Have conferences moved to being more virtual?

You have probably noticed that over the last couple of years, a lot of conferences have figured out how to present them virtually. I know that there is still the want and need of having some conferences in person, but having the ability to have virtual conferences does mean that more people are able to attend without having to incur the large travel expense.

Here are some of the pros and cons that I see with the virtual conferences:

Pros:

• Reduced travel time and cost for attendees, vendors, and speakers
• Ability to attend the parts of the conference you want to attend but also manage work demands
• Ability to be in the office in case of an emergency happens
• Vendors don’t have to incur the cost of having swag at their booth
• Sessions can be taped to ensure there isn’t an issue for real-time presentations.
• Sessions can be viewed at times that work best for the attendee, especially if there are multiple sessions at the same time they want to attend.

Cons:

• Not being able to meet face to face with vendors, speakers, and other attendees
• Not being able to interact during the presentations, normally can only do it through a chat or Q&A feature
• Not having the opportunity to focus on the conference because you are still at work.

Of course, there are going to be pros and cons for both virtual and in person conferences, and I think it is something that we all need to figure out what works best for each of us. Some businesses are going to like the virtual conferences for their staff a lot more than the in person, but they are going to have to figure out how to let their staff attend without all the distractions of still being in the office. I know that I have heard that some businesses still expect the person to be answering phone calls, emails and all the other distractions when attending the virtual conference. If a business is going to encourage virtual attendance at a conference, they need to think that the person isn’t available that day unless there is an emergency.

Conferences have changed for the foreseeable future, and having the ability to attend virtual conferences around the world means that staff can get the training that they want and need without having to travel. Sure, there are going to be pros and cons about both the virtual and in person conferences, but having the opportunity to attend more without travel does sound nice right now. A virtual conference can also help you continue to meet your personal/family needs without being miles away.

My one question that remains is have Virtual Conferences replaced most in person conferences? My answer is that I am not sure about that, but at least for now I think we will have a blend moving forward.