International Confex, Europe`s largest exhibition for the events industry has announced details of the new initiatives and strategies…
International Confex, Europe`s largest exhibition for the events industry has announced details of the new initiatives and strategies following substantial investment from owners, CMPi. The two track strategy covers both short (to Feb 06) and medium (beyond Feb 06) term investment.
New initiatives include:
- Visitor & exhibitor research
- Trebling the size of the Confex team
- The identification of 51,000 potential new corporate visitors
- Marketing investment to deliver visitors
- A completely new conference format
- Increased visitor movement around the show
- CMPi exhibitor training days
- Closer links with industry associations
Visitor & Exhibitor Research
The qualitative research took place during the summer using focus groups and identified key areas for further investment and improvement. To gain a clear picture of exhibitor and visitor needs, the focus groups were made up of from following:
- Exhibitors
- Past exhibitors
- Present exhibitors
- Non exhibitors
- Visitors
- Corporate
- Agencies
- Associations
The research confirmed that both the Earls Court location and the length of the show are right. Visitors were also keen to stress their desire to be treated like professionals and insisted that travel bribes were unlikely to influence their desire to attend – instead they stated that new ideas, stimulation, networking and education were far more important.
Trebling the size of the Confex team
In addition to a 60 percent increase in the size of the sales team, additional support staff have resulted in a team three times the size of that working on the 2005 show. This growth will ensure close working relationships with all exhibiting companies, whilst giving the marketing team the extra resource to drive new visitors to the show.
Marketing investment, new conference format and visitor movement.
The investment in marketing will focus on visitor identification, visitor delivery and visitor movement.
The visitor identification has included sourcing over 3,000 previously untargeted trade associations. CMPi has also mined their database of ABC audited exhibitions and magazines, identifying over 8,000 potential visitors who have specified event organisation as a part of their role on registration forms. A further 40,000 new names have been identified from their job titles as being likely to organise or specify events – marketers, sales managers, trainers, HR managers etc. The 51,000 names added to the already substantial database is likely to increase further as CMPi mine their database of magazine and show advertisers, many of whom are event organisers and specifiers.
Visitor delivery will be improved through greater promotion and marketing of the show, including an easier to use website, live earlier in the year, greater PR reach and closer relationships with exhibitors to ease their promotion.
The conference, now free of charge, will also be moved to the show floor bringing additional visitors into the hall. It will include one keynote session per day in addition to 22 one hour seminars aimed at educating a full cross section of the visitors.
The research clearly identified that whilst many key visitors attend the show their movement is limited to specific sectors. New initiatives to alleviate this challenge include VIP/Exhibitor lounges, a larger advice centre, corporate business and transport lounge, tasting area, incentivised stand tours, greater networking events and meeting opportunities.
Training days and links with associations
CMPi will be holding exhibitor training days for many of its 40 shows at Earls Court during the time of the show, bringing a substantial number of buyers keen to sources services for their own shows. International Confex is also in talks with various industry associations (such as the AEO) to bring summits and conferences to Earls Court.
International Confex` event director, Duncan Reid: CMPi`s substantial investment in the show has given us the opportunity to take a step back, talk to our exhibitors and visitors and then move forward in a direction that suits all to ensure International Confex continues to be Europe`s best show, delivering the highest quality exhibitors and visitors.
The additional resource not only impacts our ability to service our clients and resolve any CRM related issues, it also gives us the time to create and drive new initiatives that will continue to improve the show for all participants. Although the research confirmed that Confex is a good show, our aim over the next six months is to change that and make it a great show.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
