Post by Trade facilitator on Sept 21, 2014 22:59:16 GMT 1
Online exhibitions save money and promote your business to an international audience, but can they replace face-to-face networking?
It’s not difficult to see why virtual trade fairs (VTFs) appeal to small businesses. It’s often cheaper for SMEs to exhibit their products and services and reach international customers, compared with a traditional trade fair.
Virtual trade shows are a relatively new phenomenon but have become more widespread since 1993 (when the term was first coined during a presentation by Visual Data Corporation’s Alan Saperstein and Randy Selman in New York) thanks to the online revolution, says David Allmond, co-founder of marketing strategists Peppered Moth.
“You don’t need to be an IT whizz to set a booth up, run it and ensure a stable return on investment. Although their structure mimics the conventional fair, they can vary,” says Allmond. “Some can resemble ordinary online directories, while others offer sophisticated 3D-based technology.”
According to the report Virtual Conference and Trade Show Market Forecast 2013-2018, the market is expected to expand by more than 50% globally every year until 2018. It states: “We’ll see explosive growth in all market segments: it is just a matter of time before the virtual events world and the trade show world merge to create the next generation of events – a hybrid of the old and the new.”
Some entrepreneurs have already spotted the gap in the market. In 2010, a San Francisco-based company called Hyperfair was set up by Marco Campanari and Max Bonfanti, specialising in creating virtual expos, trade shows, career fairs and conferences. Campanari and Bonfanti had participated in a number of physical trade shows globally but they felt these were often expensive, time-inefficient and complicated. They also believed small businesses could reduce significantly the cost-per-lead ratio, by generating leads at a lower cost. In 2012, they launched a virtual trade fair tool that combined the benefits of attending a show in person with digital technology.
Stuart Morris, lecturer in entrepreneurship at Henley Business School, believes small businesses waste a considerable amount of their annual budget in transporting the product to trade fairs, flying staff to events, setting up the exhibition stands and entertaining potential clients. Morris says: “I often see overall bills of over £50,000 for even quite modest set-ups and most companies ignore the cost in their staff time. Setting up, manning and then breaking down the stand takes an awful lot of time. I’ve seen a lot of large stands with major corporates with overall bills approaching the seven-figure mark.”
The costs of creating a virtual trade fair vary, according to Morris: “Virtual trade shows are cheaper to engage with than physical shows. For a start, the cost to exhibitors is much less – typically £2,000 to £6,000, depending on the event.” He also stresses the time-saving nature of virtual trade fairs. “Unlike a physical event, your staff don’t have to be out of the office and otherwise unavailable during the event. They can be at their desks getting on with useful stuff until someone turns up to the virtual booth.”
Swiss private bank Lombard Odier decided last year to embrace 3D technology and held the world’s first virtual 3D financial fair, Virtual FinFair (with the help of Hyperfair). Olivier Collombin, head of Lombard Odier’s independent asset managers for private banking and founder of the e-merging platform, said he initially met with some scepticism when creating the virtual event: “I think some of my peers were reminded of Second Life and were put off. But really the Virtual FinFair is an upgraded social network environment, and it saves our clients travelling to Switzerland, booking a hotel, and the jetlag.”
Collombin said last year’s event attracted more than 600 avatars and 33 exhibitors from 30 countries during a period of 13 hours – with an average time of 3 hours and 40 minutes spent in the FinFair. Participants also exchanged 5,400 business cards and 4,000 messages. He says: “This year’s event [held on 24-25 September] will be open to professional delegates and private investors, and has attracted almost double the amount of exhibitors – around 60 – compared to last year.”
There are many things for a small business to consider when using 3D virtual technology or hosting a virtual trade fair, but it doesn’t suit all types of product or business. David Kong, marketing director of tile company Surface Tiles and Domus Tiles (whose clients include Battersea power station, architects and interior designers) says his company doesn’t use virtual technology due to the nature of the product itself. Kong says: “We have many products with lots of textures and surface variation, indeed, one of collections is three metres tall, which would be quite difficult to view in a virtual trade fair context due to its sheer size.”
Kong says that if the company were to choose a virtual platform in the future, it would opt for a virtual 3D tours of their showrooms incorporated as a function on their website. He says potential customers would take a 3D virtual tour of their products via a webcam, allowing them an idea of the texture and colour of the product before visiting their physical showrooms in London.
Deborah Spencer, director of lightjunction, a trade fair dedicated to leading lighting brands such as Anglepoise, Marset and Zero, believes the best way to interact with customers is by attending a physical trade fair. Spencer says: “Prospective buyers want to touch and feel our products on display. They don’t have time to trawl websites. When they come to the lightjunction exhibition, (part of the designjunction hosted during the London Design Festival) they want to have the full experience and we also as a business want to have face-to-face client interaction for sales and marketing purposes.” Spencer says the first lightjunction in 2013 attracted 30 exhibitors, rising to 45 lighting brands this year.
A properly managed virtual trade fair can benefit small businesses, but it does have to be suitable to the product and sector. It gives companies significant cost savings and also allows them to track sales and marketing data in real time. While virtual trade fair technology is in its early stages at the moment, it has the potential to revolutionise the traditional trade show industry in the future.
Source: www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/sep/18/virtual-trade-fairs-future-small-businesses
It’s not difficult to see why virtual trade fairs (VTFs) appeal to small businesses. It’s often cheaper for SMEs to exhibit their products and services and reach international customers, compared with a traditional trade fair.
Virtual trade shows are a relatively new phenomenon but have become more widespread since 1993 (when the term was first coined during a presentation by Visual Data Corporation’s Alan Saperstein and Randy Selman in New York) thanks to the online revolution, says David Allmond, co-founder of marketing strategists Peppered Moth.
“You don’t need to be an IT whizz to set a booth up, run it and ensure a stable return on investment. Although their structure mimics the conventional fair, they can vary,” says Allmond. “Some can resemble ordinary online directories, while others offer sophisticated 3D-based technology.”
According to the report Virtual Conference and Trade Show Market Forecast 2013-2018, the market is expected to expand by more than 50% globally every year until 2018. It states: “We’ll see explosive growth in all market segments: it is just a matter of time before the virtual events world and the trade show world merge to create the next generation of events – a hybrid of the old and the new.”
Some entrepreneurs have already spotted the gap in the market. In 2010, a San Francisco-based company called Hyperfair was set up by Marco Campanari and Max Bonfanti, specialising in creating virtual expos, trade shows, career fairs and conferences. Campanari and Bonfanti had participated in a number of physical trade shows globally but they felt these were often expensive, time-inefficient and complicated. They also believed small businesses could reduce significantly the cost-per-lead ratio, by generating leads at a lower cost. In 2012, they launched a virtual trade fair tool that combined the benefits of attending a show in person with digital technology.
Stuart Morris, lecturer in entrepreneurship at Henley Business School, believes small businesses waste a considerable amount of their annual budget in transporting the product to trade fairs, flying staff to events, setting up the exhibition stands and entertaining potential clients. Morris says: “I often see overall bills of over £50,000 for even quite modest set-ups and most companies ignore the cost in their staff time. Setting up, manning and then breaking down the stand takes an awful lot of time. I’ve seen a lot of large stands with major corporates with overall bills approaching the seven-figure mark.”
The costs of creating a virtual trade fair vary, according to Morris: “Virtual trade shows are cheaper to engage with than physical shows. For a start, the cost to exhibitors is much less – typically £2,000 to £6,000, depending on the event.” He also stresses the time-saving nature of virtual trade fairs. “Unlike a physical event, your staff don’t have to be out of the office and otherwise unavailable during the event. They can be at their desks getting on with useful stuff until someone turns up to the virtual booth.”
Swiss private bank Lombard Odier decided last year to embrace 3D technology and held the world’s first virtual 3D financial fair, Virtual FinFair (with the help of Hyperfair). Olivier Collombin, head of Lombard Odier’s independent asset managers for private banking and founder of the e-merging platform, said he initially met with some scepticism when creating the virtual event: “I think some of my peers were reminded of Second Life and were put off. But really the Virtual FinFair is an upgraded social network environment, and it saves our clients travelling to Switzerland, booking a hotel, and the jetlag.”
Collombin said last year’s event attracted more than 600 avatars and 33 exhibitors from 30 countries during a period of 13 hours – with an average time of 3 hours and 40 minutes spent in the FinFair. Participants also exchanged 5,400 business cards and 4,000 messages. He says: “This year’s event [held on 24-25 September] will be open to professional delegates and private investors, and has attracted almost double the amount of exhibitors – around 60 – compared to last year.”
There are many things for a small business to consider when using 3D virtual technology or hosting a virtual trade fair, but it doesn’t suit all types of product or business. David Kong, marketing director of tile company Surface Tiles and Domus Tiles (whose clients include Battersea power station, architects and interior designers) says his company doesn’t use virtual technology due to the nature of the product itself. Kong says: “We have many products with lots of textures and surface variation, indeed, one of collections is three metres tall, which would be quite difficult to view in a virtual trade fair context due to its sheer size.”
Kong says that if the company were to choose a virtual platform in the future, it would opt for a virtual 3D tours of their showrooms incorporated as a function on their website. He says potential customers would take a 3D virtual tour of their products via a webcam, allowing them an idea of the texture and colour of the product before visiting their physical showrooms in London.
Deborah Spencer, director of lightjunction, a trade fair dedicated to leading lighting brands such as Anglepoise, Marset and Zero, believes the best way to interact with customers is by attending a physical trade fair. Spencer says: “Prospective buyers want to touch and feel our products on display. They don’t have time to trawl websites. When they come to the lightjunction exhibition, (part of the designjunction hosted during the London Design Festival) they want to have the full experience and we also as a business want to have face-to-face client interaction for sales and marketing purposes.” Spencer says the first lightjunction in 2013 attracted 30 exhibitors, rising to 45 lighting brands this year.
A properly managed virtual trade fair can benefit small businesses, but it does have to be suitable to the product and sector. It gives companies significant cost savings and also allows them to track sales and marketing data in real time. While virtual trade fair technology is in its early stages at the moment, it has the potential to revolutionise the traditional trade show industry in the future.
Source: www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/sep/18/virtual-trade-fairs-future-small-businesses
