Business events such as conferences, exhibitions and corporate sports like golf play a key role in the marketing of corporate and line brands to stakeholders like distributors, suppliers and key individuals in a given market.
In some events, such events are combined to provide the participating companies and delegates more value. The usual combinations include conferences and exhibitions, which are known as confexes, and conferences and golf. Sometimes delegates attend conferences as both delegates and presenters or speakers. This article addresses how delegates can assist their companies to put their best foot forward at conferences, confexes and when they attend business events as speakers or presenters.
Once one has been selected to represent their company at a business event, they should begin to prepare for their assignment. This is because attending business events even in the least demanding role of a delegate demands preparation. Attending business meetings means more than just being present and extending one’s hands to receive business cards or promotional products.
Preparations
The first thing that an attendee has to address is establishing the objectives and targets of attending the events. Whether one is attending an event as a delegate, speaker or exhibition minder there are objectives which one has to ensure are met as the event progresses.
Objectives and goals
Some of the objectives attending confexes include launching and demonstrating new products, building relations with distributors and suppliers, increasing brand awareness, cultivating relations with customers and driving sales through generating new leads. Leads which are generated at conferences and similar events are usually qualified.
Attending as a speaker has its own objectives as well. These include positioning one’s company as an expert or thought leader in its industry, explaining how a company’s product has been a game-changer in its industry or how the firm is positively impacting the community that it operates in through corporate social responsibility activities thereby presenting it as a great corporate citizen.
Having objectives in place is good but reducing them to specific targets per objective makes them more meaningful. It makes it easy to measure and assess them post the event. This assists in quantifying the results and even enables one to measure them in terms of the outcome per dollar sunk into the effort.
Specific targets include securing a given number of leads, who are ready to buy, securing appointments for future meetings with a buyer from each of the five major retail players in the country or granting interviews to journalists from all the main business newspapers and television networks in the country after presenting during a conference. With objectives and targets in place it makes it easier to plan for the event by focusing energies and resources on only those things which help the delegate to achieve them.
Budgeting
Specific objectives and targets make it easier to plan for participation in terms of financial resources. Once they are in place, one can list what needs to be done or bought to achieve the objectives and targets.
In a confex there is a need to pay for the exhibition stand, exhibits and other marketing materials such as promotional products, business cards, brochures, banners and media kits. The delegate’s accommodation and tickets also need to be taken care of among other major cost considerations.
When all has been considered and costs established, a budget can then be drawn up. This is used to determine how much is required in relation to how much the company can afford and the necessary adjustments made.
Marketing one’s participation
Merely budgeting for participation in business events is not enough if the delegate does not inform enough people who matter – people whose attendance assists in event achieving goals and targets.
For example, if one of the major goals of attending a confex is to meet potential distributors, there has to be enough of such people at the event to meet the set target. The delegate can improve his or her chances of meeting her target by inviting as many potential distributors as possible by informing them or marketing his or her participation at the event.
The first people to market to are one’s customers through e-mails and Whatsapp messaging among other means. Normally if the delegate and his or her company have high profiles on the market, such messages are spread on the market by word of mouth and through social media. Another way of marketing is through sponsoring one of the sessions of the event such as a breakaway session.
As the event organisers market it, the company’s name will also be included on the marketing material and so will be the delegate’s if she is a speaker. The company’s website can also come in handy in carrying the participation message. Even e-mail signature bars for everyone in the company can also be used to carry the same message.
Attending as a delegate
If one is attending as a delegate only his or her work is less compared to one who also doubles as a speaker or an exhibition stand manager. This is because his or her role only involves attending conference sessions, networking with relevant fellow delegates who have the potential to assist him or her to meet their company’s objectives and targets as well as ensuring that their company’s brand is cast in the best light at all times during the event.
It is important to establish the other attendees who would be present beforehand. This helps to develop a plan to talk to key representatives. One could arrange to talk with speakers, industry leaders and network with other people to achieve their goals and leverage the conference for their company’s benefit.
One way of establishing other delegates who would be attending is checking the Facebook page of the event to see who has responded and commented on the event indicating their intention to attend. There is no harm in checking with the organisers. Some may oblige while others may understandably refuse. If one’s targeted attendees are not from competing companies, one can phone them and ask whether or not they would be represented at the conference.
Although the delegate would not be presenting he or she should be thoroughly knowledgeable about his or her company, its products and services as well as their industry and sector. They should be prepared for questions and how to answer them well. They should be prepared to answer questions on developments in their sector. They should manage the impression they leave as they interact with other delegates as they would always be under the eye of other delegates. Delegates should always be professional because they are the face and personification of the company during the event.
Concurrent exhibition manager
In the case where a company is also exhibiting at a concurrent show the delegate will have to act as the exhibition manager. He has to ensure that the exhibition stand is always manned. Given that he or she has to attend conference sessions as well, it is necessary to have another staff member or members manning the stand but s/he remains responsible for the exhibition effort.
The delegate has to ensure that the stand staff members are well trained in serving visitors as well as lead generation and qualification. They should be knowledgeable enough to answer questions on their brands as well as issues relating to their industry. The arrangement of exhibits should be simple but professional.
There should be a lot of literature especially for those in a hurry who have no time for engagement. The stand should be manned always. Non-essential items like cups, mobile phones, cigarette packets among others should be removed from the stand counter or shelves to make it presentable and professional-looking. The stand staff should not chew gum, fiddle with their phones while serving visitors or eat in the stand. They should not say or do things that would offend someone or reflect badly on the company.
When attending as a speaker
If a delegate is billed to speak during the conference this calls for thorough preparation in advance. They should research on their audience as well as their material. Presentations are followed by question time and delegates should prepare for this. Their paper should address their audiences’ expectations.
Most conferences run under a theme. The speaker should try as much as possible to ensure that their presentation material is within the confines of the theme. They need to practise with their team to improve their confidence with their material. When the presentation time comes they should ace it up like a professional bearing in mind that they not doing it for themselves only but their company as well.
Networking
Whichever role a delegate is attending a business event as, networking remains very important in meeting both personal and company objectives and targets. It is advisable not to wander off the conference venue to keep in contact with other attendees. One should be armed with many business cards but only hand them out to someone who asks for them. One way of getting someone to ask for one’s business card is to ask for theirs first.
To make the most of networking at events, delegates should speak to as many people as possible and asking them as many questions about their work and business as possible. If one is part of a delegation from one’s company, it is prudent to split so that the team speaks to as many people as possible. It should be remembered that networking is about developing contacts for future relations and possible sales. It should therefore not be used to drive sales lest the candidate and his or her company would be regarded negatively as too pushy and too sales-oriented.
In everything that the delegate does he or she should be professional, enthusiastic, motivated and energetic. He or she should remember that he or she is under constant watch from other companies’ delegates. Therefore they should watch their actions and words always to ensure that their company always puts its best foot forward through them.
Follow-up and evaluation
The end of the conference should spell a period of rest but this is not the case. It is time to sort out and prioritise promising leads for follow-up. This means sending more information, booking meetings or delivering samples and so on. It is time for phone calls to fellow delegates and exhibition visitors who showed interest in the company’s service or goods.
Business events are also about potential business opportunities. The post-event period is also about assessing for exploitation the opportunities that one may have discovered at the conference and planning how to exploit them.
During the planning stage, one needs to come up with objectives and targets and after the event, the delegate needs to evaluate which of the objectives were achieved and the targets met. This means establishing the number of leads generated in relation to the figure expected. Where targets were not met, it is important to establish the reasons.
It also means checking the increase in contacts in relation to what was expected before the event and the same with sales achieved. One could calculate the value of each achieved parameter in terms of how much it cost to achieve it. For example, how much did it cost to secure each contact or lead.
Happy business events participation.