Smart card technology transforms exposition dynamics.

No need for the educated guess. Now you can know what is happening, where and when, on the floor at any given moment.

The purpose of most exposition events is the simple objective of bringing buyer and seller together, face-to-face, so that a sales transaction results, either immediately or down the road.

For the first time in the history of expositions, technologies are changing the ways we manage these events because they are making it easier to collect data about what transpires on the exposition floor.

On some level, show managers have been able in the past to determine which events were successful and which were not--for example, by knowing how many visitors attend an event. But it has only been in the last two years that anyone could conclusively say what visitors do once they enter the show.

A radical statement? Ask yourself if you can quantify how many visitors to your show visited all of the exhibits, some of the exhibits, or none of the exhibits? Can you tell an exhibitor how many visitors were interested in certain types of products or services? Can you tell your exhibitors where aisle traffic was light or dense?

Chances are quite good that you can't provide the answers to these and many other questions with any real accuracy. But growing numbers of show managers can provide these answers thanks to smart card technology and many are routinely providing this valuable marketing data to their exhibitors today. Show managers who cannot or will not provide this form of added value to their exhibitors will soon discover the reality of Darwin's Law--the survival of the fittest.

Visionary show managers now engage in demographic and market research of some kind for each of their show events. Visitors are routinely surveyed using a variety of techniques. Stationing interviewers at exits and in aisles with clipboards is common, but so are new and very sophisticated electronic tracking devices.

A powerful advantage

Smart card technology has a distinct and powerful advantage over information gathering systems used in the past because it provides a macro-picture of what has taken place on the show floor--not only a record of who has visited exhibitors' booths.

Each visitor to the show receives a credit-card-sized plastic card that has a computer chip containing up to 512 characters of personal demographic information embedded in it--typically, data that has been collected off the registration form. The real value of the smart card is that, unlike earlier technologies, the progress of each visitor to a show can be traced if each one inserts his or her smart card into a card reader that each exhibitor can rent.

Many show managers include the cost of the smart card reader in the cost of exhibit space so that it becomes part of the booth package, thus ensuring total coverage of the show. The advantage of full coverage is that the show manager obtains macro-information about the dynamics of the show floor.

The International Association for Exposition Management, Indianapolis, furnishes each exhibitor with a card reader and each visitor with a card. As visitors travel through the show, they insert their cards at each stop; IAEM offers prize incentives to do so.

We analyze key aspects of the show to make improvements and better manage the next event. For example, we need to know which areas of the show floor have better traffic flow than others. Knowing this will allow us to make changes to the floor that will even out traffic.

Placement of food or beverage counters, for example, can materially change traffic patterns. Placing live demonstration theaters in less-traveled sectors of the floor may increase flow. But unless we can know for certain what happens where and when, we are, at best, making educated guesses.

That's no longer necessary thanks to smart card technology. Consider just one possible application: IAEM divided its '92 EXPO EXPO show floor into nine sectors and then analyzed the results reported via smart card transactions.

Key results

The entrance to the show is front and center, ordinarily the place where all exhibitors want to be located. Yet in analyzing booth interactions that took place during our show, the most activity took place in the sector located in the right rear sector of the hall. In fact, the entire right side of the hall developed significantly more traffic than anywhere else. The activity in the front center sector made it the worst place to be.

This information allowed us to modify the design of the next show so that traffic flow was more evenly distributed. To truly understand what is happening in this show, we needed more information about why people moved through the hall as they did: in a counterclockwise direction.

IAEM research documents that this is common in United States--based shows. In South Africa, on the other hand, trade show traffic routinely flows clockwise. Orientation of driving habits--right side versus left--may have something to do with this preference. To find out, IAEM included the question of hand orientation on its registration form for its 1993 exposition.

We also surveyed the top 10 lead-producing exhibitors of the 1992 show to determine why they were so successful, concluding that 85 percent of them engaged in preshow promotion. Without the data created by the smart card system, however, we wouldn't even have known who the top 10 lead-producing exhibitors were.

New insights

Applying the data we collected in different ways also gave us new and important insight into why certain things happen at shows, including ours. We stumbled across a phenomenon that we think is quite important. It has to do with correlations between the size of the exhibit and the type of buyer. IAEM determined that "power buyers"--those who have and use decision-making authority--tend to visit larger exhibit booths. We arrived at this conclusion by correlating average leads per booth to different booth sizes.

In IAEM's show, the 400-square-foot exhibits captured 66 percent (43) of the power buyers present on the show floor. Compare this finding to 100-square-foot exhibits, which captured only 58 percent (11) of the same group. While this is a small sampling, our examination of six other shows--all considerably larger--validates our results. So one conclusion of our early research is that if an exhibitor wishes to attract the attention of the power buyers at a show, a larger booth presence is a good technique to employ. Consider the marketing implications of this information: Armed with such empirical data, the association show manager theoretically can anticipate greater success in selling larger exhibits.

These kinds of developments couldn't have been more timely. A major trend is the increasing sophistication of exhibit managers. Generally speaking, those organizations that invest sufficient resources and personnel in exhibit-marketing techniques are finding that exposition marketing can be extremely cost-efficient and effective.

Greater understanding

Using smart card technology has allowed us to view our show in a new and refreshing way. We can understand, for the first time, what is happening, where and when.

The "when" aspect is critically important for both show managers and exhibitors. Knowing when traffic will ebb and peak allows us to provide adequate staffing and to save a great deal of money--not to mention wear and tear--on our exhibit booth personnel. We measured our show by the hour of the day and discovered several interesting and important patterns.

We discovered that during the opening hours of the show, the larger exhibit booths tend to attract more visitors and hence, generate more leads per square foot. As the day progresses, attendance at large exhibits falls off and visitors go to the smaller exhibits.

Measuring this same dynamic in the other shows revealed a similar pattern. In multiday shows, however, power buyers returned to the larger exhibits late in the day--presumably to close the sale after having visited smaller exhibits in the middle part of the day.

The use of smart card technology provides critically important insight into what would otherwise be invisible phenomena. A good example is the presence at some trade shows of "buying teams." We have known for some time that some buyers follow the practice of sending more than one representative to a show; some send several. We never knew what each of these individuals actually did at a show once they hit the floor, so we didn't understand that sometimes teams of buyers operate in coordination with each other.

We learned that teams typically visit designated exhibits, then come together another time to compare data and conclusions. They return to the show floor for one last look before making their purchase decisions.

An exciting age

Based upon the astonishing technologies that seem to appear almost daily these days, it isn't too far-fetched to suggest that we have only discovered the beginning of what is surely a new and exciting age for professionally managed expositions--a time when the power of imagination will surely take us to new and fascinating discovery, however, comes the responsibility to recognize the power we possess. For this reason, the exposition industry must address new and potentially complex ethical questions that the availability of this sort of information raises. Many questions--like who owns the data and what constitutes appropriate use versus an intrusion into personal privacy--have yet to be adequately addressed. These issues, however, should not deter us from continuing to use the means we now have to better understand how exposition events truly operate. Smart card technology will enable us to host better events that meet the needs of both attendees and exhibitors.

Innovative association show managers who embrace these powerful new tools surely will profit, undoubtedly at the expense of those who fail to do so. The association trade show of tomorrow truly is here today.

HIGHLIGHTS

* MARKETING RESEARCH is changing the rules.

* SMART CARD TECHNOLOGY provides a macro-picture of what takes place on the show floor.

* DATA CAN PROVIDE INSIGHT into buyer traffic patterns in many different areas, such as what type of buyer is attracted to larger exhibits.

A Look at Virtual Reality

Technological innovations will continue to present new opportunities to exposition managers. Consider virtual reality, for example.

This technology involves the use of computer technologies to illustrate events or phenomena that might otherwise be difficult or impossible to view or even imagine. Scientists use virtual reality to visualize the composition of subatomic particles, physicians use it to look into the human body, and computer game manufacturers employ virtual reality to create highly sophisticated computer simulations.

To use virtual reality, a person wears a specially equipped helmet containing two miniature television screens. The proximity of the screens to the person's eyes approximates three-dimensional vision.

At the same time, the person seizes control of fully programmed computer graphics with a hand-held joystick. The image transmitted to the two television screens responds to changes that result from the manipulation of the control stick or panel. The combination of three-dimensional vision and the ability to control the graphic environment opens new doors to both reality and imagination.

How long will it be before associations find ways to start using virtual reality at their trade shows? The International Association for Exposition Management offered a brief demonstration of virtual reality technology at its December 1993 trade show EXPO EXPO. IAEM hopes in the future to be able to use the technology to "transport viewers" from its trade show floor to the site of its next major meeting and to allow visitors to register for the show.

The Evolution of Lead-Retrieval Systems

Exhibitors need to qualify prospects. The simplest and least expensive way is to collect business cards from visitors to the booth and make notations on them. Ironically, 80 percent of exhibitors fail to follow up on these leads.

Several decades ago it become relatively easy to furnish each visitor with sheets of peel-off labels containing their names, addresses, telephone numbers, and perhaps some additional qualifying information. In lieu of, or in addition to, collecting business cards, the exhibitor took a peel-off label and placed it on a catalog label or envelope for mailing to the prospect after the show.

The next step in the evolution of lead-retrieval systems came when name badges could be encoded with cryptic messages containing certain demographic data designed to tell exhibitors instantly about the person visiting their booths. A five- or six-digit series of numerals or letters or both could identify a key buying influence as opposed to someone who was not a decision maker--information that is important to know if your exhibit time is limited, and it is, during an exposition event.

During the 1950s and 1960s, plastic embossed identification cards appeared on the scene and made the identification of prospects somewhat easier. This system furnished each exhibitor with a card embosser, which is similar to a credit card machine. Visitors' names, addresses, and some demographic data, could be captured quickly and inexpensively in the time it took to run a card through the embosser.

In the mid-1980s electronic magnetic stripes made their exposition debut. Ideally suited for larger events, the advantage of magnetic stripe cards or badges is that the encoded stripe can contain more data than just a visitor's name and address. The cost of this type of system, of course, is substantially more than coded name badges or plastic card embossers, but the quality of information that can be retrieved is superior.

In addition, the magnetic stripe reader unit can be connected to any one of a number of electronic devices such as a PC, laptop, printer, or electronic storage device. The information thus collected can later be manipulated in a variety of creative ways to provide excellent post show promotion and analysis.

Bar coding, as you routinely see in grocery stores and retail establishments, is now commonly used as a lead-retrieval device for expositions. Some systems simply assign each visitor with a numeric code identifier that is keyed to a corresponding attendance list. The bar code is printed on the visitor's name badge, and a portable scanning device reads the bar-encoded number, thus providing the exhibitor with a name and address record of those who have visited the booth.

More sophisticated two-dimensional bar code systems actually contain the visitor's name, address, telephone number, and other relevant data. The cost of these systems is relatively low, but the information that can be scanned is relatively limited, usually up to 300 characters of information.

Editor's note: Steven G. Hacker, CAE, will present "Forecasting the Future of Expositions," on which this article is based, Tuesday, March 8, at ASAE's Management & Meetings FORUM '94, in Washington, D.C.

Steven G. Hacker, CAE, is the president of the International Association for Exposition Management, Indianapolis.