These insights come from the latest SITE Pulse survey from the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), which focussed on trade shows and business development. This iteration of the survey had the highest response rate to date, garnering 747 responses.
“A full appointment diary can represent very different ambitions for the people sitting on either side of the table,” said SITE’s head of consultancy and research, Pádraic Gilligan.
“For an agency, the most valuable meeting may be with a trusted partner who understands its clients.
“For an exhibitor, the priority may be meeting a buyer for the first time.
“Understanding those expectations can help everyone make better use of their time at a show.”
micenet does note however, that for buyers there was no equivalent to sellers’ desire for lead generation in the survey – it appears there was no response option for product discovery, which may be a significant priority for buyers at trade shows, if they’re looking for inspiration.
The interpretation of the SITE Pulse survey results honed in on 657 responses from buyers, hotels and suppliers, destination management companies and destination marketing organisations and convention bureaux.
In the responses from the buyer segment, when asked about the key aim of attending industry trade shows, 43.3 per cent of buyers said they attended to grow their existing relationships. This was the most commonly cited purpose amongst buyers.
When considering just the buyers from agencies and incentive houses, this relationship-building intention was even higher – 52.4 per cent of respondents in these two buyer groups said this was their highest priority at a trade show.
However, corporate buyers indicated they are also looking to close deals at trade shows, with 25.7 per cent saying this was their top priority, while 24.8 per cent wanted to strengthen relationships and a further 17.8 per cent were going for education and development reasons.
For all types of sellers, lead generation and building the sales pipeline was the most commonly cited purpose for trade show attendance: 44.4 per cent of convention bureaux and DMOs were chasing this outcome, alongside 43.4 per cent of DMCs and 38.7 per cent of hotels and suppliers.
Attending trade shows for the purposes of education was not a widely-held top priority. Just 9.3 per cent of buyers and sellers collectively selected this as the most important reason for their trade show attendance, with buyers responsible for propping this average up – amongst sellers groups, attending trade shows for education was a top priority for less than six per cent of every seller group, and for most, considerably less than that.
“Education represents a substantial investment of time, budget and expertise for trade show organisers, so its relatively low ranking deserves attention,” said Gilligan.
“These findings raise a question about how that investment contributes to the outcomes buyers and suppliers value.
“Organisers need evidence of whether education influences attendance decisions, improves professional practice or contributes to business results, alongside measures of session attendance and satisfaction.”
In good news for the likes of IMEX, IBTM and the Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME), most buyers and sellers expect industry trade shows to become more important – across both groups, 59.5 per cent believed these shows will grow in importance.
The SITE Pulse survey found that cost and budget constraints are the biggest challenges of trade show attendance, with respondents from Asia Pacific in particular flagging this as an issue, highlighting the importance of AIME as the region’s largest local show.
