It won’t surprise anyone to say that when UFI and Explori teamed up to analyse the email survey responses from exhibitors at 1,040 trade shows, asking how they would improve their event experience, the majority asked for more people to attend their stand, followed by an increase in overall visitor numbers. Exhibitors pay good money to be at the biggest events.
What might surprise you however, is the fact that venue shortcomings (quality of food outlets, parking and ease of build-up/break down) and organiser shortcomings (communication, exhibitor manuals etc) generated 20 and 16 per cent of suggested improvements respectively.
As we discussed in part one of this feature, the findings of UFI and Explori’s Global Insights report indicate a correlation – not a causality – between the size of an exhibition and exhibitor satisfaction. Small events (1,000 to 3,000 visitors) typically contain 13 per cent dissatisfied and disloyal exhibitors, while large events of more than 25,000 visitors have 18 per cent.
Chief executive of consultancy JWC, Jochen Witt, addressed his concerns about drawing any connection between event size and satisfaction in my precursor to this piece, but what can we do to ensure that as shows get larger they don’t lose sight of their clients’ basic needs?
To continue reading this article on the UFI Live website, click here.