Splash’s podcast host, Camille White-Stern recently sat down with Miguel Neves of Skift Meetingsto discuss trends and share thoughts about the events industry these days. If you’re a regular listener, you know that the episode topics for Checked In With Splash can vary – some are tactical, some are just fun, and others, like this episode, are chock-full of thought leadership. While we highly recommend listening to Camille and Miguel’s full conversation here, we’ll try to boil down their very insightful discussion so that you can get some key takeaways and gold nuggets of advice.
When Camille kicked off the conversation, one of her first questions was, “How was IMEX?” If you’re not familiar with this event, IMEX is the largest meeting and events trade show in the US.
Miguel formerly worked for IMEX and has attended previous IMEX shows in a variety of different roles. Miguel had the following to say about IMEX:
“It was large.” IMEX had an estimated 12,000 attendees, which got them very close to peak pre-pandemic attendance numbers, which Miguel felt was “very promising” overall. He continued, citing events metrics that Skift has been tracking, and said that “most events are trending at about two-thirds of the attendance that they had pre-pandemic. So, about 65% is sort of the ‘magic number.’”
“People are really busy.” Coupled with the fact that this show was so large, Miguel commented, “I think it's really impressive that all these event professionals were there even though they're really busy.” In a way, he said it was a “huge congratulations to IMEX…but if there is a phrase that I heard a lot at the event, it was ‘Busy!’ and possibly, ‘Too busy!’
So where does that leave Miguel’s perspective on bigger industry trade shows? For one thing, he’s a fan of working to “do better” and not reverting back to the exact same event goals and practices of the past. But he continued, saying, “I think it's also important to be aware that IMEX is a trade show. And trade shows are all about meeting face to face, and meeting on the show floor. That's where the energy is, and that's where you want people to be.”
There’s something vibrant and cool (if not a bit exhausting!) about large trade shows, so while we shouldn’t do away with them, as event professionals we need to think smart about how to maximize their benefits, based on what our company needs are.
Segue that into….goal setting! Setting goals for events is key, no matter if you have 5 attendees or 5,000 attendees. But this IMEX discussion prompted Camille to ask, “Are event professionals just conflating different sets of goals together?” and “Can trade shows be better? Or are they sufficient and accomplishing the goals that we are setting out?”
Here are some things that, based on Miguel’s perspective, events professionals need to keep in mind as we continue on with a shift back to more in-person events:
There are many different types of event attendees. There are exhibitors, hosted buyers, ‘regular’ visitors and buyers, press, faculty, general industry types….even people who are just at the conference to look for a job.
Event attendees have different objectives. Do you want to get answers to a specific question? Do you want to get a high volume of leads? Do you just want a few, high-quality leads? Are you just looking to expose your brand to a wide audience?
Listener tip: Fast forward to 18:12 in the podcast, where Miguel walks through a great branding effort made by Encore at the latest IMEX show.
With so many attendee types and differing objectives, what’s an aspiring event goal-setter to do?!
There’s so much to think about here, but Miguel had some interesting takes that all event marketers should think about for their future event planning:
Things are….different. No one can predict what the best path forward will be, and how best to engage people with your brand. Will people crave in-person events more, since many are working from home and needing those opportunities to network? Or will people grow accustomed to their own unique routines and not want to make the effort to attend an in-person event? Miguel has this to say: “We’re still trying to figure it all out. I don’t know when – if ever – we're going to get past this trauma [of the pandemic]. I think it is quite deep. I think it's really good to just address it, remind people to be kind, and just acknowledge that it’s tough out there and nobody has all the answers.” So true.
More is not better. Miguel said, “I have this phrase that I like and that I try to apply in most of what I do, which is ‘Less is better.’ I like it because it’s not ‘Less is more.’ Because, that always implies that more is better, right? ‘Less is better’ is good because if you want to really stand out for something, I don't think it's about saying it more often. It's about being consistent and focusing on that one thing you want to stand out for, which applies to personal branding, and it applies to businesses and it applies to events.”
Take some risks. The world has changed, so we can’t keep doing things the same old way. Experiment. Take risks. Do things differently. Carpe diem! Go deep and don’t feel like you need to please everyone. He summarized this point well, saying “There are opportunities in trying to do things differently…and I think that's where the opportunity lies. It's high risk, but it's high potential return.”
First step is to open up your favorite podcast app and listen to this gem of an episode!
Also, you can connect with Miguel on Twitter @MiguelSeven or on LinkedIn.
Stay tuned for more awesome, informative, and downright cool episodes of Checked In With Splash!
