Date post: | 05-Aug-2015 |
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WWW .EVENT TECHBR I E F .COM
ART I C L E BY M ICHE L L E BRUNO
I S THE TRADE SHOWINDUS TRY READY FOR
UBER I ZA T I ON ?
@EVENT TECHBR I E F
THE EXH I B I TOREXPER I ENCE
If there is any customer experience ripe for disruption, it is
the exhibitor experience.
From start to finish, the exhibiting process is fraught with
friction—from multiple service providers, manual form
completion, and high costs to complex show-floor logistics
and long walks to the exhibitor service desk.
It is now within the trade show organizer’s power to help
transform the exhibitor journey.
THE S TORY OF
The story of Uber, the international transportation network
a.k.a. ride-sharing company, is well documented.
The company founders recognized the desire for taxicab
customers to forgo a number of indignities: waiting on the
curb, climbing into a germ-infested vehicle, experiencing a
harrowing ride, guessing about the final cost, and fumbling
for payment.
Instead, the company upgraded, digitized, and synthesized
the end-to-end customer experience to an unprecedented
level of success.
EXH I B I TOR CHA L L ENGES
While exhibiting in a trade show is far more complex than
taking a taxi, the process is similarly painful for many.
Exhibitors at trade shows confront a range of challenges
from repeatedly entering and reentering the same
information on general contractor order forms year after year
and show after show to having no easy way to consolidate
purchases from vendors—general contractors, floral, printing,
display properties, promotional products, exhibitor-
appointed contractors, etc.
EVENTR . I O
Eric Schaumburg, the developer of the Eventr.io trade show
marketplace, has created a cloud-based platform that makes
it possible for exhibitors to combine purchases from multiple
suppliers.
It consolidates and digitizes all ordering, invoicing, and
payments. Exhibitors can also track reports, show budgets,
margins, deadlines, tasks, files, and messages.
In the future, he envisions using the
platform to create other efficiencies as
well: finding shows, contracting labor,
or selling exhibitor products,
for example.
EVENTR . I O
Trade show organizers are the key to transforming the
exhibitor experience, Schaumburg says.
By adopting Eventr.io, they gain more control over the
exhibitor journey and visibility into what contractors are
charging and exhibitors are spending—data they can use in
negotiating with contractors, venues, and CVBs.
Organizers get the platform for free. Exhibitors
and vendors pay a small transaction fee for
access through the event website.
EVENTR . I O
Schaumburg believes that his platform could disrupt the
existing ecosystem of general contractors and preferred
vendors with what he describes as an Amazon-style
fulfillment system.
The news is not all bad for those companies though. “General
contractors make very little money on rentals. More and
more of them want to focus on delivering more creative
services,” he says.
They, like many other vendors, could
benefit from renting their properties
through a centralized system like
Eventr.io, he suggests.
EVENTR . I O
The “uberization” of the exhibitor journey, as Schaumburg
refers to it, will compel service providers to think more
deeply about the exhibiting process and address the
fundamental problems. And, disruption will occur whether
the incumbents are ready or not, he asserts.
Already, many small exhibitors are being priced out of
exhibiting and large companies are leaving trade shows to
organize their own events, not to mention the
preferences of a new generation of
millennial exhibitors who will find
the exhibiting process too archaic,
he adds.
UBER I ZA T I ON
Taxicab services existed for decades until Uber turned the
industry upside down with a mobile app and a better way to
do business.
The same thing will happen to trade shows, says Eric
Schaumburg. “Trade shows are great. They are one of the
most valuable activities a business can engage in, but
eventually organizers and service contractors will have to
provide a better experience to exhibitors,” he says.
Schaumburg is hoping that Eventr.io helps to spark the
revolution.