Trade Show Anti-App: Expo Swipe User Digital Platform UX

As a former global exhibition exec, I used to travel around the world observing attendees at all of our events. While attendees differ per event, there were always a few similarities I could count on:

Attendees frantically looking for registration numbers as they check in
Event staff begging attendees to download the show app to manage their time at the show
Attendees asking for “show guides” on site because they did not like the apps
People walking around with crumpled pieces of paper with hand written notes on what booths they have visited
Annoyed attendees that did not “know” that X vendor was at the event or that Y speaker was leading a session

Couple this top 5 with the stress and hassle of meeting your room blocks and F&B minimums, managing on site issues and more and you have the quagmire that is known as show production. While it can be awesome, there are also a ton of moving parts that can jam you, your staff, your exhibitors and your attendees up.

Searching for the Grail
The so called “holy grail” (excuse the religious reference) for show producers is to try and get the revenue/profit numbers you can create with a live event via a digital platform. For years this has been attempted through event apps, web sites, newsletters and more, all with staggering fail rates.

Consider trade show apps as the lowest hanging fruit to achieve this, because no one wants another news site with banners, pop up ads and suspicious content that smells like an old school advertorial. While a great concept, they are all heavy with peripheral content, show floor diagrams, in-app interactive features, deep speaker detail and they just feel laborious to navigate. Literally, I would have attendees say, “OK, I just want to know where X vendor’s booth is or what time Y speaker is on stage, and this app is making me do too much–do you have a printed show guide i can use?”

Making Apps/Digital Work
The other key thing is getting a sales team to sell digital and app sponsorships–they are awesome booth and sponsor sales people but selling the digital stuff is always a bit tough. Further, it is hard to manage the business model for digital and app products because the event P/L has always been based on a fixed cost (venue space) and booth revenue (once I cover the costs of the venue space then all revenue drops to the bottom), and the digital/app costs are less fixed.

The Expo Swipe Why
This is why we wanted to create an anti-app strategy with Expo Swipe–an easy to use and navigate platform that enables engagement from the attendees perspective with the exhibitors and speakers at the show. Complete with the ability to search by exhibitor name, explore by category or simply swipe through all of the exhibitors and speakers, here is what you get:

Each exhibitor has their own Expo Swipe screen including:
– Image of their product/service/solution
– Videos from YouTube to tell their story
– Logo & booth Number
Attendees can interact with each exhibitor through their screen via the following actions:
– Connect Now: Sends a pre formatted email to the exhibitor from the attendee requesting a meeting before the event
– @theshow: Sends an email and calendar invite to pick a time to meet at the show from a google calendar created for the event
– Swing By: Creates an alert in the attendees calendar to make go by the exhibitors booth
– Bookmark: Saves the exhibitor in a list to refer back to :
Each Speaker has their own screen with session overview and “attend” button for attendees

All of this creates a personalized show agenda which can be sent directly to the attendee as a branded PDF to complement their calendar. Or, if they do not want that much detail, they can just use it to explore and discover who is at the show by swiping through all of the exhibitors without using the engagement tools.

The Business Model (built on expo business rules)
OK, final point on this blog is the business model–Expo Swipe is a fixed cost based on the number of exhibitors at an event, and it works like this:

100 or less exhibitors/sponsors: $15,000
101-300 exhibitors/sponsors: $30,000
301-500 exhibitors/sponsors: $40,000
501-700 exhibitors/sponsors: $50,000
700-900 exhibitors/sponsors: $60,000
901-1200 exhibitors/sponsors: $70,000
1200+: $90,000

Now for the beautiful part:

Package is $1,000 per exhibitor (more or less based on your square foot/meter prices)
Create your P/L based on closing 20% as a minimum and scale from there
– Example of a mid size event with 400 exhibitors/$40K hard cost
– 20% is 80 exhibitors: $80,000 in top line digital revenue with $40,000 in gross profit
– 30% is 120 exhibitors: $120,000 in top line digital revenue with $80,000 in gross profit
– 40% is 160 exhibitors: $160,000 in top line revenue with $120,000 in gross profit

For all of my show producer friends, I know you get it and this S2UI innovation is ready to roll–so hit me up if you want one customized for your show!

We do all of the heavy lifting for you: