We offer solutions to help organisers of events. From strategic planning, to new launch proposals or relaunching existing events, acquisitions, business plans, budgets, research of visitor and exhibitor markets, space sales, sponsorship, marketing, event coordination and coordination of feature areas and seminars.
You often get so close to your show, that you can have the attitude “if it’s not broken, it doesn’t need fixing”, or just running out of new ideas. If you are not staying ahead of the market, your shows can start to grow tired and fail. It sometimes needs an outsider to help sit in on your strat planning meetings and offer new ideas.
So you’ve got a great idea for a show, but don’t have the time to research whether it will work or not, so you leave your idea sitting on the top shelf. Trouble is if it really is a good idea, your competitors could beat you to market and take over the market share.
We can research your potential idea thoroughly and provide recommendations to proceed or not. We will conduct a market analysis, including market size and positioning, key drivers and trends, opportunities and growth potential, competition, market needs for exhibitors and visitors, visitor buying practices, potential partners and key exhibitors. If you’re convinced it’s a winner, we can help write the business plan, marketing strategies and prepare the budget.
In making evaluations of proposed acquisitions, we look at a number of things that include but are not limited to: synergies with and impact on your current portfolio of events, market trends and needs, market dominance, market growth, competitive events, partnerships and sponsorships, marketing, sources of revenue and total revenue, sources of costs and total costs including direct and indirect labour, other operating and indirect costs, visitor profile, size of visitor universe, quality, numbers and retention, exhibitor trends, numbers, size of exhibitor universe, quality, profile and retention, pricing policy, average sqm cost over the past three years.
We can undertake research with existing and past exhibitors, existing and past visitors, the strength of partner relationships and make recommendations to acquire or not to acquire.
As we well know, shows can by cyclical or they can be dying. Are they costing you money or no longer fit your profitability model?
We examine your existing events, much the same as we would approach an acquisition. We examine everything in minute detail, attend your strat planning meetings and rewrite your business plan with our recommendations of what needs to be changed to turn your show around.
Show Managers always seem to be rushed and leave their business plans to the last minute. It usually ends up being a rewrite of the previous years, the budget shows little change except to allow for a CPI increase and they don’t take the time to think.
We can help. We can look at your business plans and find gaps or offer alternative suggestions to enhance your shows. We can look at revenue and costs and help you increase your bottom line.
Do you want to dig deeper and know more of what your exhibitors and/or visitors think of your show? We can arrange focus group research to smaller groups or provide a wide net of market research outside your normal surveying. We’ll give you a report providing recommendations and solutions to improve the quality of your event.
Do you need help with sales? At the end of the show cycle, sales seem to take two steps forward and one step backwards when cancellations start coming in. You often need additional sales support to hit budgeted sales targets. We can provide last minute staffing to help get those final sales over the line.
We can also bulk buy space one month before the show, and onsell it for you at negotiated rates.
Does your staff focus all their time on space sales and neglect sponsorships? We can organise sponsorship training for sales staff to get them revved up and confident about selling sponsorships. We can help with sponsorship planning, sponsorship guidelines and identifying sponsorship benefits. We will look at your show offerings come up with ideas for sponsorships, help write sponsorship plans, and sponsorship proposals for you. We will even match up the sponsorship proposals with potential sponsors or approach them on your behalf.
Need some extra help with marketing? We can recommend the right media in regard to your target market, negotiate rates, help you with creative, write your press releases, editorials or help you put together your show guides.
If you need help with administrative tasks, we can provide you with assistance. From preparing your critical path and timelines, chasing contracts and deposits, data entry, find you leads, data entry, put together exhibitor manuals and coordinate exhibitor service requirements, setup and manage the organiser’s office on site, handle exhibitor and visitor enquiries,prepare exhibitor badges, liaise with contractors, prepare on site exhibitor kits, liaise with sponsors, source logos and images, look after your direct mailing, design exhibitor sales kits, compile and send exhibitor newsletters, proof reading, and post show reports and post show evaluation.
We can help develop your features, from design, to sourcing the build, co-ordinate the development of seminars, programs and speakers, as well as onsite management of your feature areas.