Today in my bid to make B2B events more attendee centric, I want to talk about exhibitions, trade shows, expos because I think they are really stuck in a rut. They seem to be just doing the same things, the same outdated tactics year after year. But I am not an expert on these. So I need somebody to join me today. And I'm going to talk to Lee Ali He is the driving force

behind Expo Stars Interactive, which is a trade show performance agency. And his job really is to help exhibitors elevate their engagement strategies, to make sure that the people that come to their booths actually become qualified leads. Now, Lee knows trade shows inside out, but of course he is coming at it not from the attendee perspective so much, but from the exhibitor's side.

So we talk about why so many trade shows are stuck, how this focus on sales first is really missing the mark and why the real success really is gonna be from the genuine human connections and delivering real value to attendees. So there is plenty of resonance here with what I'm always banging about, making events better by putting people first. Now my experiences of trade shows

are loud, noisy, frenetic places, I feel, fake inauthentic conversations, a sense that if you are potentially just a visitor, you're very unimportant to most people. A lot of that sort of, I'll talk to you for a second, but waiting for someone better to come along who's a better lead, all that kind of thing. And it feels just mad, rushed, crazy.

my perspective of them and they feel like places that just don't care about the human being. so obviously I told Lee that and then I asked him why, why trade shows are so stuck, so old fashioned, so difficult.

think trade shows, it's one of those things. It's like Marmite, either you love them or you hate them. what I love about them is the opportunity to create those one -to -one serendipity moments,

And that's what exhibitions really for me represent, They're an opportunity to get in front of the right people at the right time and in the right place it's a fantastic opportunity to create new conversations.

Mm

And a lot of people see exhibitions as a sales process. And I see exhibitions as an engagement and educational process. And the statistics are that 89 % of attendees go exhibitions, conferences, learn something

how they can overcome their challenges in their business or to achieve something. if you embrace that as an exhibitor and as an attendee, it becomes much more enjoyable. Whereas if you go with the mindset that you've got to find customers, that you've got to sell, sell, sell to generate those leads, to scan those badges, then it becomes a very cumbersome process.

if we don't actually have a process of approaching these exhibitions, what tends to happen is we collect all these cards or the badge scans, we come back to our office and we try to connect with people and guess what? They actually ghost us.

because we didn't in that conversation get to the heart of the matter. we didn't actually create that common ground with that person. that emotional bond. and the advice I give to people can seem very counterintuitive when it comes to trade shows, but

you've got to approach it from a human first level because...

We've, as you know, Claire, we've been accustomed to technology getting in the way of human connections. Okay. And I'll give you an... I know. Absolutely. Yeah. So there was an issue on my end, there was an issue at your end, and then all that got in the way of really good conversation. and it's the same with exhibitions.

We nearly didn't get online today thanks to technology, did we?

everybody's tried to push their with exhibitions. We have obviously the show organizers who trying to sell the floor space and try to sell as much of it as possible to you. Then we have the exhibition stand builders who are actually trying to sell you the biggest, the brightest and the shiniest booth But no one has actually taught us

the process of how to exhibit and how to get a positive return on investment. And here in the UK, believe it or not, we don't actually have a formal education process about how to achieve success at exhibitions. In the US, we have certified trade show marketers program, which is a three year degree into the world of exhibitions.

looks at everything from strategy to engagement to measurement and selecting the right booth staff and all of that. But here in the UK, what tends to happen is people get given the responsibility of organizing a trade show, but they actually have no experience and they have no education about how to set up the process. They just do what's been done for the past 100 years, right?

They just do the same as last year. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, same as last year. So I think this is the challenge that a UK, Asian markets, they have to deal with is to get out of that comfort zone and really look trade shows in a completely different light.

It's hard to do that though if you've got to deal with all the same structures as set up. people, most people are used to doing what they do, even if it's not very good, they'll just think that's what they do. I was really shocked when I was exhibiting for the first time that all this extra stuff had to be paid for.

like scanning machines, which I hate by the way, I know you're not a massive fan either, they all had to be paid for. So was all just felt like people were just desperately trying to get your money as an exhibitor So you did feel when you were there, I've got to make all this money back. You were talking to the attendees, almost not, you weren't even interested in what they wanted because you just needed to get some return on investment. And I can see when I go to people's stands as well.

You

They'll take my card and I'll say, well, actually I'm not buying today. I'm not, I'm not actually in a buying role. I'm an MC and they'll go again. They'll chat with you for a bit, but half the time they're looking over your shoulder for someone who might be buying. So they're missing a fact that I actually am a contact and I know people, but then they haven't even listened to me because then they will, as you say, send me a load of stuff afterwards that shows they weren't listening to me. What they should have done is build a relationship with me, seeing who I do know, who I could have introduced them to and that kind of thing. So.

They're missing the trick, but then also me as a buyer or a visitor, if I was a buyer, half the time, what am I supposed to be doing when I get there? Just trying to meet a good person who might be able to help my business in this sea of booths. It feels like there needs to be education both ways.

absolutely. as an attendee, most people are going to exhibitions to learn, how to run their business effectively or look at solutions that they might need in their business. But as exhibitors, we approach it from a sales perspective, OK, because as soon as we commit that twenty thousand pounds or fifty thousand dollars to that exhibition, we're under pressure to get those numbers.

the number of sales leads, but the sales leads are defined completely wrongly, because it's any and every conversation counts as a lead. I went to a show here in Manchester Central. It was a technology show

We're interested in reviewing our CRM system and actually optimizing it. And there was a company there and I was quite interested in what they had to offer. And I got talking to the representative on the booth. I asked all of them meaningful gave them my challenges and they answered back in terms of how they could actually help.

because they were under pressure to get as many leads as possible, at the end of the conversation, they actually forgot what the conversation was actually about. And they said, can we scan your badge and somebody will get back to you.

you

frustrating and such a wasted opportunity!

Absolutely, and there's me giving all the buying signals. And then all I get at the end of it is, can I scan your badge? And that comes from the psychology of setting up teams, at the booth, just to scan as many badges as possible because the metric is that we need to get 200 leads, 200 names, 200 business cards, .

Even if they're not even good sales prospects, they're not even actually, you've not even done basic qualification.

Absolutely,

So the key is to understand, first of all, how does your exhibition strategy align with your business growth,

then the second element is to understand your target audience. once you've understood that, is to look at your customer journey, before, during and after the event. define your KPIs in terms of what you want to get out of the show. And it's not necessarily the number of sales leads. And number five in our process is really understanding

and developing a follow -up process that is going to be engaging and stop people ghosting you after the event. we don't get taught about this, but it's so, I call it common sense exhibiting. And it seems that technology companies, the exhibit builders, the show organizers are so intent on

And this is quite controversial, obviously, and it might lose me a few friends.

I love it when people say that on this podcast, when they say, well, I'm going to say something now that will lose me friends. you're like, yes, that's what we want to hear. Because we've got to be provocative around this, because otherwise nothing will ever change.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. And I just wish that organizers, exhibit builders really have those conversations with the exhibitors and say, are the outcomes that you actually want from the show? And let us help you get there. And what I find, and we work with obviously all the stakeholders in the industry and exhibit builders are busy taking orders from

Yeah.

the exhibitors, , they're asking them like, what do you want? And then they're courting for the prices, but they're not challenging their customers, in terms of asking them, well, why is it that you need three AV stands? Why is it that you need all of these kiosks? Why is it that you want a water fountain on the booth? Or why is it that you need a coffee machine? And so on. So nobody actually starts with asking

What does the customer journey look like on the booth?

because everything has become down to the pounds, shillings and pence, hasn't it? So that's what they're measured on as well. So it's almost like everybody's measured the wrong way. So they're measured on how much extra crap can you sell these exhibitors? How much extra bit of plastic or bit of lectern more plugs or whatever. even if the people don't need the plugs and then they're all freaking out next year when the same people don't rebook, but they haven't understood why they haven't rebooked.

we were on a call recently, weren't we? We were on a panel and we could see everyone was getting it. And yet I know, because these are all people that I'm part of an association of, that they'll forget that on the day when they're back in the room, it'll all become about, I've got to get leads, I've got to scan

It's almost like we've become institutionalized that way.

absolutely. And we get a lot of our hard moments, you know, in our training when they realize that the process is it's not rocket science. It's just good common sense, business knowledge, if you like.

And you say, right, next year, I want to grow my business by 20%. how much of that is going to come from my trade shows?

say 10 % that equate to a value of maybe 50 ,000 pounds worth of new business will be from that trade show. how many leads do I need, to get that 50 ,000 pounds worth of pipeline,

so 50 ,000 might equate five customers. Then you'll need five leads. So working your way back to get five sales, you might need to do 10 proposals. To get 10 proposals, you might need to do

40 presentations. To do 40 presentations, you might need to have 80 sales leads. To get 80 sales leads from those trade shows, to get that 50 ,000, you need a plan. You need a customer journey.

And what does that journey actually look like? How do I say hello? How do I actually attract them to the booth? Okay. What kind of marketing do I need to do before the event to get people to know that we're actually exhibiting at that show?

How are we going to educate them? How are we going to qualify them? What kind of information are we going to collect? And what does the follow -up process look like? So all of that starts from the moment that you actually do your business strategy review for the next year, when you actually look at your business growth plan. And businesses don't really take that focus because they'll get a phone call from the organizer and say, we've got some fabulous space.

We've got a deal for you. If you book, you'll get 20 % off the space if you book within like seven days. And then go ahead and commit to it. And then they'll leave it. And then maybe six weeks before the event, all hell breaks loose. And we say, my God, we've got this exhibition in six weeks. What the hell do do? Yeah.

And we've done nothing, yeah. You know what it makes me think of? You know like when you're walking with a load of friends at night or something and it's in the dark and everyone's being cool and then someone screams and then everyone screams and everyone's scared and everybody runs and nobody knows why they did it. and then nobody's very happy. Nobody's had a good time. Everyone's freaking out and it's like that's what it

Yeah,

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's because of the disorganisation, it's because of the lack of strategy, , and it's lack of clear understanding of why people are actually exhibiting, . And again, over the past 17 years, when I asked the question, why are you exhibiting? Do you know what the most common answer is? It's because number one, it's because we've always done it.

trade shows feel like to me.

I dread to think.

Yeah, oops.

And number two is what will the market think if we don't exhibit?

Yeah. And there's a big FOMO thing, which is really great for the people selling space, which is I'm not going, why am I not going? and everyone's, I should be going. I'm really trying to resist that with IMAX Las Vegas at the moment. Cause I want to go and I want to see all the people but I can't really justify it from a business point of view. But every part of me is going, want to go. And you could see if somebody did ring up.

Yeah.

Absolutely,

not that I'm going to be exhibiting, I'm more a visitor. If someone rang up with some amazing deal, even though I've said it's not a business choice for me this year, I could see myself going, but, but, but, just, you know, because they've done that. So it's very clever,

Yeah.

And event organizers have actually learned to actually harness this fear of missing out, because that's what drives the crowds,

again, from an attendee point of view, it's the same principle why I'm actually going to the what business purposes are going to serve, and then what are my golden objectives as an attendee, what usually happens is when

you get all the marketing collateral, everything seems great, ? Because you're going to meet your next big opportunity, you're going to meet all the right players, you're going to meet some celebrities even, ? You're going to hear them speak, ? But what you tend to forget is that, especially if you go to an international exhibition, you're making a good three to four day

But what happens when you get there? You're tired. You're exhausted from the jet lag, especially when you go to events in the US or the Far East. Then there's the overwhelm. When you walk into the exhibition hall, you've got so much stuff happening.

the seminars going on, you've got all the sensory overload of the exhibition hall with all these exhibitors. you almost become overwhelmed and you kind of get lost and there's all of these exhibitors trying to, you know, coax you into their booth,

So you need to make a plan before the event you've got to set yourself objectives and then also look at who are the people that are actually worth talking to on the booth and actually seek them out.

Again, one criticism I have of the organizers is that there is no organized matchmaking. they know who the visitors are, they know who the exhibitors are, they should ask what the exhibitors want, want. And then they should be asking what the attendees want.

attendee once.

And I can't believe that there's all these algorithms out and they still haven't figured out how to connect the right exhibitors to the right attendees.

I agree with you. And I also think, you know, why aren't you helping the attendees have a better experience there they appreciate now the extra sensory bit. There's a little bit more of help there. There's the buddy buddy system. There's the better maps. There's all of that, that's slowly improving. But if you actually find out where people come and all they sort of say is, well, people come for the education and the networking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

but they don't make the networking any better. And actually, if you're just coming as an attendee and you maybe haven't got budget to buy, but you might be coming for the education you're almost like a sort of third -class citizen.

absolutely,

I also wanted to ask you about

Yeah.

a client I work with, for example, may be having a conference and there'll be a trade show element to their conference. So it's not like they are the whole thing, is it? But there's people who've paid money for a stand somewhere at this event, be it 20 stands, five stands, 400 stands, whatever. And always part of my job is get them down there, get them into the stands, get them there, make sure that, and then I'm like, well, you're not giving them very long. You're giving them an hour for lunch.

and they want to have a lunch and they want to have a break, then you're also expecting them to go to the trade shows in all their breaks when actually they probably want some fresh air. And I feel like you want this money from the sponsors and sometimes the sponsors or the people paying for these stands are also going to be part of the content and the education, which is a whole other.

Yeah. Yeah.

conversation because half the time then the content that they're producing is very salesy. It feels like that's all being done really badly. And I, end up annoying the attendees trying to get them to go there. And then the people who've bought stands are quite frankly pissed off because not enough people are visiting them. That's all being done wrong.

my particular feeling is that if companies are exhibiting at conferences and they only have 45 minutes first time, I would actually just say, really look at what the audience is there for. Okay, so their primary inclination is to come for the education,

why are you spending thousands of pounds for potentially two hours worth of first time? And that face time is then interrupted by lunches and there's no motivation for those attendees to visit

Really look at that and make sure that you use that effectively. Okay. So have plenty of like pre -planning in terms of your marketing messages and have something on your booth that makes people want to make your booth a destination worth visiting.

And that is not a bowl of quality street, which is what some people seem to think it is. Dear God, help me.

Exactly. yeah, absolutely. it may be that maybe you want to do like a mini presentation on your booth, , like a follow on from something that you've actually discussed at the symposium. give additional content on the booth and give people a positive reason to come and talk to you.

The thing is, I know that clients listen to this and event planners are going, shut up, you two. This is a money spinner. We need these people. What can we do to make it something that everybody's gonna win from?

Yeah.

You

Yeah, education. Okay, let's make the whole industry education -led,

So of the things that we're doing right now is working with organizers and exhibit builders to make exhibition strategy, to make education a vital part of the onboarding process, So if everyone takes time to understand their clients better, and ask them why they're exhibiting, what their goals are,

then we can do something to actually educate them and take them on that journey with us. And say, right, this is the best practice. Okay. This is our recommendation and offer a personalized service where, you know, people feel valued. The feel listened to. And if you're helping them achieve results, guess what? Everyone wins because if they've had a successful show, they're going to come back.

because you know when you've actually had a good show right because immediately you'll see right we've had 15 great conversations that are actually going to lead into Discovery meetings

doing a session in October called Exhibit to Education, whose responsibility is it anyway?

So we've got universities, for example, who are doing event management degrees, but trade show exhibitions aren't even on the agenda in any of the modules. Then we've got, absolutely shocking, and then we've got our trade associations, where the best education is a page on their website with a couple of videos.

This is shocking.

And then we've got the exhibition organizers who may have like an exhibitor day where they do the best practice. But What they're doing is showing people the processes about how to order the furniture, So if everyone took...

time and they upskilled their salespeople, their account managers and actually supported people with the end in mind in terms of what they actually want to get out of the show. I think the whole industry would I'm talking like 30, 40, 50 % virtually overnight.

you've got so much advice for the exhibitors on how to do a better job, but it's also the people that are enabling the exhibitors or working with the exhibitors need to really understand the exhibitor's journey and look after them to make things better. That was such an interesting way of looking at it, thank you, because obviously I don't see it from that point of view, So it's good to see what all the kind of...

Absolut.

little components are that make it up and where it's going wrong. And I guess as individuals at the moment, we've got to take huge responsibility for how successful the trade show is for us, rather than just sit there and think, the organizers haven't done that or the exhibitors haven't done that. It's actually, as an individual, whatever level you're going in that and however much money you're spending to be at that exhibition, you make it happen. It's like life, isn't it? Stop blaming everyone else. We make it happen.

Yeah, it's all down to you. I always say take responsibility, ? Learn don't make the same mistake twice because you know I go to a lot of networking events and I've done a seminar this morning about Getting market entry into new markets and things like that

is to really see exhibitions as a strategic marketing channel to get in front of your target audience. people don't realize that at all. They just see it as another marketing medium. And the other thing that we mustn't forget is that exhibitions are the most expensive form of marketing. if you're going to spend...

20 ,000, 40 ,000, 50 ,000, we have clients that spend millions, responsibility for that budget and use it wisely,

to add to that, you have to take a long term perspective with exhibitions. Nobody comes with a checkbook and says, I want to spend one million pounds with you there and then. all exhibitions are is an opportunity to create the first step of that relationship. OK, it's an opportunity for you to say hello.

Introduce yourself, but the hard work starts after you've said goodbye and collected the information or the business card. And a lot of people forget that.

So a huge thanks to Lee Ali for sharing his perspectives on the trade show experience from really the exhibitors side. And even though he speaks from that viewpoint of the people who are inside the booths, I think his insights really hit at the heart of what I always talk about, which is making events more meaningful and more attendee focused. And it's clear that if exhibitors and event planners don't start rethinking their approach, they're going to keep missing the mark.

We're gonna keep alienating people and ultimately the exhibitors are gonna lose business and not wanna work. We need to stop treating these trade shows as this desperate scramble for leads and focus on real engagement, education and genuine connections. So I hope that's been valuable to you and even if it's just a little kind of different view at the way things are for people exhibiting at events.

So I look forward to seeing you next time and in the meantime keep pushing the boundaries, and stop doing the same as last year.