24. Show Floor Education
As a trade show producer, I love incorporating education on the show floor and a sponsor helps make it happen. Obviously, education should be taking place in your booth, but I’m talking about something much grander. A theater right in the middle of the show floor creates a buzz and keeps people in the exhibit hall. Many shows that have a conference component attached to their trade shows offer expo hall only passes. This brings in more attendees to visit the trade show, even if they cannot take the time to participate in the entire conference. It also allows more people to see the show floor if their budget does not allow them to attend the entire conference. But why should those attending only the expo portion be left out of an educational opportunity?
Show floor education is great for conference attendees as well. It provides them with a chance to see presentations that might not have made it into the conference schedule. Show floor presentations are usually shorter, more casual 15- or 20-minute bursts of information. They allow attendees to take some weight off their aching feet and take in a quick, targeted presentation. But it’s not just an attendee benefit. It benefits the exhibitors as well by driving attendees from the education session rooms right to the trade show floor.
If you want to take this type of sponsorship up a notch, you could present it as similar in makeup to the virtual event sponsorship. You’d be creating a mini hybrid event using the show floor education sessions. You can open it to attendees around the world who could not be physically present at the event.
When you talk about education on the show floor and educational theaters many show managers have a vision that pops into their head that is horribly outdated. I’m not blaming them for lack of creativity. The problem is more one of time and resources and lack of exposure to new and different ideas. As a result their vision is a stage toward the back of the exhibit hall or off to one side with rows of chairs placed in front for the audience to listen to the presenter. The presenter is usually a sponsor or exhibitor who has paid for the opportunity to present a product or service demo or sales pitch. They see it as something to satisfy the desires of their exhibitors and sponsors more than their attendees.
For this type of sponsorship, your role as the sponsor will be much like that of the Virtual Event Sponsorship. Although you won’t be very involved in the logistical aspects of the “educational theater,” you will want to be involved in the planning and marketing of it. It’s also very important to have a vision of what you want the show floor education to be. Included in that vision is how it will look and what types of education will take place there. After all, you’re not just sponsoring a structure, your also sponsoring what takes place within that structure. But before we can talk about what your vision might look like, we first have to talk about who you are going to present this sponsorship to.
Whom Should You Work with When Planning Your Sponsorship?
An obvious answer is the show organizers or the people responsible for the trade show portion of the event. Because they are responsible for everything taking place on the show floor, it stands to reason that the show organizers are the people you will most likely work with. But there is another person you need to involve who is just as important—the education director.
A trade show or annual conference takes a small army to put together. Often one group is in charge of the trade show floor and another group is in charge of the education. Unfortunately, in some cases these two groups act as silos and barely communicate with one another. Your job as a sponsor will be to make sure you are talking to each group or silo and get them working together. You must work with the expo manager on the educational theater design, placement, and schedule. If you are adding a virtual component to the sessions, you will work with her on this and probably her general contractor as well.
But when it comes to the people who will be presenting on stage, you’re going to need to work with the education director. He will work with you to choose the best speakers to bring onto the show floor. These might be keynote speakers, session presenters, or organizational leadership. You also should work with the education director on timing. It’s likely his keynote speaker will not stick around very long, so be sure to get her into your educational theater right after her presentation.
You can work with both of these factions to find speakers for your innovative exhibitor speaking slots. Your expo manager might have a handle on what is new and innovative, especially if an innovation zone exists at the show. The education director will know whether these exhibitors are scheduled to speak in the education sessions as part of the conference; then you can work on getting the education director and expo manager working together to create a schedule.
You will likely not have final say on the schedule, but you can make sure you have input based on some of the best practices that follow. This is not your company’s personal education theater, meaning you probably will not be the only exhibitor presenting in it. But you can negotiate in your sponsorship contract that direct competitors do not have presentation slots made available to them. That is up to you to decide if it is worth it. Arguably there will be more product and service categories at the show than presentation slots. The attendees do not want to hear from multiple vendors in the same category—they’d rather be exposed to a more complete line of offerings.
And last, but not least, you’ll need to coordinate with the people who are doing the marketing to ensure your sponsorship is featured on any communications they are sending out. You’ll also need to make sure there is proper signage and that the education theater is featured prominently on any show floor maps. You don’t want to go to all this work and find out most of the attendees didn’t know it existed.
What Does The Show Floor Theater Look Like?
Nothing says boring or low budget like a stage, a podium, and rows of folding chairs. I’ve also seen some show floor education theaters built as a box right on the show floor. They have four walls that enclose the theater with a door or two to get in and out. If you are going to close it off, why even have it located on the show floor? How do you attract passersby if they can’t hear and see what is going on? Sure, some of these boxes are made out of see-through Plexiglas walls so people can see inside, but it still creates an unwelcoming environment. Attendees wonder what is going on and whether they are allowed to go inside.
When I’ve observed educational theaters on the show floor where the chairs were arranged in formal rows facing the stage, I’ve always seen the same thing. Attendees fill the chairs at the ends of each row, but no one sits in the middle of the rows. They don’t want to commit to the presentation. Sitting on the end of the row allows for easy escape without disrupting anyone. Or people stand around on the sides of the theater or in the back. When people walk by, they see two things. One is a presentation that not too many people are interested in based on the empty seats. Two is the empty seats are too hard to get to because they are in the middle of the rows. These people either keep walking or join the crowd of standers on the edges and in the back.
You need to create an educational oasis in the middle of the show floor that draws people in. It should be open so that passersby can see and hear what is going on. It should be easy to slip in and out of, so guests don’t feel as though they are interrupting something if the come in late or leave early. Seating can be a combination of theater and modular furniture that can be easily moved around to create discussion areas. When seating is arranged in a more relaxed way and you include different styles of lightweight furniture that can be moved, you create a more interesting and inviting atmosphere. You can combine cube-like ottoman seating, couches, leisure chairs, and stools that look comfortable and say to the visitor, “Come on in, take a load off, and stay for a while.” Instead of being a place that people rush past on their way to somewhere else, it becomes a gathering place and drives traffic to the show floor.
You could set up this area as one large theater that accommodates only one presentation at a time or divide it into several smaller breakout areas where several sessions could be taking place simultaneously. This layout will depend on the types of sessions you will be focusing on and whether they appeal to a broad audience or a targeted group of people.
Sound
One of the biggest objections voiced when planning trade show education theaters comes from the exhibitors whose booths surround it. It’s also interesting that the booths surrounding this area are one of the most coveted spots for savvy exhibitors. The reason some complain is because of the noise level coming from the education theater. Exhibitors say it distracts the visitors in their booths. Unless the sound in the theater is cranked way up, I would argue that these exhibitors are just looking for something to blame their lack of traffic on. It’s much more likely that they have absolutely nothing interesting going on in their booth to hold their visitors’ attention.
As far as sound goes, I’ve never been in an exhibit hall that was quiet. There are distractions everywhere attacking the attendees’ senses. It’s the exhibitor’s job to be able to hold his visitors’ attention amid all the distraction. Nevertheless, there are things you can do to reduce the sound to a reasonable level so that everyone is happy. You can use transparent fabric hung throughout, above, and around the educational theater to help absorb some of the sound and aim your speakers in an appropriate direction.
Like I said, savvy exhibitors love being next to all this activity. It guarantees a lot of traffic in front of their booths. Smart exhibitors piggyback on the educational sessions by scheduling their in-booth presentations right after those taking place in the theater. Attendees leaving the theater presentation are likely to wander into a booth presentation right after. As the sponsor, you’re going to want to make sure your booth is positioned next to this theater.
Stage
Skip the platform stage. This is supposed to be a casual and intimate environment. If space allows, you could put in a short lift that would help audience members in the back see better without creating a barrier between the audience and the speaker. Skip the podium as well; it’s a crutch and no one needs it for a 15-minute talk. However, you might need a table available if someone is doing a product demo.
If you are doing a Q&A type interview in your educational theater (highly recommended), you’ll need seating for the interviewer and the interviewee. Seating is important and should not be taken lightly. I’ve seen setups that use low and very comfortable-looking armchairs for these Q&A sessions. And then someone sits in them and the chairs look incredibly awkward, especially for women wearing skirts. And you have not seen anything until you see people trying to politely exit from those chairs. Very sturdy stools with a back or director’s chairs work best for these situations. But make sure they’re not so high that you must climb up onto them. You should just be able to lean back into them from a standing position.
Your backdrop should be of a neutral color and should include your branding as well as the shows. Special attention should be paid if you plan on broadcasting these sessions to a virtual audience. A seam that is nearly unseen to a live audience will stand out on camera. You don’t want lines and logos sticking out of your presenters’ heads—that will be incredibly distracting to the virtual audience.
What Makes for a Good Presentation on the Show Floor?
As I mentioned earlier, short presentations are best. After all, you want people visiting booths, not spending an hour seated in a presentation. The types of presentations that work best for show floor education are town hall discussions, keynote Q&A sessions, innovative product demonstrations or product Q&A sessions, and hands-on how-to presentations.
Town Hall Discussions
At large annual meetings and trade shows, it is customary to have the incoming president of the organization give a large general session speech about where she intends to take the organization in the upcoming year. These types of speeches are designed so that the speaker talks to the audience and the audience listens. Sometimes the incoming president takes a few minutes at the end for one or two questions from the audience. This allows for very little interaction.
Why not bring the incoming leadership to the show floor educational theater for a more intimate town hall discussion? There the audience can share with her the real day-to-day issues they are struggling with and where they think the organization should be heading. This is a huge benefit to the organization as its leadership can stay in touch with the member base. It’s also a huge benefit to the members because they are able to express their most pressing issues.
These sessions strip away the fanfare and tend to be much more open and honest. It’s an opportunity for the organization’s president to show her softer side and let her personality really show through. It comes across as much more authentic than the big opening or closing general session speeches, and the audience loves this because their voices are being heard.
As the sponsor, you should assign someone to live tweet the audiences questions and leadership’s responses during the session. It’s a perfect way to extend your company’s exposure to the attendees and be seen as someone who provides valuable information.
Keynote Q&A Sessions
Many of the big keynote sessions are lacking in much the same way as the organization leadership speeches. There is very little time for Q&A after these big productions. Instead of taking one or two questions from the huge audience after the speech, move the Q&A portion into the show floor education theater. It’s important to promote these Q&A sessions prior to the show, in the keynote description, and by announcement just before and after the presentation. Of course, social media is the perfect tool to remind people about these sessions. Like the town hall meetings, as a sponsor, you should be live tweeting the presenter’s responses.
Here the audience can interact with the speaker in a much more informal setting. They have an opportunity to get their specific questions answered by experts. It’s important that the organizer preps the speaker as to how the session will work. You don’t want him delivering a scripted speech on the show floor. He is there to answer specific questions or expand on a point he made during his staged presentation.
I saw this fail incredibly at one such session I watched online. The speaker was a motivational speaker who clearly did not understand his audience. The difference here was that he was scheduled on the show floor the day before his big talk. The idea was that it would generate attendance for the closing session and make it a must-see event. And it could have worked, except this particular speaker proceeded to alienate his audience.
I felt like I was watching a politician answering (or I should say not answering) questions. The audience was sincerely interested in the speaker’s topic and was asking good questions. But the speaker refused to go off script. The answers he gave were vague and canned. I have to give credit to the virtual emcee, though, who refused to get rattled. She kept pressing him for answers, and he kept refusing to give them. I thought any minute an angry mob would rise up. Vetting speakers is something the show organizers should factor into their planning.
Innovative Product or Service Demonstrations and Q&A
At every show, there are a few exhibitors who are doing something that really makes you say, “Wow!” These are must-see products or services that can really change the lives or jobs of their customers. These are the types of products and services that will do well in the show floor education environment.
It’s a fine line to walk between making a self-serving sales pitch and offering genuinely helpful information in these instances. This is why I prefer the Q&A format to a straightforward product demo. The presenter can give a brief synopsis of her innovative product and then open it up to the audience for Q&A.
I saw a wonderful example of this when watching the American Public Works Association presentations in its “EXPO EXPERIENCE” through the virtual component called “Continuing the Conversation” (a concept created by The Expo Group). I had been watching most of the conversations taking place throughout the day to see what works in this environment and what doesn’t. I’ve always been cautious of presentations by exhibitors for fear that they will come off as infomercials.
The Q&A session with Jon Hargett, president of Pavement Restorations, Inc., was a perfect example of what works when exhibitors take the stage. Jon’s company has a new technology that uses infrared asphalt restoration to fix potholes. Jon briefly and concisely explained what infrared asphalt restoration is and how it differs from what most public works professionals are currently doing. Jon was talking about his product of course, but more than that, he was talking about the process. I found myself completely fascinated—and I don’t have anything to do with public works or potholes.
Clearly, the audience was fascinated as well, both the in-person audience and my online compatriots. Specific questions were coming from both audiences rapid fire. The first question was how much does it cost. Kudos to Jon for answering that question completely honestly. I was so engaged that I caught myself almost asking a question even though I was just a casual observer. You can view the YouTube video at http://bit.ly/infraredpotholes.
Keep this in mind when you are preparing presentations you will be doing in this area. As a sponsor, you should negotiate a number of presentation slots into your agreement. This is a great opportunity to get employees of your company out of the office and in front of customers. In this informal setting, the people who make the products your customers use or carry out the services you offer might be more popular than your company’s executives.
How-To Presentations
Hands-on how-to presentations also work well on the show floor. Just about every industry has fantastic ways to use electronic devices, such as tablets and smartphones, to make our day-to-day jobs simpler. Any number of software apps are available for these devices and computers that can make people more productive.
The problem lies in the fact that not everyone is adept at using these devices. That is where a little hands-on learning can be useful. A show floor learning lounge is a great place to do these demonstrations. Have the organizers schedule bring your own device (BYOD) sessions in which instructors show the audience how to download and use these great applications. They don’t have to be applications created by you or other exhibitors. They can demonstrate something that is available to anyone and that can be used in any industry.
I would also suggest sessions that teach the attendees how to use social media platforms so they can stay connected with the people they met at the conference or that the association uses to connect with their members. Include how-to sessions for devices, apps, products, or software used in the industry of the trade show. Attendees could learn how to set up their own blogs using WordPress or Blogger as well as a few useful widgets and plug-ins. Sessions on the top 10 productivity apps for the iPad or even a session or two on how to most effectively use the show event application could be included.
Regardless of whether the session is a Q&A, town hall, or how-to, the session should be very specific. General or vague topics do not create a lot of discussion and do not get the audience involved. Only when you narrow down the presentations to very specific topics will this environment work. There is no way anyone could cover “How to Best Equip Your Manufacturing Floor,” in 20 minutes, but a presenter could conduct a detailed discussion on “Casters: Do They Matter? Making the Right Selection.” (This was a topic I found in the show floor education program for MODEX 2012.)
Peer Sessions
Something else you could try in your show floor educational theater is an unconference format or peer sessions. These discussion topics could be crowd sourced a month before the event using social media tools such as Google Moderator. Google Moderator allows you to open topic submissions for a finite period of time and then allow others to vote on which topics they find most interesting. The most popular submissions can then be put on the peer session discussion schedule.
What is a peer session? These are sessions that focus on peer-to-peer learning rather than a transfer of knowledge from a speaker to the audience. I love peer sessions for several reasons. The first is that I am a firm believer in getting feedback on a problem from my peers. After all, they’ve been there and done that and are usually more than willing to help someone else avoid the same mistakes they’ve made. Why struggle through a problem when you’re at a trade show with thousands of your peers who might have figured out a way to solve it? Or, even if no one has solved the problem, working through it with a group of people who are looking for the same outcome can be a productive brainstorming session.
The second biggest benefit to peer sessions is that they foster networking. When you work closely with others to solve problems, you really get to know one another. People’s personalities really shine through when involved in this type of group activity. I have met mentors and mentees through my participation in peer sessions. I have also cultivated wonderful lasting friendships from people I’ve met at these types of events.
Peer sessions require very little planning. All you need is a moderator and a place for people to gather and work together. The education lounge on the show floor is an excellent place for this. While these sessions can be decided too late to add to a printed program, they could easily be added to the show event app. They could also be posted on a printed schedule in the learning lounge and announcements could be made on the show floor. Social media is a great way to share this information because of its real-time nature and its capability to spread information through a large group rapidly. Use social media to introduce the upcoming session, invite those struggling with the same issue to attend, and encourage those who think they might have a solution to stop by as well.
But beware. Attendees who experience the peer session learning style love it so much they rarely want to attend the one-to-many transfer of knowledge that traditional sessions provide. They find it almost impossible not to want to help fellow attendees when they think they might have an answer to someone’s problem.
An educational theater or learning lounge on the show floor that is a welcome and inviting space encourages attendees to stop and stay. A schedule filled with intimate discussions with speakers and interactive learning will drive traffic onto the show floor. As the sponsor of the show floor education that is exactly what you want to have happen. But don’t just rely on your branding to make your presence known as the sponsor. Participate in educational sessions by presenting, live tweeting sessions, getting ideas for future content, and just networking with the crowd.
A show floor education sponsorship helps attendees network and allows them to take advantage of great interactive educational opportunities they might not find in formal sessions. It gives them a chance to have their voices heard and interact with presenters and association leadership. It allows them to easily connect with their peers in an informal setting. It also positions your company as one who is in tune with the day-to-day issues of your customers and potential customers.
Summary
An educational theater on the show floor does not need to be dull, drab, or boring. You can create a relaxing oasis that encourages conversation between the speakers and the audience. It should be a welcoming place where people want to gather and exchange information and ideas with their peers.
Work with the expo manager and education committee to create a schedule that targets specific solutions to problems attendees might be having. The more specific, the better. Give people a forum in which to ask questions of keynote speakers, industry thought leaders, and organizational leadership. Create a space in which it is fun to experiment with hands-on learning of tools that will make attendees’ lives easier. Show them you are in touch with their needs by giving them a way to suggest the topics they think should be addressed.
And open the learning to a wider audience by creating a hybrid event that broadcasts the learning to a virtual audience. Let those who could not attend in person ask questions of the speaker and have their opinions heard in order to bring both audiences together.