Dear event organizers, here is what event sponsors and exhibitors expect from you

Dear event organizers,

Let’s talk frankly: we sponsors and exhibitors come to your events to expand our leads database and our partner network, and to increase brand awareness around our companies. Our motives are purely business, and it is good that way: the whole sponsors and exhibitors ecosystem is one of the pillars which is holding your event and the whole events industry together.

As an event organizer, you can do a lot to help us. Even if this might sound like something that goes without saying to you, it is sadly not the case with many events that I attend, either as an attendee or as an exhibitor. As always, it is all about experience, and that experience is something that will decide if we are going to feel respected (or not!) and if we are going to feel welcome (or not!). And if we are returning the next year.

Why Am I Writing Such an Open and Direct Blog Post?

Last week, run.events visited an industry event in London. We were exhibiting there, but I was also a speaker. Since it is one of the major industry events in Europe, everyone of interest to us was there, and we achieved our goals. But honestly, our experience (and our perceived valuation as a sponsor) was terrible.

Let’s start with the fact that we had six different logins to different systems that the event was using. It took me almost two hours to log into everything and to configure most of it (I didn’t even manage to configure everything). Event registration was one system, the mobile app was an entirely different thing, a third system was used to submit my session proposal, a fourth system to upload my slides, and my colleague Elena was using two additional systems to finish our booth configuration, update exhibitor tasks, and to order booth services.

I am sorry, but this is not how you make your sponsors and speakers feel valued. If this event had proper competition, we would probably never choose to come back again.

And yet, it could all be so easy, given you use the right event tech. Yes, like run.events.

Dear Event Organizers, This Is My List of Requirements for You. It’s 2024, and All of This Is Already Easily Possible.

In an imaginary world, as soon as I sign the exhibitors’ contract for your event, I would:

1. Get an invitation for the sponsorship dashboard.
   There, I would see all the important information at a glance: the data that will be displayed on the sponsor page, my sponsorship team, and the tasks I need to fulfill together with their deadlines.

2. See the event status.
   I want to know how many attendees have already registered, what their demographics, profiles, companies, job roles are, and whether we know some of them from previous events.

3. Clean up and upload my logo, and change my company’s description.
   For the event page, I should be able to upload brochures or other relevant documents, select my social media, and other communication channels.

4. Assign roles and tickets to my team.
   I should be able to invite my colleagues, assign them event tickets, and define their roles within the team. Not everyone should have access to lead retrieval and lead management, and not everyone will be assigned to each task that we get from the organizer. I would like my team members to be listed on our sponsor’s web page and mobile app page so that attendees can easily recognize them and get in touch with them if they are interested in our products and/or services.

5. Participate in gamification.
   If the event is running some kind of gamification on their side, I’d like to maintain our participation. For instance, I’d like to list our giveaways, prizes, etc. I’d also like to use my sponsor dashboard to organize side-events, which will either take place at our booth (e.g., social gatherings) or at some nearby location (e.g., VIP dinner).

6. Configure my booth.
   I want to be able to purchase all the furniture and services which I need and to upload all the designs needed by the booth builder (if I use the event’s booth builder and not my own booth builder). Ideally, it should all be in 3D, just like IKEA’s kitchen design studio.

7. Manage sessions.
   If we have sponsored sessions, I would like to be able to see and maintain those sessions from my sponsor dashboard, as well as upload any eventual session assets, such as PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, or anything like that. I would like our sessions to be listed on our sponsor’s web page and mobile app page, with the possibility for attendees to easily subscribe to those sessions, since this is an important lead generation tool for us.

8. Pre-configure my lead retrieval.
   Last but definitely not least, I would like to be able to pre-configure my lead retrieval in a way that I set up labels and shortcuts, which will help me to quickly qualify the leads that I collect during the event.

Communication and Lead Retrieval for me as a sponsor or exhibitor, everything is about communication and lead retrieval.

1. I want to be able to retrieve leads quickly, and that should be part of the official event mobile app. I don’t want a separate app since I want all my crucial information to be in one place, and I don’t have time to switch. Oh, and all team members should see leads retrieved by other team members.

2. I want to be immediately able to chat or otherwise communicate with my retrieved leads. Sometimes, waiting for after the event to contact them might be too late.

Dear event organizers, don’t forget: post the event is before the event.

1. Download Leads
   I want to be able to download my leads, together with all the qualifications or notes, or otherwise integrate it with my CRM.

2. Preselect Booth Position
   I want to be able to preselect my booth position for the next edition of your event if it has already been planned. Ideally, this should be in a 3D version of the expo, where I can easily decide what’s the best booth position for me.