A virtual trade fair is an interactive, online trade show, which can be hosted on a virtual trade fair platform. Organizing an online event is often less cumbersome than organizing a physical one, however, since it’s restricted to a screen, viewers might get bored if there is not enough stimulation. Due to the covid-19 pandemic, head hunters have been resorting to Virtual Job Fair Platforms to hire new talent along with exhibitors all around the globe who have been making use of virtual fair platforms to host online fairs for a vast section of attendees and investors. Even large enterprises have jumped on the bandwagon, seeing that Virtual Exhibition Platforms make it so much easier to collect attendee data for networking, minimize expenses, and also make it easier to understand what works or doesn’t with a crowd, in other words, evaluate success.
While hosting an event online, on a Virtual Exhibition Platform, like Dreamcast, every presenter or exhibitor has a booth where they can show what their company has to offer. There would be many other booths too; therefore, there are a few things that can be done to make a booth stand out among the others.
• 3-D immersive setup: The more interactive, the better. With a three-dimensional setup, the booth even though virtual seems more realistic and creates a good impression on participants and attendees, which also lead to a better brand image. Thus for a successful day at a Virtual Trade Fair, make sure the booth has a bright and inviting landing page, an easy and interactive interface, and virtual locations that allow attendees a better experience and get to know the brand well.
• Pop-ups: In a real-life or offline setting it’s easier to just guide the audience or attendees by just talking to them or making announcements. A virtual version of this would be pop-up notifications. It works very similarly to announcements, it leads the attendees to look and pay attention to particular things so that they get a better idea of what the brand is about. Therefore while handling a virtual booth, make sure pop-ups, although not extremely frequent but regularly come in.
• Decorate: this is the fun part. The booth, as mentioned before should look inviting, therefore, use color, use media, customize the booth to fit the image of the brand so when attendees look at it they are intrigued, want to know more, understand the essence of the brand which helps boost brand image. Adding funky colors and banners that might attract a higher number of attendees and the booth would stand out a lot more.
• Engagement: If the level of engagement is high, people’s interest will be too, and therefore, attendees will spend more time in the booth. Because it’s on a screen, a virtual event can’t provide as much interaction as an offline one would. That is why, it is very important to make the most of engagement tools to provide attendees with an interesting, interactive, and fulfilling experience. It’s because of these tools that the platforms provide that the prevalence of virtual trade exhibitions has been increasing. One way this could be done is through ‘gamification’ or adding games. Adding games and quizzes in the virtual booth makes the attendee’s time more memorable; they have fun and thus remember the booth and company leading to a more stable brand image.
• Investments and sponsors: By associating the brand with important and well-known sponsors and investors, one can expect a better turnout. Attendees are more likely to stop by the booth if they see a sponsor that they recognize. A virtual trade show thus allows attendees and sponsors to stay in contact through a bunch of sponsorship tools that the Virtual Trade Fair Platforms provide. This helps both, sponsors meet their targets and also the team carries on with more sponsored events, thus maximizing the scope of the event.
• Networking tools: Offline it would be very difficult to collect attendee information. Therefore, if one wants to ensure effective networking, efficient data collection of all the participants should be in place. Hence using inventive networking tools that could be easily incorporated by event planners is essential to elevate the quality of networking. Adding artificial intelligence matchmaking to connect attendees or B2B meeting scheduling tools should be added to the virtual booth for efficient networking processes.
• Quality data: Another way to go about networking well would be by making sure the data coming in and reports generated are valuable or of importance. There are various ways it can be done and virtual booths must be equipped with them. Taking feedback from attendees about the virtual booth, taking into consideration attendee footprint and impressions as it plays an important role in a virtual trade exhibit leading to better and more structured virtual booths in the future. With the right data, the team can analyze and examine the effectiveness, what sat well with the attendees through the event, and what did not thus help them plan better.
• Attendee discussions: An event can’t last forever, therefore for the virtual booth of the brand to be a hit it needs to be talked about even after the event. The buzz should continue. Upload media used in the virtual booth to boost the brand image of the company. Use the details and information received through networking to keep in touch with the participants and so that they can stay in touch with each other, use social media and online platforms to keep the discussions going.
CONCLUSION
Keeping in mind all these features, communication is the key, no matter how charming the virtual booth looks, if it is not equipped with networking or data collecting, or discussion enabling features, it could become very difficult to host the event smoothly and efficiently. It is necessary to communicate with the audience, explain the company vision well and lead them towards meaningful discussions so that they understand what the brand is all about and hold it in high regard.
