The COVID pandemic upended the exhibit and event industry. After shutting down for more than a year, the event industry changed in unavoidable and unprecedented ways. One consequence was the shuffling of positions. Since the in-person part of their jobs disappeared, corporate event managers opted to focus on a broader omnichannel marketing approach. Some event managers simply took other positions in industries not affected by the shutdown. And managers at partner companies took jobs on the client-side.
With all this upheaval, new event managers may find themselves charged with not only acclimating themselves to new companies and work environments but also restarting in-person marketing initiatives. Anyone reading this knows that the challenge is real.
If you’ve recently taken a position as an exhibit or event manager, here are seven suggestions to help you successfully transition to your new position.
- Don’t wing it. Take courses, learn from experts, network with others in your position. There are many free resources in the form of webinars that can help, although often they tend to be promotional. At Access, we recommend the Certified Trade Show Marketer (CTSM) program offered by the Exhibitor Magazine Group. We not only sponsor various aspects of the program, but we encourage our employees to enroll. The CTSM designation after your name means you’re not playing by ear and that you have undertaken a serious commitment to industry education.
- And speaking of education, the pandemic has created the need for health and safety education. If you find that level of knowledge important in your job, look into courses like the Pandemic Compliance Advisor or the Event Leadership Institute’s Pandemic On-Site Protocol Training.
- Subscribe to industry resources. Two must-reads are Exhibitor and Exhibit City News. But you’ll also find some other helpful blogs and digital newsletters. Ask the new friends you make in the CTSM program what they read. And join exhibit industry groups on social media to learn what’s going on in real-time.
- Make new friends!
- Invite the IT folks to lunch. Being able to append data from your events to your company’s CRM helps you demonstrate the value of your program—whether that’s uncovering new prospects, advancing the sales continuum, or solidifying loyalty with existing customers.
- Become BFFs with procurement. The folks in procurement are used to buying and assessing the relative costs of commodities, not creative products. Exhibit properties aren’t commodities, and purchasing on price alone is a recipe for disaster. Learn about the existing RFP process and how it is structured. Here’s a thought: invite procurement folks to an event. Let’s face it: it’s very hard to wrap your head around what we do if you don’t experience the outcome.
- Meet with the product or brand managers. Learn about their expectations as well as their previous experience with live events. Learn what their plan is for the next 6-12 months.
- Don’t forget sales. Unfortunately, too many salespeople are jaded when it comes to exhibits and events. They don’t see that in-person events impact their activities. Explain how they’ll get to see prospects who would otherwise be unavailable. Convince sales management that it’s worth taking their people out of the field for two or three days. Set up contests and incentives—salespeople are nothing if not competitive!
- Review your existing property inventory. What is usable, what needs to be refurbished or recycled—and what do you need to purchase? Does the purchase require an RFP? If it does, do your due diligence when selecting (no more than) three companies to bid on the work. Set up a Zoom call to meet the team who would most likely work with you. View the company’s portfolio, learn if they have experience in your industry, talk about their process from the initial input session to the properties arriving on the show floor.
- Be sure that you have enough staff to carry out your tasks. If your company is not hiring, talk to your exhibit house to determine what can be outsourced to them.
- Keep taking the pulse of your company and manage your personal brand. Be perceived as strategic, not as the person who orders services. This is a time of transition for marketing departments in general, event marketing in particular. Take your place in the marketing mix; after all, you are responsible for one of the largest line items in the corporate budget. Own your responsibilities—and your influence.
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