Social Tables spoke with Ray Bloom, chairman and founder of The IMEX Group, to discuss the initiatives his team is pursuing as they gear up for two of the largest events for the incentive travel, meetings and events industry in 2015: IMEX Frankfurt, and IMEX America.
“The focus of each IMEX exhibition is on creating business opportunities for buyers and exhibitors, and helping them to make the most of their time so that their visit is really productive in whatever way they want it to be,” says Bloom.
Read on to discover how they plan to create those opportunities with state–of–the–art technology, high–caliber content, and a 24–hour social media campaign that offers a ‘window onto the show’ that is sure to stimulate both buyers and suppliers into meaningful engagement long before the doors to Messe Frankfurt open in May.
Social Tables: What methods does IMEX use to reach your target sponsor audience? Are there major differences between your initiatives for IMEX Frankfurt and IMEX America?
Ray Bloom: There are no significant differences between our campaigns for IMEX in Frankfurt and IMEX America in the way we communicate with and work with our audiences; although of course we do tailor them for language and cultural considerations.
We have built and maintain close relationships all year round with exhibitors, intermediaries and buyers for each event. In addition, we co-operate closely with industry associations, playing an active role in their meetings and sponsoring more than 90 activities at industry gatherings each year.
ST: What strategies do you employ to ensure attendees walk away feeling their time at IMEX was worthwhile?
RB: The focus of each IMEX exhibition is on creating business opportunities for buyers and exhibitors, and helping them to make the most of their time so that their visit is really productive in whatever way they want it to be. We are constantly refining and enhancing our appointment making systems (which have been built especially for IMEX) to enable the face-to-face appointment onsite to be as productive as possible. For example, the system contains an RFP submission process to ensure that exhibitors are as prepared as possible for each appointment.
Also important for buyers is the education and networking aspects of the show. We offer a range of over 200 free of charge educational sessions at each show, split into tracks which include specialist education for senior planners, young professionals, association executives and corporate executives. Of course, hundreds of networking events also take place, including a large number of co-located industry events, ensuring that attendee’s time is completely maximised during the show.
ST: Are there any new technologies that you have deployed that have significantly enhanced your ability to plan IMEX? If so, what are they, and how have the alleviated your responsibilities?
RB:. The key piece of technology that we have, and continue to invest in, is our appointment making system. This is crucial for buyers and exhibitors as it enables them to manage their time at the show efficiently and maximise their business opportunities.
ST: As it pertains to social media, have you seen an increase in attendee engagement? What has your team learned from it?
RB: We have focused our efforts in social media, not only to communicate and engage with attendees about the features of the event, but all year round. We created IMEXlive as the 24-hour virtual ‘window onto the show’, bringing together live news from the show, photos, video interviews with speakers, etc.
We are also continually active in posting information and news valuable to our audiences about the exhibitions and the meetings sector through our online Inspiration Hub. This is engaging and has a resulted in a substantial growth in the numbers of our social media followers to high levels.
ST: What do you predict to be the hottest educational topic at IMEX this year? How did your team address it?
RB: We are currently finalising our educational programmes and will be announcing them shortly. There continues to be a strong demand for education on technology and social media, as well as meeting design and general business skills. In addition, this year we are boosting our training on the wellness theme, as well as offering a dedicated track for senior meeting professionals for the first time.
There will certainly be many inspiring and engaging sessions on key topics including effective negotiating, face-to- face communication and business networking.
ST: What new meeting design trends did you use last year? Were they effective?
RB: We are always experimenting, within the constraints of an exhibition show floor, with meeting design trends – particularly in the area of the educational sessions. In recent years we have introduced themed tours appropriate to particular interests and we have also added ‘deep dive’ sessions within our educational activities. In addition, we offer a range of quicker, more interactive sessions on the show floor, including campfires, meet the experts and hot topic tables. All of these have proved highly popular and make sense for the busy meeting professional trying to pack both education and business into their show experience.
ST: Any new trends you’re willing to discuss for 2015?
RB: At the end of last year we reviewed business trends worldwide and identified four trends that we have predicted will be more significant in 2015.
1. ‘Play’ gives new meaning to profit
According to IMEX America guest speaker, Creativity Guru, Rhea Blanken, Einstein said: “Play is the highest form of research.” Gartner has been predicting for the last few years that in 2015 up to 40 percent of Global 1000 organizations will use gamification as their primary mechanism for transforming business operations.
2. 50 Shades of Apps
Apps continue to be ‘sexy’ (in advertising parlance) and their strength and novelty will be unbounded in 2015. But this is not apps for app’s sake, as paper swaps or standalones. Rather meeting and event apps will be seamlessly linking across other media platforms, and especially websites. The IMEX/QuickMobile global survey reported that 63% of all respondents had used a mobile app for at least one of their events in the past two years – and 92% of corporate event marketers had done so. Additionally seven of the 10 finalists in IMEX America’s Tech Start-up competition were apps, clearly demonstrating that this is fertile ground for fast innovation and added value.
3. Let’s Take it “Outside”
In 2015 expect to see meeting spaces and formats going through even more of a revolution as the principles of meeting design become more firmly embedded throughout the supply chain. Where wifi allows set meetings free to ‘roam’ it also creates a subtle pressure to be ‘always on’.
4. Wellness is Fit as a Fiddle
Beyond drinking water, eating protein-laden nuts and taking a quick, rejuvenating massage there is a higher level of spiritual awareness starting to make its way into meeting keynotes, sessions and formats. When both Time Magazine and Forbes give space to a topic then it has surely ‘arrived’. In this case it’s mindfulness that’s earning the “ink.”
ST: Data is the talk of the industry at the moment – what data do you collect for IMEX, and how do you plan to leverage it for an even more successful 2015?
RB: We analyse data to understand what buyers want and we segment them so that we adapt both the activities and communications to them. We are using it to speak to them in the terms that are most appropriate to them. Ultimately we are using it to make their visit even more productive.
Special thanks to Ray Bloom, Chairman and Founder of The IMEX Group, and Sarah Shepherd, Group Travel Manager for The IMEX Group, for contributing to this article.
