VALUE PROPOSITION

THE

FALL 2016 TRENDSTop 5 Event Marketing Trends and What They Mean to Procurement Departments

1) ON-DEMAND EVENT CONTENT. Still seeing print collateral on yourevent budget? Probably not for long. Digital documents, event videos andexecutive podcasts are quickly taking the place of all that paper—and thoseold-school binders that used to contain it all. To better meet the needs of today’sdigitally-savvy (and increasingly impatient) attendees, event marketers are populatingdigital platforms with, yes, documents on product specs, but also adding capturedfootage of keynotes and breakout sessions, executive interviews, and other compellingshow content attendees can absorb at the show or on their own terms—which is exactlyhow they want it. What it means to you: While your paper budget will disappear, your need for a robustcloud-based content platform will only increase in importance… as will the need to hiresavvy developers and designers to create an intuitive interface for it.

2) KEYNOTER AS STORYTELLER. Every keynoter wants to make sure the audience getshis or her message. But more and more keynotes are becoming less focused on deliveringproduct features and benefits and more focused on great storytelling. Personal stories andanecdotes are more memorable and have the added benefit of making the speaker—andhis or her brand—more accessible and authentic, two traits today’s modern attendeesvalue more than a buttoned-up slideshow. What it means to you: Watch as some execs trade in massive sets for more intimatetheaters with seating arrangements that allow them to engage with and move among thecrowd.

3) THE CORPORATE FESTIVAL. Music festival culture has infiltrated everything fromfashion to business, popping up most recently at corporate events, where event producersare creating the same festival-style experiences today’s modern attendees crave. Fromdeconstructed trade show floors re-arranged into subject-matter-based clusters, toseemingly “out there” experiences like Ferris wheels and ball pits, B2B marketers are risingto meet these new expectations. What it means to you: You’re going to see some unorthodox items in the budget, but don’twrite them off as superfluous. Today’s attendees place a high value on fun and sociallyshareable moments just as much as the business content.

FALL 2016

INSIDE

Page 1 Top 5 Event Marketing Trends and What They Mean to Procurement Departments

Page 2 Time Savers: The Pros and Cons of the Corporate Meeting Card, the Purchase Order (PO) Alternative

Page 3 What You Need to Know About Working with Creatives (Surprise… they really like you!)

Page 4 The Industry Buzzwords Your Procurement Team Needs to Know Right Now

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1 | THE VALUE PROPOSITIONGES: Epic partners, epic events, epic results. To learn more, visit ges.com/epicevent or email Mark Thomas at Mark.Thomas@ges.com.

Tips, ideas and insights for creating

effective—and cost-effective— event marketing

campaigns

PRODUCED BY

The world’s only procurement resource focused on event spend

Continued on Pg. 2

2 | THE VALUE PROPOSITIONGES: Epic partners, epic events, epic results. To learn more, visit ges.com/epicevent or email Mark Thomas at Mark.Thomas@ges.com.

4) RISE OF THE HALLWAY EVENT. More and more event attendees are flocking to the hallways outside the general session to connect and share know-how. So, in the spirit of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” event producers are creating comfortable and cool alternative spaces like coffee bars, focusing on lounges and other unique spaces outside the more formal event venues.

What it means to you: Look for more furnishings to pop up on the budget, as well as structural and décor elements needed to transform a blank space into a great “hang” space. Also beware of the additional labor and electricity costs required to bring a blank slate to life.

5) SUSTAINABLE EVENTS AS CSR INITIATIVES. “Green” events used to mean the event department looked for ways to make their events more earth-friendly, and then procurement tried (and often failed) to find ways to do so affordably. Today, sustainability has become a top priority in many corporate social responsibility (CSR) missions. And the myth of the budget-busting green event has largely been dismissed and replaced by proof that green events can impact the bottom line in positive ways. Oracle’s event department, for example, has saved more than $2 million thanks to its commitment to sustainable events.

What it means to you: In addition to being cost-effective, the elements in the budget will need to meet certain environmental guidelines. You can familiarize yourself with today’s current standards for green events by visiting the Green Meetings Industry Council website (gmicglobal.org) and reading up on the APEX/ASTM Sustainable Event Standards.

If your marketing teams complain that the purchase order process is slowing down their ability to work faster and smarter, a corporate meeting card might be the answer.

The Pros:Even the most diligently planned events are still up against a time crunch. Some get planned and executed in just a matter of weeks. It’s not a sign of poor time management—it’s a sign you have savvy event marketers seizing timely market opportunities while the iron is hot. By issuing corporate meeting cards, you and your team can save time by hiring suppliers and commencing work without a purchase order. This enables mission-critical event suppliers to move fast and prevent cost overages and late fees later in the game.

“With most procurement systems, I can’t open a PO without a statement of work and a supplier can’t be in the systems without a contract that identifies legal terms and conditions,” says Jill Daggett, Senior Director of Business

Operations at Microsoft. “But with a card, the PO is with American Express. If I want to hire food and beverage or A/V, I can just get a quote and move forward.”

The Cons:Corporate meeting cards don’t come with the protections of a contract, but a signed agreement can add the extra layer you need.

“You have to make sure you have the appropriate agreement in place,” warns Daggett, who once weathered an A/V failure at an event that didn’t have a contract in place, preventing the procurement team from seeking reparations. “A contract can’t protect you from everything, but by having it in place you’ll be in a better position than having to fix the problem and still having to pay for what was delivered. That’s costly.”

TIME SAVERSPros and Cons of Corporate Meeting Cards, the Purchase Order (PO) Alternative

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3 | THE VALUE PROPOSITION

ON THE SAME PAGEProcurement professionals and experience designers have more in common than they think. GES’ Vice President of Design and Creative, John Woo, breaks down what procurement teams need to know about working with their creative teams to meet the needs of today’s attendees.

JOHN WOOVice President of Design and Creative

GES

GES: Epic partners, epic events, epic results. To learn more, visit ges.com/epicevent or email Mark Thomas at Mark.Thomas@ges.com.

Creatives love you. No, really, they do! Or at least they should, says Woo. “I love working with procurement. It’s a valuable asset that needs to be part of that multidisciplinary team in order to help define the sandbox that we’re playing in.”

Many companies go into initial brainstorming sessions with an approach of, “show me what you have and we can figure out the budget later.” But they’re unaware that there are budget ramifications. Having procurement in the room helps creative teams manage that conversation better, Woo says. “A really cool experience can be done inexpensively if approached the right way and with an understanding of budget limitations up front.”

Procurement pros can add to that conversation, Woo says, by understanding how the evolution of technology and content across the industry is shaping budgets. “More people are pushing toward having experience-driven designs rather than logistics-driven designs. Procurement has to understand why they’re doing it, versus just what is being done, so they can help guide those conversations and ultimately eliminate the need for redundant work.”

In other words, you could be accustomed to dealing only with the logistics of the physical event space (labor, drayage, exhibition, signage). And while that all still applies, the content within that exhibit requires a new level of expertise.

“Designing the box is not the same as designing the content within the box,” says Woo. “The content development of what’s happening inside the box often involves a writer, a creative director, photographer, graphic designer and an entire multidisciplinary team to do R&D, to build the storyline and to develop the technology.”

The hidden costs of that content evolution—the development of the resulting videos, software and photos—can increase budgets by $50,000 or more and should not be confused with the physical space.

Understanding the nuances between the different creative players on your team will also help you budget smarter. “We all get lumped into this one category called ‘designers’, and sometimes procurement can look at us in terms of black and white without really understanding what our scope is,” says Woo. For instance, some people confuse scenic designers, who are responsible for the proportions, aesthetics and manufacturing of the structural “box” with experience designers, who translate marketing messages into the entire customer experience.

“It’s why I’d rather have procurement in the room, understanding from the get-go the purpose, strategy and implementation of the design, how to best effectively use it and ultimately how to map out where the priorities of those budgets should be allotted—how to best leverage that money,” Woo says.

See? We told you they like you.

TALKING THE TALKThe Industry Buzzwords Your Procurement Team Needs to Know Right Now

4 | THE VALUE PROPOSITIONGES: Epic partners, epic events, epic results. To learn more, visit ges.com/epicevent or email Mark Thomas at Mark.Thomas@ges.com.

THE ‘UBER FOR X’ EFFECTThanks to the influence of Uber and its handy mobile phone app, consumers today can order everything from rides to the airport to groceries for the work week—on-demand. The impact of this business model across virtually every vertical has been coined the “Uber for X” effect (Uber for groceries, Uber for laundry, etc.). Event marketers are embracing the trend through surprise and delight experiences that deliver on-demand products and services in response to real-time social media engagement.

INTELLIGENT APPSEvent apps today can “learn” about attendees and then instantly transform that data into recommendations that influence and enhance the on-site experience. Intelligent apps turn one-size-fits-all event experiences into highly personalized engagements that can connect users with like-minded attendees (who happen to be steps away), guide them to sessions and other content they might like, and recommend food they’d enjoy based on what they ate the day before.

MICRO-INFLUENCERSOne Facebook follower might be capable of reaching tens of thousands of friends via one post about your event, but smart marketers are zeroing in on the micro-influencer, the social media follower that might have a smaller base of friends in their network but can deliver a higher quality of interactions with more targeted audiences.

MIXED REALITYThis next-generation twist on augmented reality and virtual reality technologies will allow consumers to view digital objects in real-world scenarios. For example, event attendees can put on a headpiece and then as they walk through a physical trade show booth, digital 3D objects appear over physical ones to create a mixed environment. The leading technology in this space, Magic Leap, has not been released yet.

SOCIAL CURRENCYWhen a consumer is willing to pay to participate in a live event or experience in exchange for sharing a tweet or social post, it’s called social currency. These “pay to play” strategies not only engage attendees at live events, they deliver valuable reach to each participant’s social network.

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