Increase Audience Participation - Use Space Effectively

Increase Audience and Exhibitor Interaction – Use Space Effectively

I had a chance to poke my head into the 2011 CMS Expo Learning and Business Conference this morning at the Hotel Orrington in Evanston, IL north of Chicago.

It was cool to see the conference organizers using the space in unique and creative ways ensuring that the attendees would see the exhibitors and sponsors that are their bread and butter.

Typically, the sponsors and exhibitors would be given their own room, space or hall to share their wares, knowledge and expertise. While an effective use of space, many conference and meeting planners can tell you from experience that getting attendees into these spaces can be a bit of a hassle that usually takes bribes of food and booze.

At the CMS Expo, the organizers opted to place the exhibitors and sponsors in the hallway outside of the session rooms ensuring that the attendees would be forced to interact (or at least see) all of the conference supporters in their journeys to and from learning and education. Throw in a few breaks out in the hallway and BAM, you have increased interaction that sponsors and exhibitors will really appreciate and notice.

Here is a picture of what they were able to do with the space (note – the picture was taken on the last day while sessions were taking place so there is a reason that the crowd looks light, all of the sponsors that I spoke with thought that the event was an amazing success and would be happy to sign on again).

Using Space Effectively for your meeting or conference

CMS Expo 2011

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Anonymous
We’ve put our exhibitors in the foyer since we started in 2007. Always get great reviews. The one year we didn’t, it went terrible, no attendees went to the expo room, and sponsors were pissed. Other than that one time, sponsors are front and center.
We even do our evening receptions in the same space to encourage more mixing
Sue Pelletier
I’ve been to a few smaller shows that do this, and it’s brilliant. But how to get the same sort of interaction when you have hundreds of exhibitors? Nobody has hallways that long, do they?
http://www.industrythoughts.net Keith Johnston
Hi Sue,
Wouldn’t it be amazing if their were a conference center that was nothing more than one long hallway… you start at one end and have to exit the other! Then everyone would be forced to visit every booth.
All kidding aside, you make an excellent point. It is an easy solution for a conference or meeting with only 20 exhibitors/sponsors but not a very good solution for a show with 2000 exhibitors.
What to do? I think that with an event with 100 or 1200 exhibitors, there is a different expectation of crowd size (sponsors won’t be happy with 100 attendees) and it is up to the organizers to come up with the content needed to get the attendees and then the unique programs and ideas to get them to visit the exhibit hall…For this, I always find it helpful to actually sit down with a good mix of exhibitors and talk it out and work on ideas together… it actually does help and not many shows talk to their sponsors and exhibitors in an honest fashion.
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