Thinking Outside the Box - TSEA Launches Series of NEW Products Webcasts for All Members and Exhibitors

Issue: 
Vol 4, No 2
Author: 
Michael J Hatch

What is the No.1 reason people attend trade shows? And what is the most powerful word in advertising? The answer to those two questions is what has made exhibitions such a powerful marketing force for hundreds of years. And now, TSEA is bringing that power and it's benefits to our active and allied members and the exhibition community at-large every month—versus the traditional once a year cycle a trade show offers—in an all-new program launching Tuesday, February 28th.

"New" is the answer to those two questions. After years of testing, Madison Avenue advertising guru David Ogilvy found that "new" was, hands down, the most powerful word his firm could use to prompt consumers to read his clients' advertising, watch and, most importantly, respond to offers and buy their products. Using that power his agency helped build business icons like Schweppes, Hathaway Shirts, and Rolls-Royce in the baby boom years after World War II.

Simultaneously, within the exhibition industry, study after study by organizations like TSEA, Meeting Professionals International (MPI), and the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) found that the #1 reason people attended trade shows was to find, feel and touch new and innovative products and services.

Thinking Outside the Box

Thinking outside the box, the TSEA management and marketing team asked: Why can't we bring new products to both our members and exhibitors worldwide more than once a year? Second, given the fact that most exhibitions and even our own events only attract less than 15% of the buyers in any given industry, "How can we bring these innovative, better and cost-saving products and services to the other 85%+ of exhibitors?" On Tuesday, February 28th, TSEA will launch a program to do just that!

Essential Social Media Communications Strategies for 2012

Issue: 
Vol 4, No 2
Author: 
Ben Olson

We are past the days of excuses. We can no longer call social media a trend. Don't even try the overused "my target audience isn't using it". Because in 2012, individuals on average are engaged in multiple forms of social media daily.

So you have decided to take the leap as your competitors have, knowing if you were ignoring social media your audience was ignoring you. With more people in the conversations, now comes the problem marketers have in other marketing disciplines. How to be heard?

As a trade show and event marketer, your ultimate goal is to get prospects to your event and turn them to leads for your sales team.

Below are five social media tactics you should consider implementing in your 2012 communication plan to drive attendance, create awareness and continue conversations between events

Design as Communication

Issue: 
Vol 4, No 2
Author: 
Duane Hayes

A Montage of Examples of Echelon Design's CreativityA Montage of Examples of Echelon Design's Creativity

If you want to understand Communication in a fundamental way, listen to a child report bad news such as the proverbial broken vase or poor test score. He or she struggles to discover the magic words that'll minimize the damage to their freedom or allowance. This is communication in its learning years.

Likewise, when a company markets itself, it wrangles over the right words for its advertisement. Untold hours are spent in front of dry erase boards, interfacing through email threads, etc. all trying to find just the right language and the appropriate images to convey a message. Welcome again to communication!

However, when this same company commits to exhibiting at a trade show, they frequently find themselves tripping over the right way to express themselves. They have many exciting ideas that need to be conveyed. Through luck alone the results can be marginally successful. More often, though, the results present themselves as awkwardly as the grade school child trying to explain that a vase spontaneously cracked to pieces on its own. Say hello to communication!

Trade shows confront the corporate world with an entirely new language set. It's called Design, and it's spoken less predominantly with words, more-so with elements such as Form, Scale, Color, Lighting, and Technology. Together these blend to create a language that can be as grand as a certain canyon in Arizona, or as awkward as a CEO delivering comedy to mask a poor keynote speech.

The Greeks Have a Word for It: TSEA's New Mentor Program

Issue: 
Vol 4, No 1
Author: 
Gordon Nary

I have always loved Greek mythology. One of my favorite books when I was in high school was Homer's The Odyssey. One of the more memorable stories was the legend of Mentor. Mentor was a friend of Odysseus, the hero of The Odyssey, who asked Mentor to tutor his son Telemachus when he went off to war. However, on several occasions, the goddess Athena (see the photo of her statue above) assumed the disguise of Mentor to give Telemachus more practical advice. This legend resulted in the use of the word mentor (σοφός σύμβουλος) as a synonym for tutor or wise advisor.

Mentors have often had a profound impact on the lives of those they have helped.

Aristotle mentored Alexander the Great,
Martin Scorsese mentored Oliver Stone,
Obi-wan Kenobi mentored Luke Skywalker, and
Batman mentored Robin

Like Batman, TSEA also has some superhero mentors whom you will notice in our new Meet our Mentors section of our home page as well checking out the TSEA Mentors web page which also has complete instructions on how to request a mentor. You can also access this web page from our home page by just clicking on the Meet our Mentors heading at the top of the moving photos of our mentors which you can also click on to read their mini bios and areas of expertise.

Some of our members have commented on the importance of this TSEA member benefit.

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