Red Diamond Congress 2011: Reinventing the model for trade show education and face-to-face connections

Robert Hughes is President of The Hughes Group in Baltimore, Maryland. I had the opportunity of interviewing Bob in June 2011 on the unique design of the Red Diamond Congress (RDC) 2011 and the reasons for this innovative design. Bob is a spellbinder and is one of the most interesting people that I have ever met.

Nary:  You are the principal architect of the Red Diamond Congress 2011, an innovative model for trade show and exhibit industry education along with face-to-face connections with the sponsors. What were the challenges in trade shows and exhibitions that required this paradigm shift, and how has this model addressed these challenges?

Hughes: In 2008, there was an enormous financial crunch and we were bordering on a recession. It appeared that the future of trade shows was going to change, either as a function of the size of an organization, the needs of the organization, or of maturation within the market place. The exhibit mangers were becoming stratified between the well-seasoned, the well-experienced, the very mature, and the entry level.

During that time, I co-wrote a white paper titled Future Show; A Meeting Model for the 21st Century. After twenty years of working with small and large exhibitors as customers, we shifted to including organizers as clients. In order to do the best job possible, we first had to learn more about their needs and troubles.  We also spoke with general contractors to get first-hand knowledge on their needs and troubles.  I especially needed first-hand knowledge of the financial pressures, the time pressures, the demand pressures of all three stakeholder segments on our market.

Nowhere in our system did the need exist to have shared experiences.  A model was required for the exhibitor or sponsor to have direct contact with the attendee off the tradeshow floor.  So we invented one  that put the attendee in the center, and we envisioned the organizer as the enabling connection between the exhibitor, the sponsor, and the speakers.  This allowed us to create an environment where there is shared learning and remove the pressure of sales. This would allow us to do several things:

• Remove the reservation in the attendee's mind of talking with the sponsor.
• Set up the dynamic with the sponsor/exhibitor to not necessarily send sales people but rather senior management or subject matter experts who could conduct an exploratory conversation with the attendee to uncover the needs and, either jointly or on a consulting basis, create solutions.

Bring speakers and put them in a teaching, coaching, or seminar mode so that instead of  the entire audience, we go to a group that is self-selected by interest or need that would create mini-learning communities.

Nary: Anytime we have change, there are always people are who are hesitant towards change. What could you tell potential sponsors that might encourage them to participate in this unique and innovative event that is the 2011 Red Diamond Congress?

Hughes: The best position for a vendor is to be a ‘trusted advisor,’ someone the prospect or eventual customer can rely on.  At Red Diamond Congress, sponsors will be able to further strategic discussion by meeting one-on-one with the attendees. This dedicated time slot on the agenda will occur several times and have no conflict.  The goal is to facilitate discussion between buyers and sellers in a non-invasive environment, with the focus being on how your solutions can be a business driver for event managers’ organizations.

The goal is to create a new learning experience, a shared experience in a different context, in a way where we interact in an environment that promotes learning, networking, and problem-solving while reducing costs to the sponsor. This, in turn, becomes a more dynamic problem-solving environment for the attendee.

Nary: Do you believe that stakeholders in the industry could come together to help each other? And, if so, how and what would model look like?

Hughes: This industry, more than any other industry, has the potential to do that. In almost 30 years, I have never seen one exhibitor refuse another exhibitor’s request for help: a knife, a pen, a piece of tape, Velcro, carpet, etc. Even when someone’s exhibit doesn’t show up, other exhibitors’ have offered their exhibits, use of their freight company, use of their labor.  If we identify that as one of our shared values, we can leverage that shared sense of community that we have between exhibitors.

That also extends to all the buyers. I would be surprised if we would find one professional exhibit manager who doesn’t have a story they can tell about one of their vendors who went above and beyond to help them meet the needs of their particular event.  A driver drove all night; a carpenter stayed up all night building something; the printer printed something, occasionally not even charging them because of the relationships. Because of the shared need within our industry, I believe that our differences are on the surface.  I believe the true driver in our industry is our shared experience and that the show must go on.  But I would change one word. Instead of the "show," I would say "industry."  The industry must go on.

We must be committed to change, evolution, reinvention. No show is the same every year. Every show changes, from city to city, from venue to venue, from cast to cast. This industry, more than any other industry, has the potential to  come together and not only survive but, I believe, thrive.  We can leverage the shared experience we have on the trade show floor to help the industry evolve to benefit everyone.

Nary: When we focus on the goal of our Red Diamond Congress which, in addition to networking, is education and advocacy, I question whether most of us really understand what the connection is between education and advocacy. Could you discuss this relationship and how the unique structure of RDC 2011 makes that connection and affects our ability to advance both education and advocacy, and better understand this critical and essential connection?

Hughes: They are inexorably linked.  There is a wonderful quote attributed to Albert Einstein: “if we continue doing the same thing over and over, it’s unrealistic to expect a different outcome.”

If advocacy is about change, then we need to learn three things: what we have done in the past; what we are currently doing; and what we can do.  If we continue to react the same way to the current conditions, we are condemned to have the same result.  If we can create new reactions to the current condition, we can take the new action.  The only way that I know of that we can create a new reaction to our circumstances is through being open to new information, also known as learning.

I also want to quote Margie Bastolla, Director of Advocacy for The Institute of Internal Auditors, Inc. Margie talks about advocacy as instilling pride in our profession, encouraging change, and building relationships with organizations and stakeholders that impact our profession globally.  She encourages each person in her organization to see themselves as an advocate and actively promote their profession.  So if we can join together—managers, exhibit builders, general service contractors, marketing experts—as a team, I think we can move that forward.  And that is where I stress the need to be willing to change.

Being willing to change is being willing to learn; being willing to learn enables us to have pride—in ourselves, our companies, and in our industry.  Through learning, we get new ideas. With new ideas, we can formulate new actions.  And with new actions, we can come together to work and not only survive, but thrive.

Face-to-face marketing is so critical, and face-to face communication is so critical, that I hope that we can all embrace the willingness to change, the willingness to learn, the willingness to look for a common language, the willingness to be as competitive as we are in our space, but to drive for the perfection so along the way we can create excellence.

Nary: Do you believe that all of the stakeholders in the industry can come together and help each other and, if so, how and what would that actually look like?

Hughes: If we look at Darwin and a recently written book, Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World by Margaret Wheatley, we often say survival of the fittest, but the research shows it’s survival of the most cooperative.

Divergence always precedes significant growth in any evolution; here are two examples.  Apple’s great growth was not in selling more laptops; it was in selling music.  That’s a pretty serious divergence.  All they did was repackage what was already there in a really clever way. They made it easier, then made a ton of money making it easy.  That’s going to be theme I come back to multiple times here.  Dodge survived, not with the K car, but with the Caravan. What did they do? They made it easier for mom to take the kids to school and soccer practice. They made it easier, and made a lot of money doing that.

Are we open enough to absorb new information and then have a new reaction to the current circumstances? Can we embrace change? Can we be proud of our organization?  The answer is yes, we can.  We can come together and create a shared vision for the future.

• We can make it easier for the sponsor to get a return on their investment.
• We can make it easier for the attendees to solve problems and have a great experience.
• We can make it easier for the faculty to talk to he attendees and the attendees to talk to them.
• We can make it easier for the exhibitor to understand everyone's needs.

Nary: Thank you for your vision which has helped establish TSEA as a leading thoughtleader in the  tradeshow  and exhibit industry and position Red Diamond Congress as the lead event in advocacy and learning.

About the Author

Gordon Nary is Editor of ABOUTFACE and Education Coordinator
Trade Show Exhibitors Association