With a hybrid trade show, you combine new and familiar formats to reach customers and shape the present in an enduring way. We support you in making this event an impactful experience.
"After the pandemic, there will be no more real trade shows. Virtual events will dominate."
These predictions were heard everywhere in recent years, and booth builders* and companies alike eagerly awaited more relaxed measures that would make face-to-face events possible.
But the threat of completely losing in-person trade shows never materialized. From the SPS to the bauma to numerous conferences and conventions, all events are being attended again – and like never before. The event industry and companies have learned a lot from the pandemic. Digital trade shows have been an opportunity to try out new tools and explore the nature of communication. The acceleration that the pandemic triggered for digital technologies need not simply fizzle out again. Hybrid trade shows offer the best of both worlds – online and on-site – elevating emotional presentations, enabling flexibility, and bringing borderless networking and dialogue with customers to a whole new level. But how, exactly, does this look?
Using a virtual show to complement your in-person program at the trade show
There are various ways to connect the digital and real — and they go far beyond a livestream of the trade show.
For example, you can use a so-called "virtual ballroom" to offer online guests spread around the world a platform for joint discussions, further information or even workshop areas. In this way, your online audience members go from spectators to participants. Speakers from other countries and other locations can also be connected live to the stage and thus be present despite geographic distance. Limited booth sizes can also be problem solved with a digital showroom. Spatial boundaries disappear and products and solutions that are in the ideation or design stage can be presented virtually.
To strengthen the bond with your customers before and after a trade show, there are additional digital offers that can supplement the experience. After a digital or hybrid event, for example, you can present further products to invited visitors and go into more depth in a Q&A session to strengthen trust in your company and brand. You can also invite your trade show leads to the event and boost networking opportunities in a unique setting.
Using your trade show booth for presentations – all year long?
Digital techniques also offer other advantages that can make your trade show activities and the preparation time more efficient and sustainable. A lot of work goes into designing and building your booth each year. And after the trade show, for the most part, it needs to be disposed of. But what if you could use this booth for presentations all year round? Special software makes it possible to create a digital 3D environment from CAD files in which you can virtually move freely and walk around your trade show stand in our hybrid studio, for example.
The look and feel of the trade show can thus be easily transferred to digital platforms to be used for webinars, virtual booth tours and more.
The future is hybrid
After the limitations of previous years, hybrid events now offer companies the freedom to combine disparate elements of the real and virtual worlds. Visitors* also benefit from this freedom and can decide to attend an event on-site or digitally.
As a communications agency, we look forward to the coming trade shows and events – with all the past lessons learned and all the joy of live events. Regardless of whether your company wants to completely transition back to live events after years of virtual trade shows, enrich a live event with virtual elements, or hold a purely digital event: we are here to support you.
The new normal has just begun – with events that link the real and virtual and determine their own communication formats and configurations.
You would like to create your own event? Contact us to talk about your requirements.
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