9 TOP TIPS
For improving engagement and increasing lead generation at FTE APEX and IFSA Onboard Hospitality Virtual Expo
Due to COVID-19 and the restrictions in physical events throughout 2020, we understand that whether you’re an established industry vendor or an early-stage startup, you’re struggling to find innovative and effective methods of generating qualified leads and converting revenues.
FTE APEX and IFSA Onboard Hospitality Virtual Expo provides the ideal platform to demo your products and services to over 8,000 senior decision-makers from airlines, airports, and their partners, without any costly shipping, printing, travel, or accommodation costs.
But exactly how do you showcase your solution, service, or product on a virtual platform? Here are our top tips on how to utilise the functionality of our system, and even improve on the options available at a face-to-face event to super-charge your exposure and stand out from your competitors!
1. IMPRESS YOUR AUDIENCE WITH STUNNING 3D DESIGNS
“First impression is the last impression”, isn’t that so? Present your clients with an eye catching and informative stand, grabbing their attention from the moment they enter the exhibition.
Our easy to use Booth Design site will provide a range of stand options and outline the artwork dimensions for your graphics team to create signage to reflect your brand. Use the step-by-step process to add links to external sites, brochures, PowerPoints, videos and more.
Forget the limitations of what your budget will allow you to build at a physical event and what brochures you can fit in your luggage – add it all. You can now provide an even richer, visually compelling experience to attract and captivate a larger market and “show” them who you are.
2. INCLUDE A QUICK ELEVATOR PITCH VIDEO TO COMMUNICATE WHAT YOU DO – AND WHAT YOUR PRODUCT, SERVICE OR SOLUTION OFFERS THE INDUSTRY
So often attendees are overwhelmed by the options available and can roam an exhibition floor passing by exhibitors without fully understanding what their solution is. Do not allow for this to happen on your stand, by adding an easily accessible and informative video.
You can embed URL links directly into your exhibition stand artwork, or add weblinks to sites like YouTube or Vimeo – so why not use one of these videos as a one minute elevator pitch video on what you do and why people should engage with your staff to learn more?
This can be a professional advert, or a video recording made by a knowledgeable member of staff – the opportunities are scalable to all technical capabilities.
3. USE THE VIDEO CHAT FEATURE TO COMPLETE LIVE DEMONSTRATIONS
Uncertain about whether you can truly showcase the capabilities of our product virtually? Look no further. The FTE APEX and IFSA Onboard Hospitality Virtual Expo platform allows you to connect face-to-face, in real time, with attendees visiting your booth. With your team ready and waiting on your factory floor or within your office facilities, you can showcase not just one solution but all your products, to attendees of the event.
The virtual event platform allows for you to login to the event using any web enabled device – be it a smart phone (iPhone, android etc.), tablet or laptop. Use the camera and microphone on your device to walk around the product and showcase exactly how it works. Just like any video call, you will see and hear the attendee and you can answer any questions they may have and adjust your demonstration to suit their needs.
You could even go one step further and utilise something like a Mevo camera, to easily record in and around your product – this will allow you to stream directly to your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn account. Just add those social media links to your virtual exhibition booth and you will both be promoting your solution in the public forum (they might even register for the event to learn more) and to attendees of the event - simultaneously!
4. SCHEDULE GROUP DEMONSTRATIONS*
Manage your teams’ time effectively, with scheduled group demonstrations. This will allow for you to publish a programme of topical or focused presentations on your stand; attendees can visit your stand at a specified time to participate in group video demonstrations directly from your factory floor.
*Only included in certain exhibition packages.
5. ADDRESS CURRENT PAIN POINTS AND HOW YOUR PRODUCT CAN HELP
FTE and APEX events uniquely attract stakeholders representing every element of the end-to-end air travel journey all looking to engage in our event theme ‘Transforming air transport post-COVID-19’.
Our attendees of airlines, airports, vendors, startups, OEMs, government agencies, destination partners and various other travel industry players will be looking to learn all about the products and services that can help them overcome today’s challenges, reinvent their business, and thrive in the post-COVID-19 world.
We encourage all our exhibiting companies to consider the event theme when creating their stand. Clearly addressing the current challenges and concerns of our audience will be beneficial when connecting with attendees. How can your product, service, or solution help attendees reduce costs, reimagine guest experiences and increase revenues in a newly enforced sanitised and socially distanced environment?
6. UTILISE YOUR FTE APEX and IFSA Onboard Hospitality Virtual Expo MARKETING PACK
Exhibitions not only give you a marketing advantage over your competitors, but they will also give you the opportunity to meet all your customers and prospects in one place. Virtual events are new to many of us, so to help you make the most out of your time at this virtual show, and to generate as much awareness of your attendance, we have compiled a dedicated marketing pack. This includes various marketing activities you should complete before, during and after the event, plus several marketing graphics you can use to promote your attendance and invite your prospects.
7. TARGET YOUR SALES PITCH TO THE GLOBAL & LOCAL MARKET
FTE APEX and IFSA Onboard Hospitality Virtual Expo will deliver our biggest ever level of attendance, engaging with a wider audience by removing all geographical restraints. Important stakeholders who were previously unable to attend a live FTE event for in-person interactions, can now easily login and start engaging with you.
We have learnt from our attendees that they appreciate engaging with both companies based locally and internationally, to learn from different regions. This global platform provides suppliers with a unique opportunity to clearly promote the country in which they are based – With this approach, you can reconnect with your local audience and discover a new global market which can help skyrocket your business.
Tapping into and adjusting your sales approach to local and global attendees will naturally create a larger pool of lead prospects.
8. USE YOUR DEDICATED EXHIBITION DISCUSSION FORUM
To fulfil the goal of a successful event, you need to ensure maximum interaction between yourself and potential clients. We know that you will be making good use of the one-to-one chat feature to educate and engage prospects via text, audio & video chat. But we also want to encourage our exhibitors to use their dedicated discussion forum.
Here, you can further improve your conversion rates by addressing FAQs in group chat rooms to target multiple online prospects at once. Attendees really appreciate feeling as though they are part of a community, and feel less pressure than engaging one-to-one; so this is a really nice environment to have open, friendly discussion and learn about the challenges encountered every day by your clients – and how you can help.
The discussion forum can help eliminate the hassle of long queues around booths, while at the same time, provide your audience with individual assistance towards their respective queries.
9. CONTINUE ENGAGEMENT POST-EVENT THROUGH DATA DRIVEN LEAD TRACKING
The best part of going virtual: your engagement does not end with the event. Post-event data and analytics provide a wealth of qualitative information and leads for your team to follow up on, in the weeks and months after the event. This information includes:
- How many attendees have visited your stand
- Who these attendees are – Name, Job Title, Company Name, Areas of Interest, Purchasing Responsibility, Level of Seniority etc.
- What content tabs they have clicked on
- Which external links they have followed
- What documents they have downloaded or added to their personal swag bag
- What videos they have watched (including how many times they watched them)
Being able to monitor the level of engagement of event attendees makes post-event follow up easier since you can segment people based on their engagement. Learn from the content each attendee has engaged with, and personalise your follow up message to reflect that you understand and can assist with their needs; this approach is far more potent in capturing leads as compared to a standardised follow-up strategy.
In addition to the above, you’ll be happy to hear that the FTE APEX and IFSA Onboard Hospitality Virtual Expo doors are open for 30 days after the event. We’ve left the door open for an additional stream of prospects to access your exhibition stand, to explore the resources you’ve uploaded and to reach out for further information.
The above-mentioned channels will help our exhibitors get the most out of their investment, extending lead generation and extending opportunitie
Thank you to everyone who joined us at FTE APEX Virtual Expo 2021.
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Industry messages of support
The team at FTE APEX, staying true to their beliefs of bringing the aviation industry together at scale, connecting the ecosystem with smart, exciting and creative methods of engagement, have not stood still. I believe they are creating a truly unique opportunity for suppliers, airlines, airports, solution providers, product developers and manufacturers, by embracing and adapting key technology developments, which will spur new thinking and many more creative approaches to how we can all experience products and services in our new contactless world. So come on, join the new world of distanced, but connected, engaging experiences through the FTE APEX Virtual Expo.
“This industry needs a major virtual trade show this year while it cannot meet in person and FTE is exactly the right organisation to be delivering it this December. I look forward to being involved, and to all the engagement and announcements I know that FTE APEX Virtual Expo will generate.”
“The recent FTE APEX virtual events have been extremely helpful for the airline ecosystems to share information, to cope with the Corona situation, and to prepare for the new normal. Taking that premise to the next level with the FTE APEX Virtual Expo is exciting indeed and the Japan Airlines team look forward to being involved”.
“More than ever at a time like this, the industry needs to come together to collaborate and find ways of working that can facilitate new revenue streams and efficiencies. I strongly encouraged the FTE Team to pursue its virtual strategy because very few air transport stakeholders can travel to conventions this year, but we still need to engage. I think FTE APEX Virtual Expo will draw a huge crowd and become one of the most important initiatives in FTE’s 15-year existence.”
FrontM participated in the recent FTE APEX Ancillary Virtual Event. Throughout the whole lifecycle – before, during and after the event – the FTE team were professional, friendly and focused on helping our participation be as successful as possible. Since our pitch slot, we have had great conversations with a number of prospects and other attendees, which we wouldn’t necessarily have been able to have without FTE. Highly recommended!
FTE and APEX did a great job delivering timely content to a broad global audience through their recent webinars, in one of which I was proud to participate. I am really looking forward to the FTE APEX Virtual Expo this December. Given the current situation with the pandemic, this is a creative way to offer all industry stakeholders the chance to come together to talk, to listen, to learn and to engage in ways that will advance our common causes.
“The FTE APEX team have done a brilliant job with their virtual pivot, and I really enjoyed being part of their recent Ancillary webinar. The FTE APEX Virtual Expo looks like a great logical next step, and I am sure it will deliver a lot of value to all involved.”
“We are in a new normal everywhere. SEA will be sharing new ideas and approaches to help overcome the challenges created by COVID-19 at the FTE APEX Virtual Expo. We will be looking forward to hearing others share their experiences, and learn from each other. “
We are incredibly excited to host this truly dynamic and global virtual event, and we are looking forward to offering much more than straightforward webinars, which have become commonplace in recent months. The industry wants more than that now and FTE APEX Virtual Expo will provide the sector with a large-scale digital trade show that will creatively offer real engagement, networking and business development opportunities for everyone involved.
FTE APEX Virtual Expo will act as a beacon for our industry’s recovery and bring global stakeholders together en masse to inspire one another. Our stakeholders want to connect and engage to share ideas, propositions, visions and learnings. This announcement also marks another important milestone in the integration efforts between APEX and FTE. Our ambition is to deliver a unified approach and increase the value the association provides to the entire air transport industry, both in the air and on the ground.
FTE APEX VIRTUAL EXPO 2021
Future Travel Experience (FTE) and the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) will jointly host the industry trade show with the widest global attendance in 2021, FTE APEX Virtual Expo. Through a diverse exhibition showcasing the industry’s most forward thinking vendors and all-encompassing conference sessions, Virtual Expo will deliver a wealth of networking opportunities and inspiration across the most pertinent topics – from transforming the travel experience through digital health passports and automation at the airport, through to enhancing the onboard experience through inflight entertainment and connectivity, interiors, service and catering, hospitality and retail.