If you’ve ever tried to launch a new event or exhibition or tried to grow a fledgling exhibition, likely you have encountered the chicken and egg dilemma. It’s a simple enough concept to explain but a difficult problem to solve. As an event organizer, you will get rejection after rejection from potential exhibiting companies (let’s call them the egg) stating they will only exhibit at your fair if there is a guarantee of a certain quantity and quality of visitors (let’s call these folks the chickens) to join.
On the other hand, your potential high-value professional visitors or trade buyers (chickens) will only visit your fair if it is worth their time i.e. if enough of the companies, products and services (eggs) will be at the show. Thus, is born the event organizer’s chicken and egg dilemma. This issue is one I have heard and worked towards solving for my clients and team members countless times.
I’m not going to lie, the solution to this problem is not easy. In fact, I would say a very small % of the teams I coach follow the recipe for success correctly. And it’s understandable. If every organizer spent the time to create a sublime launch exhibition, then everyone would go out and launch a new show tomorrow. But this is not feasible, and it is likely not going to happen. But why? Launch events typically have additional huge obstacles facing them. To name just a few of these hurdles:
· Lack of brand awareness, notoriety, credibility
· Lack of database for sales prospecting or visitor promotion
· Lack of the right partners to help promote and endorse the event
· Lack of historical data and references to use as benchmarks
· Lack of historical marketing assets to promote the fair
Now the above is just a shortlist of the obstacles facing launch events. It bears mentioning that launch events also require larger investments and longer lead time (think one year plus). With all these challenges, why bother trying to launch a new event? Well, the obvious answer is that new events pop-up daily because the world, industries, and society is constantly evolving. As our habits, use of technology, and ways of producing goods and services change so does the ecosystem which surrounds it. Thus, there is an opportunity for a new show and platform to discuss these challenges and opportunities [for said topic] to materialize. In other words, launch shows happen because there is a need for them.
So back to the initial title of this article, what comes first the chicken (visitors) or egg (exhibitors) for launch events? Which areas do we need to focus on first—exhibitors or visitors? The answer as I mentioned earlier is simple but hard to execute. For launch events you have to focus on exhibitor and visitor recruitment and promotion at the same time. One will feed upon the other. As you gain more exhibitors, you have more to promote to potential visitors. As your pre-registration picks-up you have more confidence to share with existing exhibitors as well as convince potential ones. The event cycle for launch events for exhibitor and visitor promotion is also different for events which have taken place for years. For this herculean task you also require a herculean effort. The “how” to do this is a lot to unpack… so stay tune as I tackle parts of this recipe for suggest throughout the year in this blog.
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