Events Expo Booths--sales

[Lis]

Hi,

Does anyone have experience selling in zoom expo booths? My sponsors are e.g. publishers and artists and would like to take orders and payments while in their booth. How would the customer have access to any payment method, or an outside link? Would that have to be individually communicated via chat to each customer or downloaded in a .pdf? Maybe these links could be listed somewhere in an online reference?

Any ideas are welcome.

Thanks,

Lis

[TomGavazzi]

Hi Lis, do you find an answer to this because I am interested too?

[Lis]

Hi Tom, No, no one responded. My temporary solution will be to use the booth assets in the following way: the resource .pdf that can be downloaded will include pricing list, coupon, and link so people are encouraged to order during the event through existing websites/methods already set up to accept paypal. The 5 pictures we get are not as many as I'd hoped, but I think they could be 5 featured products/books or authors. The short video will have to be something the booth owner makes as motivational, educational, or marketing, and I'm encouraging sellers to bring as many helpers to the booth as possible---they get up to 4 "spaces" (which seem to be meeting rooms) to meet with customers, so having 4 or 5 in the booth would allow them to answer chat as well as meet in the rooms. Finally, we'll be paying special attention to the general sponsor information entered, to put a link to their sales page in the description......That's all I've come up with for a plan. It occurred to me that sponsors could have a paid session in the schedule, so that attendees might buy a "ticket" to this session which would really be a purchase, but it seemed too complicated, as it'd all go into my linked paypal. I'd love to hear any thoughts or ideas you have. With thanks, Lis

[TomGavazzi]

Hi Lis, for now, we are planning to organize the first B2B event in one industry. The merger of seller and buyer. The idea is that the event lasts for a month. During the event, we have a series of webinars such as panels, lectures, workshops and presentations,... In addition to virtual networking + exhibitor stands + exhibitor prize games and sponsors (the exhibitor has his own stand, and the sponsor is the sponsor of the entire event). Participation is free for buyers in order to have as much attendance as possible for sellers, and sellers pay for the exhibition at the stand + webinar, and sponsors pay for the sponsorship of the entire event. Visitors to the stands can get an overview of information about the exhibitor, they can download pdf material, they can watch a video or 3D if the exhibitor allows it, they can arrange a meeting with a sales representative via Calendly according to the offered dates or propose a meeting date themselves. Through tags and a smart search engine, buyers can quickly find who offers what they are interested in. In addition, there would be a series of prize games sponsored by sponsors and exhibitors, as well as annexes. Sellers would get a series of analytics to know who visited them. What do you think of the concept?

[Lis]

Hi Tom, I like the concept of it. I'm especially interested in the month-long opening; I was hoping to do something similar to keep booths available to people for longer---because my events are concentrated on 2 days (multiple tracks) I am concerned my attendees may get confused if the event is listed as a month long (which it must be in order to keep the booths open), and also that my booth inhabitants  will experience fatigue trying to staff their booths----it is hard to predict how many booth buyers will want to be there to answer questions, and how many will be satisfied with just leaving the .pdf to download. For all you have planned, it seems a good solution; I'd be interested to hear how it goes. The other issue that comes up for me in what you describe is the funding model. Because the cost of doing this online is so much less than in person, and because I serve mostly nonprofits and creatives, I'm emphasizing bringing money in from outside. So sponsors get their advertising and their booth, but when you say you're charging sellers----that could be difficult to attract smaller suppliers---and  sliding scales or % of sales (hard to verify) seem too convoluted . So one idea was to think of the booths in more than just sponsor categories: one is there for themselves to sell, another may be there just for publicity, and could support someone else to sell. For books, it'd be the difference between a bookstore being there to sell, and a bank being there to get their name attached to the arts and sponsoring a booth with 10 authors local to their location so that the authors could sell. In this way we expand the possible # of sponsors, and bring in more partners, who in turn make it possible for those who couldn't afford to be there, to attend. I wonder if there are, e.g. industry advocacy groups that you could draft to sponsor a booth or a group booth for smaller sellers to expand your reach (these places all have great mailing lists too)....Anyway, just a few thoughts---I'll be interested to hear how it works for you.  

With thanks,

Lis