Design and Content, not just Technology, will decide the appeal and effectiveness of virtual exhibitions [Part 1 /2]

Disclaimer: User and Visitor used interchangeably. Virtual expo, cloud expo, digital exhibition, e-expo used interchangeably. Male gender used as generic, to represent all genders.

On April 8, Canton Fair, officially known as the China Import and Export Fair, made an important announcement - that it would go online for its May edition [to be actually held in mid-late June].

This wasn't a small announcement. Why?

The Canton Fair is China's 'oldest, largest, and the most representative trade fair', running since 1957 and doing six phases a year, each phase lasting 5 days. It attracts 25,000 exhibitors, 98% of whom are Chinese. It's held over an area of 1.2 million square meters, the size of nearly 700 World Cup size football fields. It's massive and its role in making China in the world's favorite source for products has been pivotal.

Funny though it may sound, many exhibition industry executives around the world, when the read this news, sighed in relief. Because this was in line with their reading of the future - that it's safer to assume that there would be no scope for physical exhibitions for some time.

In a January 2020 survey by exhibition industry association UFI [read UFI's bi-annual Global Exhibition Barometer here] nearly 70% of organizers said they were hopeful of a turnover growth in 2020 versus 2019. Now all stakeholders, not just organizers, hit hard by lock down and social distancing led cancellations, are looking at ending 2020 with a 50-70% lower revenue. If they are lucky.

Many have already announced delay or cancellation of their shows till end of the year. Most have internally written off 2020 as an unprecedented year, making efforts to just ride the storm and somehow survive while making reboot plans for future. This seemed to be the only way to reduce the anxiety caused by the uncertainty.

Hunan Auto Show is near-now normal

Then, yesterday, April 30, in an apparent defiance of the times we are going through, Hunan Auto Show opened for business. While the visitor numbers may not be available for some time, it is fair to assume that they would be lower than previous editions. Even so, it reintroduces uncertainty to the exhibition's industry's thinking. Will governments and public health officials in other countries allow physical exhibitions to reopen soon, with all attendant precautions, the Hunan Auto Show way, or will organizers be forced to go pure online, the Canton Fair way?

Even if allowed, should Organizers exercise restraint and keep their physical shows 'closed' out of respect for visitors' and exhibitors' well being, even at the cost of lost revenue, and hardships overall?

On the likely answers to these lies the short term health and long term shape of the MICE super-industry, not just Exhibitions.

The MICE super-industry is in a massive transitional phase and is ready for a major upgrade. And within it, the Exhibition and Expocon industry has the biggest opportunity to get to a much higher level of sophistication. Some may be fearing the disruptive nature of the situation we are in, but I am personally upbeat and I know several industry leaders who feel the same way.

The possible sudden collapse of 50% of a USD 60 billion industry, impacting millions of people employed directly and indirectly, organizers, venue owners, service providers, businesses [sellers, buyers], cities and destinations, is bad. Really bad.

And that’s exactly what is also good for its future.

Pretty much all leaders and progressive thinking executives in Exhibitions industry have now come to accept that the next normal in this business is unlikely to be near-now. Whether because of regulator concern about public health or Visitors’ fear of mass gathering events, the shape and form of the physical exhibition will change significantly and they are all willing and ready to make that change. Even if the physical shows eventually return to be close to what they were two months ago, as indeed the way the Hunan Auto Show has apparently opened today, organisers know they are better off working hard to boost their business immunity during this downtime.

Since the time frame of the return of physical exhibitions is not known, most Show Organizers have started planning for pure digital or virtual shows in the near term and blended versions after the return of normalcy. Like China’s Canton Fair, many organizers have announced their plans for virtual shows. Most are busy evaluating and choosing technology platforms to set up virtual shows. Many online conference software solutions are claiming to be virtual exhibition-ready as well. Exhibitors have started getting EOI mails about virtual exhibitions.

But what will a virtual exhibition look like? What proposition can it credibly and meaningfully deliver to visitors, making it worth their while to give their time and attention? Which of the components of a physical expo will it replicate, which will it drop and what will it augment? How? How will visitors and exhibitors, used to physical meeting and greeting, handshakes, hugs and kisses on the cheeks, adapt? Will it just look and feel like a Zoom call, something that people have now got used to, but has limited utility? Will it be flattened and be closer to Alibaba? Or will it be a virtual city like Second Life?

My evolving thoughts in Part 2. Read here.