Expobo’s Virtual Trade Show Platform

Part two.

Enter the world of Expobo’s Virtual Trade Show, a social platform, designed for travel and hospitality, as well as other sectors, based on a successful job expo platform from Norway (jobexpo.com). If you are in the industry, or indeed engaged as a marketer, and liked what you read so far, including the listed features, Expobo has all the capacity explained above, with a proven concept.

In fact, Expobo is a solution that is built to completely mirror a real event and still be able to sustain the value of a physical trade show with all the bells and whistles – with a focus on selling. Especially it enables the buying and selling of goods and services in real time.

And, specifically, its differentiation brings a much more complete system to the market, as noted in the provider’s benchmarking: “Our advantage is the LinkedIn social media feeling, that each booth has web shop capability and with video chat/chat request options. Also the ‘design your own booth’ feature stands out, where a company can custom-design booths etc.”

A hotel group could be the organiser and each hotel the exhibitor. An example scenario could be as follows. A hotel group or tourist organisation hosts a virtual B2C trade show. Hotels are exhibitors. All hotels must have a certain campaign. All transactions and appointments that take place virtually the organiser will have statistics on that can be shared with the hotels.

Expobo especially enables:

Individual booth design

A booth design can be configured via Expobo’s preset options or be custom designed. To have a uniquely designed booth is obviously a very important feature in terms of branding, sales and marketing. The built-in avatar can be also changed easily with an option to upload images of your own team.

Stand-alone marketplace

Since Expobo is a new portal for exhibitions worldwide (currently in build-up phase), each exhibitor can have an own booth outside of the event as such, e.g. stand-alone, and function just like an offer in a marketplace.

Users visiting Expobo will be able to find it. The exhibitor can choose to be online at the frequency one so wishes–for instance with certain open hours Monday-Friday–and can share it via social media channels etc. Feature: When a team member is on standby, and logged in, the booth will show: ‘online’, if not ‘offline’.

Then, when occasionally joining a trade show one should give special discounts to attract customers and give value to those there ‘right now’. The shorter time the promotion lasts and the better deal the more interesting it would be for people to attend.

Expobo brings the marketplace effect (same as a cluster of many business booths inside large events and trade shows, where visitors see the value to get amazing deals during a specific time frame, all in one place) to the trade show market:

“Expobo’s platform allows hotels and hotel groups to join virtual communities’ events with potential bookers OR to build their own communities,” says Alex Parry from Expobo.

It allows anyone the ability to create virtual events and build communities to connect buyers and sellers (such as hotel groups, travel agents and event organisers).

Placing a booth inside the event of its choice makes it a lot less costly for a business to attract customers and partners. Visitors will be able browse events, join events and browse booths inside an event with the click of a button.

Professional user profiles

On Expobo every user, including consumers, has a profile intended for professional business and trade shows (compared with for instance Facebook that people often do not want to use for business, as it is too personal).

People prefer to connect and transact business deals via a professional and secure business-to-business platform, with a verified and branded business profile.

B2B specifics

“To know who the people are in a virtual or physical event is important, and if your average video conferencing tool lacks the business profile and bio of the user, then your business will remain in the dark,” says Alex Parry.

A profile is needed to make a purchase or conduct meetings. To join an event you create an account and add required info. An organiser can invite to get access to the event within a certain industry only. Given that each visitor, business and admin have their own profiles, with a biography and can follow each other, and can add biography it works similar to your Linkedin profile. Based on enough details in the profiles every participating stakeholder can search for and find prospects/other persons one would like to interact with, compared to randomised encounters in a physical event.

An exhibitor can also host a group video chat, for example to do a presentation for select visitors.

Food for thought

Today it is possible to mirror the real value of what a trade show is about. The timing is right, as cloud services and internet networks have now caught up with such demands.

“Very few virtual platforms are able to completely replicate physical trade-shows and make it look and feel impressive, while including analytical tools to improve leads engagement. Expobo checks all the boxes and does just that, while enabling social networking and effective ways to generate real-time sales,” highlights Alex Parry.

It’s easier for customers and hospitality providers to meet virtually than on a huge physical trade show. When choosing the right virtual platform the exhibitors are less likely to lose business opportunities, and stand a better chance to attract new potential customers. It is easier for customers to join virtually than joining physical events and this allows for more eyeballs and shoppers to find the hotel they are looking for.

What is specific with virtual is that you are on stand-by for any visitor. Instant gratification is very important. You can be involved with your prospects and customers and talk to/sell to x number of prospects in one day = VERY effective!

An event organiser can run online while the same time having a physical event and in that way get more visitors and draw in by-passers to visit online. The hybrid part can be a massive bonus as your event gets much more exposure, so a bigger chance more people will come to the physical event.

Alex Parry states: “The bottom line is that thanks to lower buy-in via virtual you will have much faster ROI. You’ll need fewer sales for it to pay off. Thus, small companies suddenly get an opportunity to have the same competitive edge as larger companies.”

“Expobo offers hotels, hotel groups and organizers the opportunity to build their own communities and create virtual deals real-time, without distracting ads and big data algorithms that are used by Facebook, Linkedin and the top five online booking engines. With Expobo hotels are able improve direct bookings and build personal relationships, and nobody will try to up-sell your client to a competitor.”

Expobo offers the perfect blend of stunning design and user-friendly navigation. It fulfils needs for virtual trade shows, conferences, seminars, breakout/workshop sessions and marketplaces. It is scalable, and enterprise level. Expobo is built to deliver the best possible marketplace and immersive online experience. Utilize Expobo’s virtual meeting place to build high-value relationships and generate sales.

“We are very committed to helping hotels and hospitality organisers to get started with selling rooms and travel deals on Expobo’s virtual trade show platform. We have several no-risk options (allowing organisers to find exhibitors before launching their first trade show) for anyone who wants to create a virtual event - be it a hotel, hotel groups or anyone who wants to become a virtual trade show organiser.”

Ask for a demo, contact us via: Siliconhm.com

To get the bigger picture for hospitality, learn how a virtual platform can be the solution for ongoing direct sales and campaigns, and details on the features it should entail see also part one: The ultimate virtual marketplace/trade show platform for hotels