Suppliers travel back and Buyers travel into the future

Dear Reader,

Welcome to issue 13 of #SupplierPost (s) ?? - the biweekly newsletter with information and thoughts for MICE marketing and sales in a changed market. Yours Peter

Never before have the goals of suppliers and buyers in the MICE industry been so divergent as they are today. With the onset of the pandemic - in March 2019 - the engines of many suppliers stopped running and performance stuttered or even came to a complete standstill. State organizations and organizations that are financially supported by the membership fees of stately subsidized companies - the convention bureaus - but also numerous corporations among the MICE suppliers - such as some hotel chains - reduced so many resources with lay-offs, short-time work and home offices that a business paralysis was a logical consequence. It is astonishing that also in the places where MICE business could and can be generated, the resources were strongly reduced. The MICE departments of some hotel chains and airlines, congress centres and convention bureaus were (and in some cases still are) running on such a low flame that enquiries in the low-covid phases were left unanswered for weeks and event planners were close to tears, fighting for their survival.

Now even the last suppliers are waking up and obviously most of them have spent the time from March 2019 to March 2022 - i.e. 3 years - in a kind of time capsule. That's the impression! If I look at the supplier postings here for IMEX 2022 in Frankfurt and also the postings for IMEX America and ibtm world last December, they continue exactly where they left off in 2019 in terms of marketing and sales. Is this really the best solution? Can this work? Do buyers even want that any more??

Where are the buyers in 2022??

It has long been recognized that not every event has to be a real event. Many events are being transformed into online events or hybrid events. The agencies have acquired the skills during the pandemic, they have worked their way into the digital transformation, they have found solutions for companies and agencies and numerous companies and associations now recognize many advantages in online and hybrid events. 3 years of digital transformation, 3 years of innovations. This is what the buyers set against the 3 years of standstill on the supplier side. To put it somewhat cynically, the situation could be described as follows: while some have retreated into the home office, short-time work and to Netflix in the last three years, others have faced up to the pandemic situation and reacted well and acted innovatively, not the least out of pure pressure to survive.

It should be clear to the suppliers of the MICE industry that online and hybrid events do not sell any schnitzels and do not fill hotel beds. Studios for online events are not a solution in hotels and for hotels, but an expression of helplessness in the face of the digital transformation drive of hotel customers.

Where is the offensive of the suppliers pro real events? Where are the concepts and ideas that ensure that participants will want, need and be allowed to travel to destinations in the future? Where are the contemporary and genuine arguments for this??

The MICE trade fair IMEX - which starts today in Frankfurt - will certainly be a trend barometer of how the industry will develop in the future.

The buyers - the event planners - have long since embarked on a journey towards the future. They discuss events in the metaverse, replace numerous real events with online events and create hybrid event solutions. What will suppliers contribute to this, and what arguments will they use to counter it? That is the central question to which the fair will certainly provide an answer. Who will come, how many will come, and what is the actual motivation for a visit to the fair. How full are the exhibitors' schedules? How much business will be generated? How internationally representative is the exhibitor space booked? Which exhibitors are still participating in the fair and which are not? What and how do the exhibitors present themselves??

The eternal argument of: "nothing beats the personal encounter" is not enough.

I am hopeful that not all suppliers are running hopelessly behind. The exhibitors of IMEX 2022 are definitely chasing their customers here on LinkedIn. Never before have there been so many postings by IMEX exhibitors on LinkedIn, promoting themselves, their products and offers and begging for a visit to their stand. If the postings were grouped together, a visit to the trade fair would no longer be necessary for event planners - you can certainly find 90% of all exhibitors here on LinkedIn. If you are interested, you can send a short message via LinkedIn Messenger, make a quick video call to place an enquiry and invite the supplier to your office. If the business volume is large, the supplier is sure to come running... This is faster and more efficient than walking through large exhibition halls.?

It is to be hoped that the fair scores with other things and satisfies the exhibitors as well as the participants to the maximum. It is very unlikely that serious contracts will be signed - as used to be the case at trade fairs and sales events. Networking and cultivating contacts is certainly the main motivation for many participants who travel to this year's IMEX. However, this actually works very well without an exhibition stand.?

The topic of sustainable event planning is one of the future keys for the fundamental justification of events in the future. If this is recognized as part of the solution and not as a problem by the buyers (companies and associations), this is a good, a right and important step.?

Suppliers in the MICE industry must focus on sustainable event planning and communicate it in order to score successfully. And they must offer the solutions in such a way that their customers can also understand them and want to have them. The topic is still far too theoretical and always only a voluntary option for the customer and not an obligation. This has to change. Here, the suppliers are asked to create facts and not to lament in countless sustainability events and symposia about what could and should theoretically be done....?

Destinations, convention bureaus, venues and hotels must create the facts for sustainable events that underline their raison d'être. The change of individual products has to happen, just like the change from black and white television to colour television. And that brings us back to the title of this article. Suppliers naturally want to bring real events back to their destinations, locations and hotels, because hybrid online and metaverse events do not sell bedrooms and fills restaurants. However, the arguments for this need to be much better for many. The PowerPoint presentation at the trade fair stand at IMEX or at any other sales event - which has basically been the same for 20 years - no longer attracts anyone. Nor do the same old arguments about the number of sunny days in the destination, the super easy accessibility by plane - even from Hanover - or the fact that all conference rooms have daylight.?

Offer sustainable products and solutions without alternatives. Provide target customers with fair and up-to-date assistance. Create good arguments for real events and show the actual added value of the destination, location or hotel. Away from nonsensical door-to-door sales calls and onto sales via online content. Meaningful online sales events that achieve reach and attention within clearly defined target groups. Focus on qualified buyers and not on the broad mass of event planners who only use trade events as personal party fun anyway. It is better to have only a few good events than a nonsensical number with buyers who bring no business but only steal time. Away from sales events where participants are lured into attending with free hosted buyer programmes, but don't even know in advance who they will meet as suppliers at the event. The real added value of a sales event for a supplier is reflected in the media coverage the organizer generates for him and through participation, and not how many face-to-face conversations the organizer is forces for the supplier with the participants.?

Suppliers who have the courage to leave all this marketing and sales rubbish behind will find the appropriate contemporary solutions at MICEboard . Not for all buyer target groups, but for the target group of German-speaking event planners who regularly organize events abroad.

#SupplierPost (s) ??

This newsletter is aimed at suppliers from the MICE industry. It aims to stimulate, criticize and confront. It does not want to embarrass anyone, but to encourage out-of-the-box thinking. To have the courage to critically question the existing and to question methods of MICE marketing and sales.

It is not about right or wrong. It's about securing the future of an industry. If you are a MICE supplier, we would be very happy to hear your opinion on the topics.

The newsletter is published every 14 days and aims to stimulate thought with an article. Thank you for your time, we wish you a successful week!