Last week, something happened that changed the event world for ever. 200 events successfully used InGo’s attendee intelligence feature, called Network Notifications, to notify their attendees and exhibitors which of their friends and customers were coming to the event. This technology will change every aspect of event economics from why events sell-out, to whether exhibitors decide to exhibit at an event. For the first time in event history, attendees and exhibitors will be notified (90 days before event, then fortnightly afterwards) who they know at an event. If you understand human nature and the business of events, you understand the seismic ramifications of this.
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“Who’s going to be there? Is this a complete waste of time? Maybe I’ll stay home. I’ve got a lot work to do…”
Think about the many events you’ve gone to and wondered, sometimes with trepidation, “Who’s going to be there? Is this a complete waste of time?” Perhaps, you did not go to an event because of the same concerns? “Maybe I’ll stay home. I’ve got a lot work to do.” On the days leading up to an event, how many of these pathetic cries have we seen on LinkedIn and Facebook?
What about from exhibitors who go into every event not knowing whether they’ve wasted their money?
What if attendees did know? Wouldn’t they schedule time with friends, colleagues, or customers beforehand? Wouldn’t they realize something magical was happening and invite more (“Hey, it looks like an impromptu Notre Dame reunion at the Kenny Chesney concert! Tommy, you and Kate should come. Let’s meet at 6pm to tailgate, golden-domers!) Hasn’t every event become dramatically more valuable? YouTube videos, Snapchat pictures, etc have all gone viral because of social networks, the phenomenon will now come to events with events becoming personal to each attendee.
On the exhibitor side, the change’s impact is even more dramatic due the ROI involved. For example, IBM sponsors 8000 events worldwide each year. In each and every case, just like every other exhibitor on the planet, they walk blind into every trade show. They pay and pray. Now, leading up each event, they will receive their pre-cognition network – notification.
IBM Attendees using InGo’s Attendee Intelligence at InterConnect.
What happens next is what every exhibitor from Apple Growers to Z-Series has been pining for since the beginning of time: Paradise gained: Meetings scheduled, materials prepared, deals done at the event instead of preliminary conversation hastily had when the exhibitor’s booth is full, no customers missed, time dedicated for new customers without worrying about missing existing ones, and many more frustrating scenes now part of the past. In sum, a significant part of the age old question of exhibitor ROI has been solved. Exhibitors are the biggest winners here. InGo has been working with major exhibitors and major trade show organizers like Reed, Informa, and ITE to roll out this technology on their entire portfolio. We will also be launching a “Know Before You Go” marketing campaign to bring awareness of this to exhibiting companies in all the regions where InGo operates.
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“Now, leading up to each event, they will receive their pre-cognition network – notification.”
Over the last few months InGo has worked closely with our strategic, community partners: Info-Salons (Middle East and Asia), Dimedis (Europe), Circdata (UK), CompuSystems, Inc. (US) and Swoogo (International) to make attendee and exhibitor intelligence available natively in its platforms. Customers of these leading registration platforms can turn on the functional with a “flip of switch” and for no cost – InGo growth, the marketing features, are an extra cost.
It would be criminal not to recognize the technical marvel that goes into making this possible. The InGo product team has done something wonderful for the world of events by bringing the promise of social to real world events. This accomplishment could not be done without the layers of innovation which came before it, specifically social networks and the nearly boundless amount of compute power (of which this takes a massive amounts) in the cloud. Using this foundational layer, the InGo team developed not only the AI required to determine the requisite matches, but our software now can target social contacts based on common contacts between registrants. A contact that appears in more than one user’s network is considered relevant to the event, and consequently,, a higher value target.
We could not be more happy and excited to bring this to market! Thanks to the InGo team, the many attendees, organizers, and exhibitors around the world whose support, advice and council made this day possible.
– Steve
Steve O’Keefe
InGo, Inc
President and COO
e. steve@letsingo.com
