If you prefer to read instead of watching our short video, here is the transcript of the conversation between Mike Gilvar and Mike Graziani:

Mike Gilvar: Thanks everybody for joining this edition of The Bottom Line at TTG. I’m here, with Mike Graziani our Vice President of Creative, and we’re going to talk a little bit today about Virtual events in virtual trade show booths. So Graz, there’s a lot going on these days around virtual booths and virtual events, and frankly, the whole concept is a bit confusing. What is the difference between a virtual event and a virtual booth?

Mike Graziani: Sure. And it basically plays right along with traditional events and booths. So basically, a virtual event is going to be something that an association may host, and that is going to be a number of exhibitors that get together and form this virtual event where people can come in just like you would normally do at a trade show and see various companies representing various products and so forth. Whereas a virtual booth is just going to be one company doing the event all by themselves. So it might be a particular brand and they’re showcasing one or more products and services, strictly alone as a singular event.

Gilvar: Great, great. Well, since most of the trade customers are exhibitors and not trade show organizers, I guess we’ll focus on the trade show booth side of things, the virtual booth. And of course, our customers are also experiencing canceled events. So that being said, when does it make sense for one of our customers to consider a virtual trade show booth as a worthwhile investment?

Graz: I would say as soon as an event is cancelled, it makes perfect sense to investigate this route. It’s going to allow them to reach those customers that they would normally reach through the traditional avenues, but then as well, even if the show does go on, there’s a very good chance that you’re going to experience limited attendance and so forth. So augmenting that situation with a virtual exhibit is still a recommended pathway.

Gilvar: So, Graz, how does a virtual experience get promoted and who do you see it actually getting promoted to?

Graz: Yeah, I don’t really think it’s all that complicated or different from traditional events. So you’re pretty much going to use the same sources and pathways that you would have for a traditional face-to-face event, like a trade show. So it’s going to be a show list, and any of your leads and so forth that you have, again, through your traditional methods, there is no big mystery with it.

Gilvar: Great, and how does the technology work exactly?

Graz: We have a number of different ways of presenting, what we’ll call the virtual exhibit. It can be as traditional as basically having a 3D rendering of the physical exhibit that you normally use at the trade show. So this way it’s something that’s recognizable, if you’ve used your exhibit at previous shows those attending your virtual event will definitely recognize it and understand what’s going on. But it can also be something… And with those traditional 3D rendered exhibits, we can have hot points at the various kiosks and areas like that, that give the viewer an opportunity to click on things, explore product lines, features and services…

Gilvar: And those links, are they launching a pre-recorded video or are they launching a live presentation or a live chat with somebody, how does that work?

Graz: It’s pretty much all of the above. So when you click on a particular, let’s say, a kiosk that has a title to it for a particular product line, you may then be presented with a few different options. It might be downloading a PDF of the information of that product line or taking you to the client’s website of that particular product, or it might have a send me more information, somebody contact me, or it may show you an in-depth product video that pops up right then and there. So it can really be any of those, and it’s very easy to implement a number of different options within a given choice.

Gilvar: And just moving on beyond the 3D rendered exhibit, we can also do something that’s just more of a two-dimensional representation of a product, it can almost look like a webpage where you have a number of different choices and you don’t go through all the effort of the 3D rendered exhibit, it’s much quicker to implement, and you simply have large buttons and so forth, where you can click on a given product line or service and bring up that same bevy of information that I just mentioned.

Graz: Great, and within that, is there the ability for the exhibitor to execute something that looks a little bit like lead retrieval and collect more information on the attendees as they’re going through that?

Gilvar: Yeah, absolutely. Basically, with the virtual exhibit, everything is, for the most part, trackable, and all the information can be captured. So you can see how long somebody might be lingering in a given area, obviously, if anybody’s requested information, you’re going to know about that. So yes, you can obviously see what areas are resonating with an audience versus which areas are not. That’s great. So Graz, what’s the bottom line when it comes to virtual booth experiences for exhibitors and considering whether or not it’s something they should look at?

Graz: Well, obviously, the traditional routes have pretty much closed down for the time being. So we all have to make a bit of a pivot and look at what avenues have opened up. And this is definitely one that allows us to reach our clients and get a message out there and promote a product in a way that resembles and compares very favorably to the traditional routes.

Gilvar: Great! Thanks everybody for joining this edition of The Bottom Line at TTG, and we hope you tune in again soon.

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