Coiltech Deutschland 2021 – experience with online fairs
Germany, Ulm: In the past, online trade fairs and conferences did not experience a big success.
Image source: QUiCKFairs
Germany, Ulm: In the past, online trade fairs and conferences did not experience a big success.
Online conferences lack essential characteristics such as direct personal encounter and communication. In this respect, the pandemic offered a great opportunity for the providers of online platforms. Before social distancing, few of us were familiar with online conferencing solutions. Now almost all of us use these communication tools on a more or less daily base.
Organisers of Coiltech, QUiCKFairs®, collected their experience of these events, both in the realisation of the onsite editions of the events in Ulm and Pordenone and in carrying on the Virtual Coil Show after its first edition on 21 January. They also conducted an online survey in December 2020.
Some of the interesting findings state that only slightly more than one-half of the respondents of the survey have participated, in 2020, at an online event, be it as an exhibitor, a visitor or as the host of an online seminar. The most cited reason for not taking part in an online event is that of missing personal contact with other participants and missing on the possibility to see each other. When comparing the motivation of the participants of the online events in 2020 with those of the visitors at Coiltech 2019, one notes that at the on-site event Coiltech the interest in technical questions was more strongly developed. More than 4 out of 10 companies that have exhibited in 2020 at an online trade fair or conference state that they did so because the organiser converted the on-site event in an online format, making it difficult or impossible for them to pull out. All in all, the survey has shown that there is a lot to improve to make the participants of online events satisfied customers.
For the organisers, this is a tricky situation: on the one hand, it is attractive to provide, via an online channel, to the exhibitors some contacts who cannot be brought to the fair in person – for whatever reason. On the other hand, it means investing some of the energy in a target group that may only be of secondary importance for the exhibitors’ business development. QUiCKFairs® is therefore working on the prototype of an event that could bring together on-site and online: Virtual Coil Show and Coiltech Deutschland 2021.
The timing for such a test could not be better: In 2021, long-distance travel will continue to be complex and difficult to plan. This applies particularly to intercontinental travel to trade fairs. So, if there is a situation where a hybrid component can be of benefit to exhibitors and visitors, it is now.
Source: QUiCKFairs