This week's episode is entitled "Coronavirus, Trade Shows and Value vs Venue".

So many cancelled conferences! The people who wanted to attend are missing out on something. The people who wanted to sponsor are missing out on something. The people who produce the conference are going to miss out on something. So what was that and how do you now use that?

The last thing I want anyone to do is think about this as an opportunity. I've been really trying not to use that word this week because no one should be opportunistic when lives are at stake.

For the people organizing events, for the people planning on producing the events, the most common response I have seen is, "We are going to do a virtual event. We are going to take all of that learning in-person, we're going to do that online."

But what if what attendees really want isn't just the content, they want the community? What if you took those same resources and created small micro versions of your event? What if you use this as a way to catalyze actually creating and activating those local user groups to help your customers to help people in your community get together in person? There's a thousand ways you could actually do that. But in the past when you've just said, "Wow, we'll just go to the regular trade show and just do it all at once." It feels more efficient. Now a virus has forced our hand, but you got to think about where is that value exchange, what is actually valued in that process along the way?

Listen in for this and MORE and/or read the full transcript on the Heinz Marketing Blog starting Mon. 3/16 or check out our related blog post.

Ruby Hammer