it most probably is nonsense!...

This was one of the most popular slides in my presentation at the IEIA Open Seminar a few weeks ago, let me explain why:

It is unfortunately true that digital is confusing a lot of people in many industries, let alone the exhibitions and events industry. Thus a vacuum is created on what exactly to do about it, on how to handle digital transformation? Although naturally this would change from industry-to-industry, Gartner defines three ways of tackling this change:
1- Digitize segments of your business (like marketing etc.)
2- Digitize how you service your clients
3- Turn digitization into a revenue stream itself

Number one is easy to understand. Digital can provide real-time ROI measurement, help reduce cost, increase speed and effectiveness of pretty much every business function in a company. 

But when it comes to digitizing how we service our clients... Or how to monetize this change... There's still a lot of ambiguity in our industry (exhibitions and events that is) and a large grey area in which to navigate. Unsurprisingly in this space one has to create and evaluate a lot of wild ideas before moving to implementation, without any guarantee of success. This is where a talented decision maker should sense-check an idea before going live, because systems for the sake of systems, or new-tech for the sake of new-tech will not bring you sustained business success.

Those who wish to lead in this space (digitization) are naturally learning by failing, but more and more we (as the industry) seem to converge on some concepts and abandon some others that do not work. I can see the many industry players trying to enhance the actual tradeshow experience and moving away from complete digital copies of a show, such as virtual tradeshows. 

I believe the key to success in digitizing how you service your clients, is actually finding out what business you're in. As previously stated in another blog post, I believe we're in the Handshakes Business and should be prioritising the basics that enable more and higher quality handshakes, before moving to newer horizons which eventually will become the norm one day. 

We as ITE are trying to get the basics right and also are exploring digital platforms to complement our value proposal to our clients.

Watch this space...

Dr. Barış Onay