Speed Dating for Marketers

I just left the World Trade Group's Global Marketing Executive Summit in Myrtle Beach (BTW, posting this on free wireless access in MB airport!). This event is an example of a fairly new kind of trade show. It gives vendors, like Factiva, the chance to have several one-on-one meetings with (ideally) well-qualified prospects. The vendors sign up to meet specific prospects and the attendees sign up to talk to specific vendors. Not quite a frenetic as speed dating, but the same idea.

I think this is a great alternative to the typical trade-show-floor experience where we all stand around handing our stress balls trying to give demos of our products to people who probably aren't interested and who aren't high enough up the food chain to be able to pay for them.

While I think this event was generally a good one for Factiva, I was a bit disappointed with qualifications of some of the attendees. Many were not "executives", some weren't right for what we have to offer and at least a few were just there (shocking) for the free trip.

Certainly the success of a show like this is directly tied to those who attend and vendors have to put their faith in the company organizing the show that they will deliver the prospects (partially with the allure of a free golf vacation at a nice resort on the beach). Certainly there are no guarantees and we, like most, are probably very happy to come away with even just a handful of good leads.