A few years ago Second Life was all the rage and you didn’t have to squint too far into the future to see how this could impact the Trade  Show Industry.  If you don’t know about Second Life here’s a quick recap:  it’s a virtual world where you can create a character, wander around, and interact with other characters in real time online.  You can buy houses, drive cars and even attend book signings and theatre performances.

Companies started to truly invest in this as well.  Microsoft and IBM both had a store and seminar space as did thousands of other corporations large and small.    So if you could walk through this virtual world, look at objects, and talk to people, why not have a trade show.

Susan Friedman cites the 6 advantage of Virtual Trade Shows, and Forbes recently ran an article on How to Tackle a Virtual Trade Show and Nine Steps for Tackling A Virtual Trade Show, but we’re not convinced.   Why?  Facebook and LInkedIn.  These are powerful ways of connecting people and interacting in a way that’s much more comfortable and intuitive.  Much of the hype around Second Life calmed down as other social media sites that were far more accessible came to the fore.  And it wasn’t that it was just easier to use.  It’s that these sites allowed us to be ourselves more easily rather than who we’d like to be.  Fantasies are great and Second Life certainly let’s people indulge them, but the Internet has always grown organically around the mundane aspects of every day life.

Social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook are also easy to use and intuitive.  You can interact when and if you like.  Asking folks to control an avatar in real-time is kind of like going to a costume party:  it’s fun at first and then really awkward.

And here’s a news flash: the virtual trade show is already here:  it’s called Google.  You can search for just about every type of equipment and technology, research what others have to say about it and get just about all the information that you need to make a buying decision.  In fact, a real honest to goodness trade show might be the apex of this buying process where buying decisions are merely verified.  Smart companies are focusing on their social media strategy so that they can tap into all the searches happening on Google.  Using these types of sites they can connect with customers, analyze needs, and begin a relationship before a booth is even designed.

There is some room in cyberspace for the development of virtual trade shows.  But rather than avatar representatives manning booths in the digital realm, it will probably look more like a hybrid of Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  Throw Twitter in there for good measure.

These types of sites make linking information with people easy and that’s the reason we go to trade shows in the first place.  So before you suit up your avatar, look at Google, LinkedIn and Facebook and make sure you’re using these tools to their full extent.

At DRUPA 2000, Razor Scooters were all the rage.  Companies gave them away and people zipped past you as your aching feet groaned between Hall 3 and 7.  The Segway has made a few appearances at trade shows as well.  It seems like every few years new technology comes out that bridges the gap between walking great distances and getting into a vehical.

The Honda prototype here seems to do that in the most viable way yet.  The unit is small enough to carry on a plane (although security might be an issue) and seems manueverable enough to blend in with pedestrians actually using their feet.

But is it a viable form of tranportation?  Probably not, at least not in this form.  Is it a great toy?  Heck yeah.  And that may be all that matters.

Don’t discount the carnival effect of trade shows.  Although serious business is conducted on show floors, they are also places to discover new things and interact with people.  A high end toy like this may just be a great way to break the ice with a prospect, but icebreakers are important.

Here’s one idea for using this type of device as a trade show marketing tool:  Loan a few out to attendees with branded versions.  Four or five of these gliding through trade show floors could be enough to attract attention to your brand and drive traffic to even a small booth.  One universal topic at trade shows is aching feet.  And sympathy can go a long way toward earning trust and business.

Got any other ideas?  Let’s hear them!

Does anyone remember the infrared beaming on Palm Pilots?  Does anyone remember Palm Pilots?  It was actually pretty cool.  You could beam your info to a fellow Palm user avoiding  the exchange of business cards which you would then have to enter into your Palm Pilot.  It was fast an efficient and then totally disappeared when mobile devices became integrated to the internet.

The problem is that it’s still really hard to keep track of the people that you meet at trade shows.  Whether you’re an attendee or an exhibitor.  Yes, you can technically look up everyone you meet on LinkedIn and then connect with them, but that’s time consuming at big events and not practical approach to buying or selling.    The irony is that we’re all more linked together than ever with social media applications like LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.  BusyEvent may have an answer: Read the full story

The world seems scratching its head about the iPad.  Is it a giant iPhone with no real application, or is it so incredibly ahead of its time that we just haven’t figured out where it fits into our lives?  We’ve talked quite a bit about touch screen applications at trade shows here on TSF, but they’re very expensive applications.  While the iPad isn’t cheap for consumers, they are relatively cheap for most trade show budgets.  The large screen and intuitive input (you touch stuff) seem natural for  demonstrations, events, meeting, etc.

Interactive Meeting Technology has a terrific post outlining what some of those possibilities are: Read the full story

Let’s face it…new technology comes and goes and separating real trends from the latest gizmo can be difficult.  The Rogers Company put together a brief overview of some of the important technological drivers for tradeshows.  Keep in mind, these trends are driven as much by what the industry needs as what it offers.  It’s important for exhibitors to recognize what they can get from technology and not be driven by the ‘latest and greatest’ thing out there.  From the book: Read the full story

At one time, you had to be a pretty sophisticated user (aka geek) to have a lot of cool applications at your fingertips any time any where.  Today, that technology is easy to use for just about everyone.  For tradeshows, tapping into mobile phone technology can lead to chance encounters with colleagues, give you a better understanding of the people around you, and help you navigate new places.

Different industries will have embraced this kind of technology more than others, but don’t undersell your colleagues.  They may be more sophisticated than you think.

Here are five applications that run on an array of different phones: Read the full story

About 5 years ago a colleague sent me an invitation to join LinkedIn.  It seemed like an OK idea kind of based on the 6 Degrees of Seperation concept.  My account kind of sat there for a long time based on the idea that only a few people I knew were actually on the site.  Over time, however, it’s grown into something very big.  It can be a good way to stay in touch with colleagues past and present but it can also be a very good way to build business. Read the full story

Your next booth staff addition may save you on hotel and airfare and never have to take a lunch break.  She may also be a flat, electronic representation of a human being…but no one’s perfect, right?  Avatars are being used to greet booth visitors, give presentations, and recite detailed information specific products and even about the person they are talking to.

We interviewed an avatar, Sarah, created by a company called LogicJunction on what she does at tradeshows, the benefits of avatars, and what the future holds for her and LogicJunction.  From their website:

LogicJunction supplies products on a variety of platforms ranging from individual kiosks to complete online deployments. Our patented software engine incorporates digital characters, artificial intelligence, media players, advanced logic control and a flexible plug-in system to interface with third party software and hardware.

Virtual Employees (or vPloyees), the name given to our digital characters, use emotion, animation, speech, and intelligence to help personalize and direct the experience for each client, and provide a high impact interface to many of our implementations. For customers wishing to extend our products or create their own, LogicJunction offers an SDK.

Clients use LogicJunction software to assist with sales, conduct surveys, drive booth attendance, reduce personnel costs, and help users navigate complex processes. Please look around and see what LogicJunction might do for you.

We’ve all heard about Twitter and there’s been a lot of head scratching as to how it will be used in business.  At searchenginewatch.com they are covering The Search Engine Strategies (SES) New York 2009 Conference and Expo. They’re top story is about Twitter and it gives some clues as to how this will be useful at live events like tradeshows:

The opening keynote was by Guy Kawasaki, a founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Garage Technology Ventures, who spoke about “Twitter as a Tool for Social Media.”

You can read the full post here: Link Read the full story

In this video, Pattie Maes demonstrates new hardware that allows people to interact in a seamless way with the world.  Ever since people began using PDAs and cell phones, there has been a struggle to use them to interact with the world.  Remember some PDAs had infrared capabilities allowing you to beam business cards?  That somehow fell by the wayside, but it was a good thought and especially convenient at a tradeshow.

Now imagine that you could walk into a booth, point at an object, look it up on the internet or instantly share an image with colleagues? Read the full story