When it comes to technology, yesterday’s new toy is tomorrow’s indispensable business tool.  We’ve seen this happen with everything from desktop computers to cell phones to GPS systems.  Keeping this in mind when approaching technology for tradeshows is a good idea.  A fancy booth toy could just be a waste of money, but the right investment in technology could help attract attention, achieve business goals at a show, or help create an unforgettable branded environment.

Looking at some overall trends in event marketing can reveal where new technologies can be most effective.  We examined some of the prevailing trends in event marketing and compared them to new evolutions in technology to help you choose which might help build business at your company’s next tradeshow or event.

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.

1.) Recognize It’s Not Just About You

Many people describe LinkedIn as a kind of professional version of Facebook.  In other words, it’s focused on the individual and career development and not on what you did over the weekend.  That’s true to a certain extent, but the site offers some important tools that can help create the connections that help build your business.  If you can coordinate with other colleagues to form a cohesive strategy focused on your products and services it will further help make those connections in a broader way.

2.) Join Group or Form Groups

Groups create associations between people that otherwise do not know each other.  There may already be a group formed around your industry and its best to check this out before you form your own group.  If you don’t see a group that you think should be there, create one and invite people you know to join.  Just keep in mind that you have to find the right balance in creating a group.  If you focus on too narrow of a topic, no one will find it (People In My House).  If you create a group that’s too broad (People Who Drive Cars) you won’t get useful information.  Creating a group for a tradeshow can be a good way to meet other exhibitors and attendees and exchange information or ideas, for example.

3.) Answer Questions

There is a function that allows you to search questions posed by other LinkedIn members based on key words.  You can answer these questions and even get selected as ‘the best’ answer by the person who posed it in the first place.  This is a great way to meet new connections and also to market your expertise.

4.) Ask Questions

Asking a question can supply you with information and also create a discussion.  It can also be a good way to create a buzz around a topic that you think isn’t being discussed.  Also, it’s a good way to genuinely get free advice from experts.

5.) Create a Discussion

Within groups, it’s possible to create a discussion or become involved in a discussion.  This is a good way to link to external articles, meet new connections, and demonstrate your expertise in a certain field.

6.) Create a Poll

Like creating a discussion, polling your LinkedIn connections can help create awareness for you and your company and can also give you important data that can be used on your website or within LinkedIn.  Also, you can broaden the scope of polling by paying LinkedIn a feed.

7.)  Get Social (For Real)

While LinkedIn is a great online tool, use it to create or firm up offline connections.  Tradeshows are a great way of doing this since people you know are likely to attend the same professional events that you do.  Use LinkedIn to send messages and schedule meetings with folks on the show floor.

You can visit our LinkedIn page here

And you can visit Jeff Blackwell’s page here

Or Sukki Jahnke’s page here

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

They describe this opening day as starting a “Tweet Storm”.  We checked Twitter (TSF Twitter) and, indeed, there are many, many, many entries on Guy Kawasaki and his keynote on Twitter. (Search Results Here)

So you have someone speaking at a tradeshow about Twitter and then that talk is defined on Twitter itself.  You have to look past a few layers of weirdness here to get to an essential truth which is: Twitter (or something like it) will define almost every live, public interaction we have in business in the near future.  In some businesses, this is already happening.

Guy Kawasaki is essentially being defined by these individual perspectives on his talk.  Yes, he’s a founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Garage Technology Ventures, but that public profile has been further enhanced by all of these tweets.  For the folks tweeting, their public profile has been enhanced or at least clarified by the fact that they were at this talk and have told their readers about it.

Confused?  Think about it this way: a few years ago, just adding tradeshow dates and booth numbers to a companies website was a big deal.  Now you have the means to update information from you and your entire tradeshow team and what they’re doing at a show in real time.  Who cares, right?  Well, you should when you consider how all of this adds to your overall online profile.

Case in point: Search for  Guy Kawasaki on Google and you’ll get a pretty good idea of who the guy (ha-ha) is.  But  search Twitter, particularly during a tradeshow, and you get an idea of what he is doing at this moment and who is watching him and what they think — and you can join the conversation.  That’s very powerful.

This all goes to show that Twitter can be a very valuable tool in enhancing live, one-to-one contact that you get at a tradeshow.  Of course, this tradeshow is a self-selecting group.  It’s going to be a while before we see this kind of interaction at more industrial shows — but it won’t be long.