Infographic: Gambling Industry Expos vs Gambling Industry Summits

Boutique style conference organizer presents the importance of quality vs quantity when it comes to planning your events calendar.

We have decided to put together a list of strong facts why growing companies with limited budget should opt for summits and smaller conferences versus large expos.

The facts on the list have been compiled after a short survey with selected companies that are usually attending up to 90% of conferences and expos during one year.

This infographic should not be taken as a statement against expos, it is just the fact that has been pointed out during the questioning.

As seen above, attending an expo is not as simple as attending a summit and here are the main points that have been discussed during the survey:

1. Logistics

Expo – In order to be successful at an expo, you need to book a stand and in order to stand out from the crowd, you have to come up a unique layout and design, that nobody has ever seen. It’s really hard to cope with when it comes to having all the already known brands installing their already visible branding at their stylish stands. After you have your stand’s design, the part of booking the furniture, lighting, electrics, and internet. This is only the logistics part, you need to also arrange meetings and hire staff, book the hotel for your colleagues and create the marketing materials. Not to mention, start an advertising campaign to highlight your attendance.

Summit – You ask for the organizer about the attending companies (usually not a myriad) and you can easily locate your targets/prospects to start planning the meetings. You check the agenda/program for the time schedule and you buy the tickets(s). You book the accommodation during your stay (usually 2 nights).

2. Meetings (before and during the event)

Expo – You spend hours to browse the attending companies and making phone calls to arrange meetings out of which, usually 40% are always canceled at the last minute. You create several marketing campaigns to create leads and follow closely the prospect pipeline.

Once you get to the expo you are in a hall that has thousands of visitors, running to their meetings or browsing for freebies. Some of them even browsing for business card for database building.

As mentioned earlier, you start greeting your already set up meetings, but you are also keeping your agenda open for potential clients, that might find you offering interesting. Between meetings and staying hungry, you spend hours at your stand waiting for potential clients and doing the promo gigs with leaflet/flyer handouts.

During you already set up meetings, you are keeping track of time so you can also meet your next scheduled prospect, but your prospect is also focused on her/his own schedule. Everyone is keeping track of time and calculating how much it takes to get to their next meeting (finding the stand, finding the contact, etc.).

Summit – You arrive at to the usually luxurious venue and greeted with a smile. You receive your badge and lanyard, and you instantly meet some connection you have contacted prior to the event. You sit down in the conference room with a coffee or a tea and already start discussing your possible collaboration. You know you are not wasting your time as you are speaking with a high-level pre-qualified decision-maker who is at the summit to get quality content without the hassle of running from hall to hall and keeping track of what going on. It’s a laid back atmosphere and everyone is there to meet like-minded peers while also getting the latest quality updates.

During networking breaks and the complimentary lunch break, you sit down with 1-2 prospect that you either contact before the conference or meet in the lounge, and you engage with buyers that are actively sourcing your solutions.

In the evening you enjoy a relaxed social gathering and have a few drinks to meet other prospects before you call it a day. The next morning or afternoon you enjoy a bit of sightseeing and you jet off to your next destination.

3. Post-event

Expo – You plan your next 3 weeks to follow up with the prospect you have met during the exhibition and try to get them to set up a new meeting at your office or their headquarters. This usually involves more travels, but at first, you have to get that response which has to be approved by the upper decision-maker, who you did not meet yet in person. Keep in mind that your prospect has also met at least 25-30 other solution providers and is now examining reviews and feedback from other clients.

During the follow-up period, you also send an email to people that you never met and have left their card at your stand, sometimes getting in weird situations, explaining where you got their contacts from.

You also have to go over more details as you due to the lack of time, you did not have the chance to explain clearly or the many questions remained un-answered while keeping track of the meetings schedule on both sides.

After you get some promising answers, you need to plan for the next expo and invite the prospects for a second face to face discussion while also maintaining the stand related standards in order to keep appearing on your advantage. It’s back to the drawing board again and back to number one on the list, logistics. During this time, you are also keeping an eye on your marketing budget to see if you are still on track and can fit in some updates to your stand.

Summit – You get back to the office and follow up on the clients you’ve met earlier and ask them if they have any remaining questions after your one on one meeting during the networking break, at lunch, dinner or social gathering.

Once you follow up, you get an instant answer from the decision-maker and you close the prospective pipeline. You look for the next conference in the area you are targeting for clients and you register your delegate pass.

To sum it all up, although your brand may see an increase in visibility during an expo, it might be lost in the loudness and in the shade of larger brands. If you have a restricted budges, sometimes you might even have to break the bank in order to cover all costs.

Medium costs of attending an expo can go over 10.000 EUR in many cases while attending a summit, you only invest up to 1000-1200 EUR (including travel and accommodation costs).

If you thought that this is useful information, please share among your connections and don’t forget to consider two upcoming summits this autumn:

• 4^th edition of CEEGC Budapest – 24 September, The Ritz-Carlton – read more
• 2^nd edition of European Gaming Congress – 8 November, Radisson Blu Milan – read more

And if you are already planning your 2020 agenda,

• 4^th edition of Prague Gaming Summit – 6 March 2020, Vienna House Andels Prague – read more
• 3^rd edition of MARE BALTICUM Gaming Summit – 7 / 14 May 2020 – Tallinn, Estonia / Copenhagen, Denmark – read more

We hope that you received some useful information today and we look forward to your suggestions on our social media channels.