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Visitors on stand at GESS Dubai

The return to live events

For visitors and exhibitors the shift to digital is a short-term solution as the business opportunities live events offer are irreplaceable and wish to return as soon as possible.

Exhibitions are great. Then again, we would say that wouldn’t we. But exhibitions are a great marketing tool for your company too. We know it might have been a while since you last thought about exhibiting at one or you’ve forgotten how vital they are for the success of your business. Let’s start there…


5 ways participating in exhibitions help your business:

 

  1. Opens the door to a new and wider audience
  2. Gain an understanding of the market 
  3. Face-to-face with your target audience 
  4. Analyse the competition 
  5. Platform to launch new products or reintroduce your brand


Virtual events are no match for the real thing


Exhibitions generate $550 billion of business sales each year, with 4.5 million exhibiting companies and 303 million visitors coming together at 32,000 exhibitions in all corners of the globe to network and do business. Granted, events of the last 18 months have been hard as large-scale, face-to-face events have been forced to postpone with digital events coming to the fore. But while digital events have been crucial in keeping us in touch with our community over the past year, we believe they are absolutely no match for what a face-to-face event can offer in terms of ROI for our exhibitors and the opportunity to discover the latest educational products for our visitors. 


When you look at the research, this is true! A recent survey from UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry shows that over 50% of both regular trade show visitors and exhibitors have experience in participating in digital events since the beginning of the Covid 19 crisis. What’s exciting, is that both visitors and exhibitors would say that face-to-face events would be their first choice when asked to evaluate each aspect of participation. When it comes to networking, both said that live events were better, hands down. For visitors, digital events can successfully deliver quality content, however 94% said that live events were the preferred choice for doing business and finding new suppliers. For exhibitors, there is also no substitute for live events. 75% of those surveyed stated that live events offer a better return on investment when compared with digital offerings. 
 

So the signs are more than promising. Digital events are good, but a short-term fix. Face-to-face events are great and there is clearly an immense pent-up demand from both exhibitors and visitors to get back to business at live events as soon as possible. Of course, international travel and changing health and safety regulations are two obstacles that all event organisers and participants will have to navigate over the coming months. Thankfully, exhibitions and conferences have been allowed to take place in Dubai since September last year with no evidence linking those events that have taken place to any increase in transmission of Covid 19. 


Here at GESS Dubai, we are looking forward to joining the list of successful re-launched events in November 2021 at Dubai World Trade Centre. The health and safety of our stakeholders will always be our highest priority and will guide every decision we make in the planning and execution of the event to ensure you can get back to doing business the way you want to.


Get in contact with us to find out more about exhibiting at GESS Dubai 2021.