5 Ways to Prepare for a Virtual Expo Hall
The expo hall is an exciting part of any conference. Even virtually, there’s so much going on between the new tech, the possibility of finding your next big thing, networking, and so on. It may be tempting to wing it, but you’d be making a mistake going in without a clear plan of action. Avoid the temptation to and create a clear path of action to make the most out of your virtual expo hall experience.
[Related article: Why You Should Attend a Virtual Expo]
1. Decide Your Priorities
I’m not saying that you can’t leave some time to explore and be open-minded, but the majority of your time needs to fit your real priorities. What specific tools are you looking for? Is there a company you’re hoping to make a connection with while you’re there? What critical goals has your organization made for the calendar year?
Write down a few goals, and center your exploration around booths that help you accomplish them. The “1–3–5” strategy of goal setting is a great framework to follow with one big goal, three medium (secondary) goals, and five smaller (follow-up) goals. Whatever you decide, tailor your route for your goals, and you’ll increase your chances of finding what you need.
2. Engage
Take the time to engage with the virtual booth attendants who can answer specific questions, conduct a demonstration, or form a connection between you and an organization you’re interested in.
Once you have your priorities and plan of action, take a few moments and consider questions that get to the bottom of what you need from each booth. You don’t want to leave your most significant goal hanging and hope that the brochure covers what you need. Direct your experience by engaging thoughtfully at each booth and once your questions have been answered or your goal is met, you know when to make your exit.
3. Get Documents and Spreadsheets Ready
Unlike the need for a traditional notepad and pen for an in-person event, this time you’ll need a system for taking notes virtually. Hopefully, you’ll take the time to speak with all of the exhibitors at an event via phone or messaging, watching demonstrations, and so on, and you’ll likely have plenty of notes. Be sure to create a Word or Google document with subheaders for each exhibitor you speak with, and a clean system of folders for any event downloads.
4. Prepare your virtual elevator pitch
If you’re one to frequently engage with exhibitors (hint: you should), be sure to prepare some important bullet points describing your company, what you’re looking for, and make-or-break questions for any potential partnerships. The joy of a virtual event is that you can copy+paste some of these shortcuts to give your voice a break for once!
5. After The Expo Hall
The most important part of the expo hall doesn’t happen while you’re there. It’s vital to follow up with any potential organizations after the fact. Did you think of a question you didn’t ask before? Send your attendant a quick email. Wanting to explore job opportunities? Make contact before the connection goes cold. Your follow-up is where all the magic happens.
Making The Most Of The Expo Hall
Expo halls are exciting and flashy and definitely a source of “alert fatigue,” overwhelming your senses and causing you to ignore useful booths and miss critical information. You don’t have to wander blindly or get trapped in a lengthy presentation that you aren’t interested in. Having your plan in place reduces stress and gives you more time to explore later. You’ll feel like you’ve actually accomplished what you came for, all while leaving some time open for the element of surprise. Once you follow up, you may have your new job/product/solution that rockets your career to the next level. Don’t waste the opportunity. Take charge and leave satisfied.
Attend the ODSC Europe 2020 Virtual AI Expo Hall
Whether you’re looking for a solution or want to get yours in front of an engaged audience, a virtual expo is a streamlined experience designed to deepen connections and remove barriers to access. They reduce the cost of travel and set up and lead to more significant ROI because of those reduced costs.
This September 17–18, you can attend the ODSC Europe 2020 Virtual AI Expo Hall and get all of the resources you need to push your business to the forefront of the AI movement. With 16+ demo theaters, 5 networking events, and 30 partners showcasing their products, you’ll learn more about platform and solution providers from around the world, network with other AI decision-makers, and see what’s trending in the world of data science and AI.
Here are a couple of demo theater presentations that you can check out with more to be announced:
- “First Aid Kit for Data Science: Keeping Machine Learning Alive” — Véronique Van Vlasselaer, PhD, Decision Scientist | SAS
- “VerticaPy demo: Building a prediction churn model using random forest & logistic regression” — Badr Ouali, Head of Data Science | Vertica
- “Sports Analytics — Leveraging Open Source Technology to Improve Athlete Performance” — Christopher Connelly, Lead Sports Scientist | NC State University
- “Is Infrastructure Holding Back Adoption of AI at Scale?” — Nick Patience, Co-Founder & Research Director, AI Applications & Platforms | 451 Research
The ODSC Europe 2020 Virtual AI Expo Hall will feature more great content from leaders in AI. Stay tuned for more information from solution providers like Redhat, HPCC Systems, IBM, Julia Computing, KNIME, and more.
Ready to level up your AI game? Register for the ODSC Europe 2020 Virtual AI Expo Hall now and save 20% through August 28th!
