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Hello Vanessa, CalSAE has produced an appointment show for about 6 years now called EXHCANGE. It started with 25 association professionals being matched with the same number of exhibitors (appointment desks). It has grown to nearly 70 this last year and has definitely been an area of financial growth. We run it on the morning of our tradeshow. It's a bit complicated to explain by email, but I'd be happy to talk with you about it over the phone or perhaps at the Alliance meeting later this month. However, here's a few highlights: We don't use software, but do the matching by hand. Knowing your members and matching them based on what/who you know is an important aspect. The matching is time intensive and now take up to a day to complete. It's done after all the registration is completed. However, we are now to the point where we are looking at software programs, but the ones we've looked at are pretty expensive. Appointment desks costs about as much as a booth, and in order to buy an appointment desk, you have to be an exhibitor at the tradeshow. We have a set of samples I'm happy to share recruitment emails, sign up forms, schedule, information requests. Every appointment desk is provided an information binder for each attendee in advance. Attendees get a complimentary pass for the day (education, lunch and tradeshow) as the main incentive. Hope that helps, Jim Jim Anderson, CAE President CEO Join us... ELEVATE Annual Conference 2017 April 3-5, Newport Beach Marriott California Society of Association Executives 775 Sunrise Ave., Ste. 270 | Roseville, CA 95661 916-443-8980 | Fax: 916 749-3369 | www.calsae.org Twitter: @CalSAE | Facebook: CalSAE | LinkedIn: CalSAE The information contained in this message is for the intended recipient(s) only. It may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you receive this in error, please contact the sender and destroy the transmitted material immediately. Any attachments to this message have been checked for viruses, but please rely on your own virus checker and procedures.
Original Message
Hi Vanessa,The Kansas Society of Association Executives has done this "reverse tradeshow" for two years now. It takes some work, but our supplier members have loved it, we had 33 participate this year. When the supplier members registered we gave them the opportunity to say who they would like to meet with but made it clear there were no guarantees they would get any or all of their preferred people. We did the same with our association members.The matching got a little tricky. Here's how we did it. I created a piece of paper for every association member. On the paper I listed if they had preferences of who they wanted to meet with and thentime slots with blanks. Then I made index cards with the vendor and each time slot. For example Kansas City CVB had 7 cards (KCCVB 10:00am, KCCVB 10:09am, KCCVB 10:18am, etc.) At a conference committee meeting each committee member took 4 of the pieces of paper with an association member and I stood up and read the vendors and the time slot index cards, they yelled if there was a match or they wanted it and I handed out the card. It was a little like bingo. At the end of the committee meeting everyone handed me a piece of paper with an association member and the 7 time slot index cards paper clipped to it. I used those to create the attached two spreadsheets, one of/for vendors and one of/for association members. Then I used the spreadsheets to mail merge emails to each group with their time slots. Explaining that makes it seems like a ton of work, but honestly it wasn't too bad and it was worth it in the end. Our supplier members love the opportunity and even the association members have commented that they had a lot more fun and enjoyed it way more than they thought they would when they initially heard about it.KSAE is a small organization with a very small budget, which is why we used paper and index cards, but it worked! I'm happy to answer any questions or offer advice or suggestions on our experience.Cheers,Christy
Christy ClassiExecutive DirectorKansas Society of Association ExecutivesTopeka KS7855506904
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