S2E1 with Aaron Calvert - Why Attention Alone Doesn’t Drive Exhibition ROI

In this episode of The Expo Factor, Lee Ali sits down with Aaron Calvert to explore a powerful shift in how exhibitors should think about trade shows: exhibitions are not just marketing environments — they are decision environments.

Aaron brings a unique perspective shaped by his background in medicine, psychology, performance, influence, content production, and strategic communications. Across the conversation, he explains why exhibitors often overvalue footfall, badge scans, and busy booths, while missing the deeper question: are we helping the right attendees make better decisions?

The episode explores how attendees experience the show floor from the moment they enter: the lights, noise, screens, salespeople, giveaways, and competing messages all contribute to cognitive overload. In that environment, clarity becomes one of the most powerful tools an exhibitor can use. When messaging is too broad, too crowded, or too focused on services rather than problems, attendees are more likely to disengage.

Lee and Aaron also discuss the difference between attention, engagement, intent, and action. A booth can attract a crowd and still fail commercially if the experience does not connect back to the attendee’s problem, the brand’s value, or a clear next step. Aaron challenges exhibitors to stop designing only for attention and start designing for confidence.

The conversation moves into practical examples, including how framing can change the way people interpret a message, why social proof matters, how booth staff influence the decision window, and why technology should make the invisible more tangible rather than simply act as decoration.

A major theme throughout the episode is follow-up. Aaron explains why generic post-show emails often destroy the confidence built during a strong booth conversation. Instead, the best follow-up provides specific value, reflects the attendee’s actual challenge, and continues the decision journey after the event.

For exhibitors, event marketers, sales leaders, stand builders, and organizers, this episode offers a practical framework for creating more meaningful booth experiences — ones that help attendees move from curiosity to confidence, and from engagement to action.

If you want to create exhibition experiences that drive better engagement, stronger trust, and more meaningful results, this episode is a must-listen.

Listen to the full conversation with Lee Ali and Aaron Calvert on The Expo Factor, and start asking a better question:

Not “How do we attract more people to the booth?”

But “How do we help the right people make a better decision?”

Transcript

Welcome to Season 2 of The Expo Factor

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello, Aaron, and welcome to the Expo Factor. It's an episode that's been long in the making. And um, yeah, great to have you on the uh first episode of uh our uh season two. Uh welcome to the Expo Factor. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:17

I'm greatly it is fantastic to be here. I know we've been talking about uh this sort of concept probably for about 18 months. Uh so it's finally great to sort of get together and get it on record.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Yeah, fantastic. Now I first met you at Manchester TEDx, where you did a fantastic talk uh about the illusion of choice. And today's episode is really that in terms of looking at choices and decisions that our target audiences have to make. So um tell me uh before we kick off the episode, uh, if you could uh perhaps introduce yourself and tell us a bit more about your background and uh make it clear what's to that'll make it clear for the audience in terms of why you're actually on this uh podcast today.

Aaron Calvert’s Background

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Sure. I mean, how long have you got? Because this is a real mismatch of careers. And uh yeah, if you if you've got time, go and check out my LinkedIn and just sort of dive into it. It's a whole uh it's a whole career exploration, but let me give you the short version. So um I think what has tied every single career together for me is the fact that it's been about how to make decisions. So I spent most of my life trying to understand how to influence people's decisions. So originally I started my career in medicine and I was fascinated by patient decision making, and of course, being trained and training others on how to make decisions in critical, life-saving environments, so under immense pressure. Uh, from there, I actually moved through to the entertainment sector. So I went to perform on stage, on TV, in PR campaigns as a mind reader and hypnotist. So literally trialing suggestion, influence, hypnosis, live on stage to audiences, um, where I, you know, all these sort of psychological principles I'm putting into play in front of an audience. It could be 50 people in a bar, which is certainly where I started, or 3,000 people in a theater, sort of where things got to. And, you know, it's both thrilling and exhilarating, but you're putting that sort of uh that that sort of uh thought and that sort of theory actually into practice. And then in the recent decade, uh I've taken up a position as a senior leader in a global cons marketing production agency uh called SASI Plus. So I sit wear a couple of hats in that company because why would I just do uh anything easily and take one job? So I I am head of obviously commercial, so looking after sales, uh, and the sales team and uh the accounts team works into me as well. It also covers a bit of the marketing. Um, I obviously look after lots of people within that company, and then I actually am an exec producer for various different companies. So uh we work with clients like LinkedIn, Veolia, London Business School are three of the ones that I tend to work with. We work with a lot of automotive brands as well. Uh and for me, there I act really as a sort of strategic advisor to them for generating content, generating engagement, moving the needle, delivering ROI, and that can be anything from events, exhibitions, live streams, content, podcasts, you name it. If it's a visual or an auditory input, then uh then we probably deliver something for it. And for me, this sort of weird mishmash of careers has brought me to the place where actually my expertise is how you engage people, how you sort of build that trust, and then hopefully how you convert that into a meaningful outcome.

Why Exhibitors Ask the Wrong Question

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Fantastic. We're very much aligned on that. I think uh talking about mishmash of careers, I think obviously I didn't start off in the medical field, but definitely in uh um a similar kind of environment where you have to listen to people um uh uh intentively and uh get them to make decisions, and that is like obviously the sales um environment. And I started off in uh selling timeshare, that was my first sales job. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Actually, that was a place to cut your teeth, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Yeah, absolutely. So, on top of that, you actually have four children. So uh what you've said is you do all of that, and then you obviously you've got four children as well. And um, how do you how do you may say?

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Like, I will say, like, that is probably the hardest job of all of it. So a massive respect to my wife who who handles most of most of that for me when I'm uh away or around the country.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Yeah, all right. So let's move on to the subject of the episode, which is the uh the environment of the uh exhibitions, okay, the show floor. Okay, so um let's talk through the journey of a typical attendee and as exhibitors, the kind of approach that we actually take. And now, when we were talking over coffee a couple of weeks ago, um you uh we both talked about the fact that uh exhibitors, their first question is always how do we get more footfall? rather than asking the question, how do we take people on a journey so that they can actually make those critical decisions that will lead them to becoming a uh valued customer? So let's talk through that decision-making process from the exhibitor side first, and then we'll look at the audience. So, what kind of questions uh when people are actually planning for their exhibition? Talk me through that process, how you think uh what exhibitors should be doing uh to kick things off.

Why Footfall Is a Weak Metric

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Of course. And and it's really interestingly that you talk about this measurement of footfall, right? So, one of the biggest problems we tend to see in the industry is that people at an exhibition need to uh provide an ROI to their chief financial officer for what their department did to put on that event and therefore how much they've generated for it from it, right? So that is entirely the focus of most people's kind of objective, right? And and actually you've got to dig under the hood because footfall, I would argue, is actually probably uh a really weak measurement of success of a trade show. So you can have an extremely busy stand, but it can be incredibly weak if it's busy for the wrong reasons, yeah? So you know, let me give you a real world example. So outside of a trade show, I want you to imagine that you're in a new city and you happen to be walking down the street, you decide you want a coffee. There are two coffee shops, one next to one another, poor business placement on their part, but let's debate that later. And one of them has a queue and one of them is empty. Now, you're immediately gonna probably join the queue of the busy one even without checking either menu, because as a social proof point, psychologically, that one must be good because it's busy. Uh and so what you can get at Booze is this real push from people to go, oh, I need more football, I need more football, because that proves, therefore, you had a really good presence at the event. And I would argue that you, you know, if you mismatch that footfall, so you've got a really busy stand, but people fail to connect what your brand is, they don't have a need for your brand, then your follow-up and your ROI from that event is immediately going to tank. So I kind of flip that. The first thing I want sort of people to recognize whenever I chat to them about this is I sort of take it back and go, right, well,

Exhibitions as Decision Environments

SPEAKER_02 7:37

what's your objective? Well, your objective ultimately is sales. And so you have to convert it from being a sort of attention-grabbing marketing exercise and move it actually into a decision environment exercise. And when you do that, you start to convert people and your mindset of how you approach your layout of your booth, how it's sort of pre-marketed, how it exists on site, and then how you follow up with them when you start to think of it as let's make this the environment where we're talking to the right people who are gonna make the right decisions.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of companies actually see exhibitions as marketing environments, okay. So, where is the difference in that? I mean, if you're for example, if you're like LinkedIn uh or if you're like Google, obviously um you're gonna get sales down the line anyway, and you know, it's more of a brand promotion uh that they're actually doing. So, what's the difference between having seeing an exhibition uh if you're a big corporate, um, if you're gonna see the trade show as a marketing exercise versus uh a sales exercise? So, where would the where would you actually differentiate that?

Marketing Exercise vs. Sales Environment

SPEAKER_02 8:53

Yeah, I think that that you you've got sort of brands there that are at the sort of epitome of, you know, everyone knows who Google are, everyone knows who LinkedIn are. For them, it's okay for it kind of to be a marketing exercise, but they've still got to drive ROI because ultimately, like lots of those trade shows are about getting people onto the platform, getting them invested. So if we take LinkedIn, who who I work with a lot on, you know, one of the things that they do when they've got a presence is they will do things like a headshot booth. So they are going to provide value to the attendees by delivering a professional headshot there and then at the event for you that you can then use on your profile, which means that the hope is their ROI have been sort of marked in there is to actually get you activated back on platform because lots of people they see may not be a member or may not have been active or have awareness of what the platform can do. Because for most people, they're like, oh, LinkedIn, it's the job search platform. Well, actually, it's sales, it's hiring and job search, it's also marketing, and it's much wider remit. So, yes, there is definitely a um, you know, a sort of marketing exercise to do there. Whereas I'd argue where most businesses exist beyond the big corporates that we all know. And I was gonna say love, but you know, I truly love LinkedIn. There, I you know, Google's great as well. There are some that are a little bit more questionable out there, but you know, for most businesses, the idea of marketing is is purely a sort of I'd go as far to say as a little bit of a cop-out, because like if you put an investment in, and don't get me wrong, right? Your your chief marketing officer is going to go, I have spent X amount on this floor space, and therefore I need as many people to see my brand as possible, and therefore that later will convert to sales, which pays the bills that ultimately keeps everyone employed and puts it back into marketing for the budget, right? Because you know, marketing ultimately needs to generate sales in order to pay for itself to operate. Yeah, but actually, like I said before, you know, and you've probably experienced this so many times where they go, right, this is

The Problem with Attention-Only Experiences

SPEAKER_02 11:00

marketing exercise. We need to get people to feel good about uh the event, they they need to uh be really engaged in in what they're doing. And so um uh we're gonna we're gonna put on a big exhibition, a big uh big moment. So they hire an F1 machine, okay? So an F1 experience, virtual experience, you can come and do a drive. Now let's say that this is a company who is, I don't know, um it's a supply chain software, right? So really this visually, really boring, right? Because it's just lots of toggles and lots of buttons and move things around. Incredibly valuable to a business, but really boring from a visual engagement point of view. So they go, right, how do we get people there? Let's get an F1 uh virtual machine. And so all of a sudden, you get that busy booth, you get in plenty of badge scans, but really people are there because they like the idea of that F1 experience and they just want to post the biggest score because now they want to compete, they want to show off, maybe they take a picture, but that's it, they're giving up a badge scan for that, and they'll probably never re-engage with the brand because they weren't there because they had a problem that your brand solved, and so it's a kind of pointless marketing exercise because if the wrong people know your name, it isn't ever going to drive any ROI down the line. So, unless you're able to make a tangible link between the F1 uh driving experience and how your supply chain software speeds things up or provides you data or whatever that may be, that means that people have a meaningful connection to your brand and what it does, and therefore the experience happens and they go away having had a good time and understanding your brand, the chances are it's never going to move the needle.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Yep, absolutely, yeah. And I think that's you've hit upon a very strong point there because if companies uh create this fantastic experience and they don't actually relate it to what they actually do, and you've got the attendees in a very high emotional state, okay. And I think that's where the crunch comes, is when uh you've got them on that high emotional level, and then that's when you actually hit them with your branding, okay, or with the questions that you actually have, and that's where the association comes, right? Because if you're just giving them the experience and they're actually walking away with no uh tangible link to what your company does, again, it's a complete waste of that whole 50 to 100,000 pounds they've spent on the um experience.

The Peak-End Rule and Experience Design

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Yeah, 100%. And I I don't know if you've heard of um there's a psychological principle called the peak end rule, right? And and the idea is that so when you go into an experience, lots of people go, well, if they just have a good experience in general, they'll attribute that back on average to their experience at our booth, and that is entirely incorrect. People aren't able to take an average of their experience, right? So, for an example, you go on an F1 machine, you have a great time, you then get a very, very poor salesman, and then you get a follow-up later that's like, hey, can we just book 15 minutes in the diary? Yeah, that is a really poor experience, and actually, you know, you're not gonna take the average of that, you're gonna take two parts the peak experience and the end. And those are the key parts of that journey that need to be right, and that's how people remember you and your brand. So having a great uh experience is fine as long as what follows for the ending equally leaves people as feeling as satisfied or um as valued as that that experience needed to be, because otherwise that follow-up and the sort of ROI afterwards is going to fall off the edge of a cliff.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Absolutely. So talking of experiences, let's talk through the attendee journey and let's have a look at the critical uh decision-making uh junctions, if you like, um, and what um the exhibitor should be actually be doing to actually optimize that critical junction. So let's um I walk into uh the hall, okay. Um, and the first thing I see is lots and lots of boots, okay. Uh I'm um sensory overwhelmed completely with lots of lights, uh, images, the buzz of the exhibition hall. Um, so what am I thinking at this stage?

SPEAKER_02 15:33

Oh well,

Cognitive Overload on the Show Floor

SPEAKER_02 15:34

I'll be honest, right? You've got you've described it perfectly right, right? You get through those double doors, you've got LED screens flashing everywhere, over to the left-hand side, somewhere, you've got someone pumping out some bass music, you've got um all of these signs, you've got a map that doesn't really make sense, you've got an application for the convention that sometimes isn't as user-friendly as you would like, and then you've got salespeople that are on with these scanners and glossy magazines and free stress balls that are all sort of descending upon you. And you're exactly right. What you get is is is a principle called cognitive overload, right? So you're immediately sort of into panic mode, and all you want to do in that moment is run off to a small corner and not quite cry, but probably check your email that at the back of your head, you're going, God, I've not checked my email in two hours. I might have missed something really important. So that whole environment is designed to be completely overstimulating. So um, what happens in that moment is we just need to start to make their journey when they get to your booth, uh as as simple and as easy for them to follow, right? And for me, what this comes back to is that in an environment where cognitive overload is so prevalent, that cloud clarity becomes the best form of persuasion. So providing clarity for your brand becomes the best part of the persuasion process for them to visit, to appreciate, to understand, and move off. So let's take it back before we even get through those doors,

The Decision Journey Starts Before the Booth

SPEAKER_02 17:02

right? Because lots of people think, um, if you're on board with me that the expo is less of just a marketing exercise than actually is a decision-making environment, that decision-making environment starts before they even walk through those doors. It absolutely happens in the marketing. So it happens uh all the way back when we are preparing for an event, when you're getting ready to go, when you're having a look at online, who's attending, when you're looking at socials. I think one of the biggest shifts that brands can make is to start to look at um rather than what services are they promoting. Therefore, you know, hey, you know, we do, I'll take Sassy Plus's uh, for instance, we do content, we do live stream, we do podcasts, we do uh creative, we do photography, we do design, right? Rather than thinking of it like that, I would encourage you to start to think about how you are solving the problem of the attendee that's coming. Because all of them are coming with a problem. All of them are not coming because, well, maybe a few are coming just because they know a few people in the industry and they've managed to sign off the expenses, but most people are coming for a reason, and when they attend that reason, they've actually got to show some value back to their uh back to their bosses of of why they attend it. So they're already coming, they're not neutral, they already need to prove something. So beforehand, the easier you make to signpost, the better it is. So, what I see lots of brands doing, hey, I'm gonna be at insert expo name and I'll be on stand B44. Come and visit us. Yeah, why? I don't know you, I don't know who you are, I don't know what you're doing, everyone else has posted that. Why would I bother? So let's imagine instead that you're a um you're a security software company, right? Instead, what I might post is um can your team find your three vulnerabilities in less than 60 minutes? Come and see us at Booth 54. So now what you've done is identify a problem they may have, you've stopped them and got them to think about what their problem may be, and then you've encouraged them to come over and talk to you because you might have a solution. So that's the pre-event marketing.

The First Impression of the Booth

SPEAKER_02 19:21

When you get to the ground, and I'll come back to this in a moment because I I do believe that anything you've done pre-event should also carry over to the booth because they may or may not have made that link. I think you get into this really, really critical moment, right? And the first thing they're gonna see is your advertising, it's gonna be your marketing. What are the slogans on the wall? What are the uh logos of the clients that you already have, um, how many digital screens you might have, all of that potentially may put someone over the edge. But more than that, there's also a human element, and you know this better than anyone. How your staff appear on that booth, whether they're slouched over, they look grumpy, or whether they look approachable, energetic, they're forward thinking, that makes a massive difference to the decision window, which is seconds when they arrive at your booth. So I think again, what I try to do is try and encourage brands to strip back lots of that um lots of that thinking around what am I gonna put on the the side of my stand? And the temptation is I'm gonna put on everything, I'm gonna put everything we do. Yeah, and again, they're already overloaded, they've got such a small window of cognitive availability before they're just gonna tune it out that you have to make it count in that moment, all right? And so I would encourage brands to start to think about what is the key thing they want to talk about at that exhibit? What uh uh uh you know, what is the key problem they're gonna solve? What is the audience

Framing and First Impressions

SPEAKER_02 20:55

wanting? Do that research and go with that sort of bespoke offering so that you can attract people in, because otherwise, people will just start to sort of disregard it. And I'll I'll give you an example of of that in a sort of real trade show world in a moment. But this process is sort of called framing, right? What you've got to do the first time they see your booth is you've got a few seconds whilst they make up a decision about whether they're gonna stop, whether it's worth potentially being dragged into a poor sales conversation, or whether they're gonna duck and just move on as quickly as they can, right? We've all done it. We've all just bypassed it. I've got a meeting, I've got a lecture, I'm gonna go. We've all done it. So, you know, you've you've got this small window of visual, audio, pre-marketing that's basically gonna let them decide are you relevant, are you trustworthy, are you worth their time, are you a safe choice to stop and talk to? Do you do I need to within my remit of what I need to do, stop and talk? And that's a that's a process called framing, right? And and I know Carmen sort of talks about this idea of the first frame basically shapes how people interpret you. And your brand. So if I was to ask you to come out for dinner with me, Lee, and I would love to go for lunch and dinner with you again. And we're looking at the menu. And on that menu, there is a low-fat chicken salad, right? That's one of the options that immediately starts to say to me, it's limiting. It's I'm watching my calories. I'm trying to be healthy. If I'm honest, it sounds boring, right? I'm going to take that same menu item and I'm now going to change it. Instead, on the menu, I'm going to write char grilled chicken with lemon, herbs, and crispy salad. All of a sudden, that sounds amazing, right? Sounds sounds a little bit tastier, it sounds more emotional. I can get on board with that. Same dish, but framed differently. And that opens up a whole new prospect of interaction. So to bring that into the trade show world, um, I work with a company called Solo. So my friend set up a company called Solo uh a few years

The “Your Show, But Better” Example

SPEAKER_02 22:56

ago. Um, and originally it was set up as a way to control your lights, sound, images on the screen as a solo performer, so as say a magician, um, and uh without having to have a sound tech or a light tech, right? So A, save money, but B, be in full control of your show. Amazing, right? He redeveloped this app, the hardware, everything from the ground up. And on the trade show stand at a big magic convention, 4,000 attendees, it literally listed control your audio, music, video, live camera, all of these things. Because rightly so, Sam was incredibly proud of that. And as was I, I've seen this develop all the way since 2019. Amazing. What you can do with this app, it's unchallenged in the magic industry, it's amazing, it's great. But actually, what it immediately delivered to an attendee on that first frame is friction. I've now potentially got objections. Oh, well, what does it do? How does it control your audio? What does it mean that? Do I have a live camera? I'd never use a live camera. Automatically is sending people into this cognitive spiral. It's too much effort, and therefore, bang, my cognitive load is up, and I'm just gonna move on. So, what we did is we tried something and changed the marketing entirely. We did this in the middle of a convention, right? And we simply changed it to forwards, your show, but better. That's it. Wow, we completely changed the framing. Yeah. And the significant impact that that had, people stopped, they wanted to know because fundamentally it was starting to address a concern or a problem that every single performer has of how do I make my show better? And so now you've got intrigue and they're stopping rather than me having to go out and go, hey, do you use music in your show? Um, and again, makes such a difference. That first impression, that first frame, so important, and that first interaction with the person they speak to again is so so important and valuable. But that you know, that is the first kind of foray into landing at the stand.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Yeah, oh, absolutely. So, what you've done is I think what you did really well at your TEDx talk was um signposting. Okay, so you took people on a journey, but what you were doing throughout that talk was actually you were actually signposting people as to what was actually typically going to happen next. So uh talk me through. I mean, so obviously we've got when people register, uh, when they're actually looking through uh the exhibitor directory, for example, in terms of who to see, so your messaging on there has got to be quite important. You walk in, and then uh what kind of things, I mean, if you've got you know 300 stands or 100 stands, and you can see them when you go through those double doors, uh, what kind of thing do you think would make uh the attendees curious um so that they actually go and um you know, from far away, what can actually people do or exhibitors do to arouse that curiosity from people to walk on to that to their booth and not anyone else's? Because obviously everybody's at a trade show typically, you know, there's uh 15, 20 people doing the same thing. Okay, so what visually, uh apart from obviously what you say on the booth, but what kind of things is it color? Uh is it you know, sign uh the signposts, what is it that's gonna make people go? Oh, I want to visit that booth first.

Attention, Engagement, Intent, and Action

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Yeah, of course. So look, I think you know, you've got to be salient, you've got to stand out, right? So you've got to, in order to stand out and attract people in. And the first step, if we break this down sort of their journey overall into four steps. So the first part is attention. You need to attract their attention to get them to stop. You then need to get them to engage and get involved in a conversation and start to understand who you are. You then need to move that to intent so they might have uh uh an intent to work with you or follow up, and then finally, you've then got to actually get action out of them post that, right? So that's the phases they're gonna go through. And what you're talking about is that first part of how do you get attention? And it's interesting that you talk about the fact that um you might have a few different brands that are all competitors there at the same time, and so um I'd argue that regardless of whether your competitors are there or not, every brand tends to start to do the same thing. It becomes a bit incestuous, right? And I've seen this at plenty of medical conferences in particular over the years.

Why Exhibitors Copy Each Other

SPEAKER_02 27:30

So, you know, you go back 10 years and video on the stand wasn't a big thing. All of a sudden, one year, one brand goes right, we're gonna make a video, we're gonna have a video, we're gonna put a big LED wall, we're gonna get a nice cinematic brand video, slow moose, close-ups, it's gonna look great. They do it, they stand out, busy stand, people are there, they're like, Wow, this is amazing, right? Next year, I can guarantee you another 50 booze are gonna have that exact same thing because they all wander around and go, Oh, that booth's done really well. What can we do? We'll go and do that. Uh, the following year, that same company goes, damn it, everybody has copied us. We need something new. Um, and I will say there's also, I think, a bit of a worry from brands to actually go put their head above the power print and try and stand out and do something different because you do something too different, and your, you know, your chief marketing officer might be on board with it, but your chief financial officer might not be on board with the price of a risk of something because they're like, oh, wow, that doesn't really align with like there's plenty of reasons why people say no to quirky. So people hate putting their head above the parapet, they like the status quo, they're like doing what they've always done. Someone might hire a chef. Great, amazing. People are getting free food. Again, we come back to the fact that if they can't attribute the value of beyond the experience of the chef to your brand, then it's redundant. But the next year you can guarantee there's gonna be 10 booze with a chef, right? And so I think when you start to think about it, it comes back to ultimately what decision do you want people to make for your brand? Yeah, right. So once you understand what the decision is, that can actually start to indicate what you might do on your booth to drive attention to it. Doesn't have to be the biggest and flashiest booth, right? Colours will often stand out. So I'll give you an example. Uh I was at the Edinburgh, gosh, it must have been 2016.

Standing Out Through Contrast

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Everybody, bright, I've been in 2015, everyone had bright and colourful posters. Everything, everything was bright and like literally like a sea of rainbow, as you'd expect to be friends.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

So when we designed the poster for Mind Games, which was the show I took in 2016 uh to the fringe of the mind reading hypnosis show, we went the opposite. We went black and white. And because of that contrast, it stood out. So my advice is if you're gonna go, if you're planning your trade show booth now for 2027, right? Get to the trade shows this year, do a walk around and have a look at what everyone else is doing, and don't do that, right? Come up with something brand new that can associate with your booth that no one else is doing. Because I could promise you, big advocate of brand films, big advocate of hero films. Arguably, I'd say on a trade show floor, they do nothing, right? Uh, we've worked with ABB Robotics. You suddenly bring in a robot that you can control, yeah, they're in, right? That is something no one else can do. They can't compete with you. You've booked probably the biggest slot that anyone's got at the event, but people are gonna race robots like robot wars. Hot damn on there, right?

unknown 30:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

So if you can create this fund that's still relevant to your brand, you'll see how ABB Robotics doing something like that is not an F1 racing track, virtual racing track, right? You're creating something fun that's associated with your booth. In turn, what that will do is if you've got the right branding, you've got the right uh message that says you're there to solve their problem, you've now got an attraction that's fun and interesting to drive, and it doesn't always have to be as big budget as robots fighting. I don't think ABV have done that, by the way, but uh they have had a stand where they have had can robots you can control. Um that it's gonna start to generate that buzz, and that buzz is gonna be the social proof that people need to stop, and your job at that point becomes very different. It now becomes not making them stop and have that social proof, because as I said before, if a if it's a busy booth but they can't associate with a brand, it can still be a weak booth. You've now got to start to move them into that second phase of engagement to engage

Moving from Attention to Engagement

SPEAKER_02 31:25

those people, and that might be through people power, it might be through an interactive exhibit that educates them on their needs. Um but the job at that point, that specific point between attention and engagement, and and it exists before that in the in the sort of trade show booklet and the website and the app where you're trying to build, and in B2B, the product before the product is confidence. You've got to get them confident in who you are, yeah, what your brand is, what you do, and how you're going to deliver them. Because, in in all honesty, every single attendee that's coming that might make a buying decision is, as I said, not coming neutral. They are coming with the biggest risk management they've ever had before. They're spending the company money. They're spending the company money by being there. And more than that, if they make a decision to go with your service or product, they've then got to go and justify that to everyone that exists in that brand decision. And that brand decision process is now far greater than it ever was. It used to be like, hey, you're the head of sales, no worries, you can buy that, not a problem. Put it through and everything's life's good. It's very much changed now. The the growth of that decision-making tree is now you've got to go to procurement, you've got to go to finance, you go to your line manager, it goes to the CEO, everyone has a say. And ultimately, that decision process becomes so convoluted and so long that actually that conversion can be very difficult. And so building that confidence in that moment and things on the trade show booth, of course, being selective and being minimal when every other booth is plastered with everything, coming back to what is it we're selling, what is our core message and presenting it as a problem and the decisions you want them to make versus just every service you have can help get that clarity and start to build confidence. You can have brand uh brand logos, you can have testimonials, you can have that problem plastered and a way for them to

Building Confidence and Reducing Risk

SPEAKER_02 33:24

understand it. And particularly if it's invisible, the role of technology is to try and make the invisible visible and tangible for people for them to remember it. But if you get that right, you can build that confidence because your biggest role there is helping them understand risk reduction. So we are a safe brand, we are trusted, we can deliver on what we say, and to do that, you can do it with authority that builds credibility for your for your for your expertise, right? Yeah, um, and and uh you know ultimately my goal in that sort of engagement phase to move them to intent is to not just get them interested in what I'm doing, but turn them into a brand advocate for me. Because of that long decision-making process, I need them to be 100% on my side, to trust me, to want to be a part of part of this journey, because they're gonna have to go and advocate to me to IT, procurement, HR, their line manager for a week, a month, three months, six months, a year sometimes. And so that that's really important. Getting the messaging that's on the wall, once they're stopped, to actually and obviously the personal engagement that happens immediately to get them on board, to get them to trust you, to get them to understand you, uh, and to understand that you are there to help them, right? So, you know, if you went outside a trade show, if you were buying a car chair for your kids Lee, right? Yeah, you walk into a shop, you're looking at all the different options. Are you gonna choose the one that's got the label on it that says cheapest deal, you can have it for 20 quid? The chances are no. In your head, you're gonna go, oh, that seems a bit cheap. You're immediately gonna look online, you're gonna look for references, you're gonna look up for sort of authoritative things along the lines of like crash tests and ratings online, you're also gonna look for peer reviews. So you're gonna look for what other parents have thought to that car chair and how safe it may be and how easy it was to use, those things are gonna factor into your decision. So when you are trying to stop somebody, if you have not only that problem and the logos, but you actually have some social proof in the form of a peer review, a peer a peer statement of somebody that is say, you know, again, uh, I'll use Veolia as an example. So, you know, if you've got a statement from the chief marketing officer of Veolia that this marketing product absolutely changed their world and changed their process, I'm much more likely to stop because I can see my peer has done that. Equally, if I can see lots of peers in the booth talking, I'm more likely to stop. And so it's it's starting to weigh up. And I realize that's a fairly general answer because until you get into the specifics of a business, for me, just to sort of round that off, it's it's stand out and do something different. So take a look around. Um, and that can be difficult when you've got brand guidelines to adhere to, and the brand team are like, no, you can't use a red, you have to use a blue. I'm like, well, everyone else is blue, and the theme of the conference is blue, so we're not going to stand out, we're going to be immediately forgettable. Let's use the opposite, because let's go for red. Um, you know, you've got to have those conversations,

The Role of Booth Staff

SPEAKER_02 36:26

but it's understanding that, and and and that comes into the sort of flow of the booth and how people move around it. Um, not only how does it look, you know, uh it's that first impression. I think lots of people turn to things like or gimmicks like magicians, and I know I know you've had experience with with these over the years, where all of a sudden that same footfall idea is they hire a magician, and listen, there are some fantastic magicians that do that do trade shows. So this isn't everybody, but a cheaper magician or an inexperienced magician might just go, Hey, do you want to see a car trick? Here's a car trick, great, come over here, talk to my friend. There is nothing in that, there is no value for anybody, they've just been irritated. Whereas one of my friends, Lee uh Lee Thompson, uh, he's a pickpocket, just been on BGT. Go and check out his real. Uh, he did phenomenally well. He pickpocketed Alan Deck on stage. He doesn't actually do pickpocketing there, though he is booked as a pickpocket. His job uh and his experience as a pickpocket is really being able to talk to people and engage them. And he stops them with a bit of a weird question that gets them to sort of take a step back, but it's a fun question. And it's not, hey, how are you doing today? What was the best lecture? What have you seen? All those classics that everyone uses. I won't give it away. But it might be, you know, um, hey, what's what's your favorite flowers to smell? And all of a sudden you go, Oh, that's a weird question. Oh, actually, roses. Oh, great. Um, actually, I'm working on a printer's stand today. Do you do you do any printing in your business? Yes, no, qualified. If it's yes, great. You can get them into more of a conversation, get them into the right mindset, then get them to the people to talk to. Um or uh, or they go, no, and he goes, Do you know what? Great, have a wonderful day. We've got some free goodies if you want them, but the chances are your bag's full of them already. So, and off they go, right? And I think you're just starting to be honest with your staff when you're trying to pull people in. Is it that big picture, or is it actually your staff and the people that are interacting with them with them on a first basis that's going to get them to stop and get them into conversation and start to move from attention through to engagement?

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Yeah, I think finding that what you've just touched upon there is uh people buy from people, okay. And if people, if the if that engagement and you haven't found the common ground with the person in front of you, okay, um, they're actually you know gone and go away from the conversation. So I don't need to be talking to this person, or there's occasions when uh attendees are completely pulled off by the booth staff as well. Okay, so that you've done all the hard work through the marketing and the signposting and everything, and then you meet somebody who's on their mobile phone, or they're busy looking at other people's badges. So I think um that human connection, uh, I think that would you say that out of all the actions that you can take to signpost people, that your human assets are probably um the most critical in terms of driving those conversations, finding that common ground?

Human Interaction as a Limited Resource

SPEAKER_02 39:14

A hundred percent. I mean, you know, in a world where we are distracted by digital devices constantly, um, human interaction is becoming a limited resource. And again, you know, if you've got inexperienced people on a booth and they aren't able to, you know, communicate well, but also communicate value about your brand, immediately people are gonna shut off. And it comes back to the beginning, right? The people that you're stopping are already cognitively overloaded, right? That's a very poor place to be. If there's suddenly too many options on the wall, they're immediately gonna shut down. If the person talking to them is just talking at them and going, hey, we do this, we do this, we do this, we do this, cognitive shutdown, they're gonna blank out, they're gonna move on. It's sort of this choice overload, right? Yeah, so the easiest way for those booze staff to um to to help engage people and really start to move the needle. And I mean get them into a meaningful conversation that may then result in intent and action that comes later, yeah, is to help relieve

Choice Overload and Decision Paralysis

SPEAKER_02 40:19

that sort of cognitive overload, right? And so just just to just to sort of again expand on sort of cognitive overload, right? Um, as an experience we've all had, we now have access to various streaming services, Netflix being one of them. Other streaming services are available. That's my BBC training kicking in there, Lee. Um you know, so you know, if you're on Netflix, you sit down, you go, right, I'm gonna watch a film, you sit down, and there are thousands of movies. That's incredible, right? I go back to being a kid. It was like you had to go to Blockbuster. You made a moment, you went to Blockbuster, you found the movie, you brought it home, you watched it, you took it back, you're occasionally late taking it back. You'd forgotten to rewind it. There was a charge, like there was a whole experience to it. Yes. We're lucky now, we can sit down, we can watch anything we want. But because of this myriad of choice, there are too many options. We just sit there and scroll through for 20 minutes and we go, oh, it's too late to start a film now. I guess I'll just put some TV on. And it's amazing how that too much choice becomes a cognitive overload and actually gives decision paralysis, which is entirely the opposite of what we want when we're actually on a booth, right? So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

What would you say is the optimum number? Sorry to interject, what would you say is the optimum number of choices that you give people? I know there's um scientifically proven that you know three choices is enough. Um is it one, two, three, or uh is there a magic number where you put the threshold?

How Many Choices Should Exhibitors Offer?

SPEAKER_02 41:44

So it depends on your offering. I will say, weirdly, um, if you've got two choices, right, that that's a that's a good amount, right? I can choose A or I can choose B. Um it and that is obviously a great place to be. If you've got eight things you could do, distilling those actually rather than being the eight services into two problems that you solve can be very much easy to signpost and start to guide them through. And then once they're it engaged and the rest of the cognitive overload fades away and they're in a conversation, you can then start to expand what those those services are. Um, but when you add a third choice, interestingly, psychologically, it makes one of the original two more appealing, right? And there are certain areas that that works and doesn't work, but it is fascinating, this very idea that actually by adding one more choice, you make one of the first choices, which may be primarily the one you want them to go for more appealing. So I'll give you an example. Um, I think, and I'll have it's it's a quote from Rory Sutland, and if I butcher this, I'll have to apologize to him. But um, there was a New York Times study done whereby they were launching a subscription. Okay, so you could either pay uh $50 a year for the digital only publication of the New York Times. Okay, that was option one. Option two was you could pay $120 for both digital and print for a year, right? Or a month. One of the two. Again, don't quote me exactly on this. Two options. And what they found was the vast majority of people, I think it was about 64% of people, went for option one because it was clearly the cheapest and the right option to go for. However, when they added a third option, which was you could either have digital only for $60, you could have print only for $110, or you could have print and digital for $120. Because of that value shift, more people now went for the digital and the print option, which I would assume they've done purposely because they were making more money on that. But it's interestingly, based on the two choices, they're now. Receiving something they don't want because they didn't want the print version, those people didn't want it, but they're now opting to go for it and pay a premium for it because that third option makes that one that you actually want them to go for feel like a much better value. And so when you're starting to think about that, it's less about how many choices there are. Um, because you know it's different to when you go to a restaurant and you're looking for a menu and you've got six pages of different foods, right? When you do that, the reason you end up more or less dissatisfied with your meal is not because the meal was bad, it's simply because you've got this idea that one of the meals you didn't choose could have been better. And so when you have too many options of choice, that's what people they live with, this choice regret. So by distilling into that two, three option, and again, it's a it's about understanding your brand and exactly what you're offering and and what's right, because you might not have a pricing model where a third option would be additive to the experience. And if it's not, don't put it in there because you think you should have three, just go with the two. But we're talking, we're talking about distilling it into information that they can follow uh uh and understand. And the idea of that is this idea, and I think it was uh Reba, I'll get this probably wrong, Schreize and Winkleman, uh, and they did a study called uh that looked at processing fluency, right? And the idea is, and this is really simple, and it's amazing how few brands actually follow this, is that when you make something clear and easy to follow, that means not only will it sort of distill and break some of that cognitive overload that we're trying to get rid of,

Processing Fluency and Trust

SPEAKER_02 45:40

it's kind of that signposting you were talking about a moment ago. When you have process influency, so you make it as easy as possible for people to process the information, something amazing happens. You get an increase in trustworthiness. And that trustworthiness goes up, which is exactly what you want. You're building confidence, you're getting them to trust them, they're more likely then to action a follow-up af after the event. It's like if a doctor talks to you and uh, you know, he's giving you a diagnosis or she's giving you a diagnosis, and they suddenly start talking in Latin and giving you all the complicated terms and you're overloaded and they go, and this is what we're gonna do. All of a sudden you're a bit fearful, you're like, Oh, do I need a second opinion? What should I do? This, like you're overloaded. Whereas, if I talk to you as a human being and I put it in language that you can understand, and I talk you through the options on what we're gonna do and why, that's processing fluency that I'm delivering to you. You're much more likely to trust me and go with whatever treatment I recommend at that point. And it's the same on a booth.

Why Follow-Up Often Fails

SPEAKER_00 46:37

Absolutely, yeah. So, talking of which, so we've now built trust, and now it's the follow-up process. And this is where I find, I mean, over the last uh 18 years, and one of the biggest pain points I see for exhibitors is how do you actually set up the follow-up process? And there's been many a time where, and I I share a famous story where I went to an event called DTX, uh, got into a conversation with an exhibitor about uh a CRM system I was thinking of actually developing, answered all the questions. Okay, and from me there was some sign of intent, as you say, uh, because I wanted to follow up. And um, and the thing that happened was um the rep on the booth said, Okay, let me uh scan your badge and uh somebody will get in touch with you. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

So, and one of the again in the trainings that we do is one of the things areas that we actually look at is how do you create a value proposition so that the attendee wants to follow up themselves? Okay, so in terms of the follow-up process, talk through about the again the decision-making process from uh the attendee side in terms of why they should expect that phone call uh from the exhibitor. So, what can the exhibitor do to say, okay, this is why you should be uh wanting to talk to me after the event or whatever is next. Okay.

Generic Follow-Up Kills Intent

SPEAKER_02 48:07

Yeah, you know, I and actually this is where most people fall down. And the reason I was sort of laughing in that story is because I've I've experienced it so many times myself. You get that generic email that's like, hey, can I book 15 minutes in your diary after the convention? You're like, great. So what's happened is they've scanned everybody's badges that because they've gone for the marketing approach and they've got as much footfall through as possible. So they look great on socials and to their to their boss, we've got so many footfall. And they scan all these badges, and then you send out this generic email. Um, and and worse than that, like you've described, if I've had a meaningful conversation, I'm like, this is right, I've built you've built confidence with me, I've now got intent. I think this is going to be amazing. You're the answer to all my problems, and I need answers because I'm under pressure as a KPI, I need answers to my problem, right? Um, and then what I get is a generic follow-up like, hey, insert name. Can I book 15 minutes in your diary? Would love to chat. Great to see your ex convention, yours, random person's name I've never heard of. Yeah, my confidence, my engagement, my intent has just returned to zero. That is a significant problem because lots of brands are playing numbers games. Rather than thinking about how they can talk to the right people, they're playing a numbers game. And so that follow-up has got to provide value, right? So in a wonderful worldly, I'll be honest, the dream world is on that stand. I provided so much value, and there are ways to do that. I'll talk about that in a moment. I've provided so much value that um you want to follow up with me. You're excited to see my email, right? And and of course, that that would be that would be that would be the place to be. And of course you can do that. Because if you start thinking about these people and how they are psychologically challenged when they come there, and by psychological challenge, I mean the fact that A, they've got to find an answer to their problem. They've then got to have the evidence to go back to their stakeholders and prove that it's gonna work, and they've got to have the confidence that it's gonna work, right? And if you can provide all of that on the booth, and it might be through a glossy magazine, again, they're gonna be carrying that, it's gonna go in a bag with the rest of them, they're probably never gonna look at it again, right? So if you think in a more unique way to do that, maybe it's a memorable experience.

Creating Value After the Booth

SPEAKER_02 50:20

So again, we like Violi, we had like an interactive exhibit with Solo where people could explore their solution live there. Again, they've now remembered something more than a conversation, right? Yeah, but when you provide the value, provided all of that information for them and made it as easy as possible, of course, they're gonna be more interested in a follow-up. But the reason that the best sort of follow-up comes is when as a salesperson, I've made notes about what your problem was. So let's say that your problem is you've got problems with providing proof of ROI on the event spend that you've made for your exhibit, right? To your manager. Okay, really common problem. So if I was then to follow up with Hayley, hope you had a great rest of the convention. Uh, I know you're off to see the XXX lecture after after us. How was that? Um with the ROI problem, I've actually put together a one pager on how you can start to separate measurement of activity at the booth versus activity of um conversion in this really handy table, and I'd love to talk you through it. Let me know when you're free. Immediately, what I've done is provide them with additional value, right? So beyond just asking for value from them immediately. So that first email where it's like, hey, have you got 15 minutes? I'm asking for value from you. I'm asking for time in your diary, I'm asking for you to, you know, give up your cognitive space for me to talk to you to sell you something, right? That's the undertake. But if you provide value, the there's a principle called uh reciprocity, which is basically when you give value first, they now become indebted to you to give value back. So when you now put that ask in, can we chat? More likely to come in uh uh uh and chat with you. And it doesn't have to be in the form of um a guide or as bespoke as that. And and

Content as a Follow-Up Strategy

SPEAKER_02 52:17

uh Sassy Plus, one of the things that that I've been really cognizant of is event follow-up, not just being a highlights reel, right? So whether that's on your social channels, whether you send out an email afterwards to link to it, wherever it may be, a highlights reel is just like, hey, look what we've done. Great. For internal, no problem, have at it for external comms. That piece of content that you might share, because you can share some content that are gonna have impact to provide value, or what goes out on your socials, in my opinion, should add value both to the attendee that you're talking to and potential other leads that may then interact from socials. And so it might be that you create a thought leadership video whilst you're there, because you're at a trade show, there's lots of other people there, there's lots of other brands that are interesting. Better than a case study of, hey, Lee, I know you use our services. Can you just say something nice about us to the camera? If we were going to do a walk and talk and do what we're doing now on this podcast and deliver a piece of content that's at the event, that's relevant, that's timely, but actually is timeless because it's thought leadership about how do you engage people at an event, all of a sudden you've got a brand new piece of valuable content that you're providing to them before you have an ask for them. So that rest uh I can never say it, reciprocosity is received in that moment. They're now psychologically indebted to you because you provided value to them. Yeah, and I think that's why most people sort of fall flat is you know, is that they they forget that or they think that the value that they provide is in providing this amazing service or product they're selling, and actually the value to the customer has to come way before that, before they even get to buying that product.

SPEAKER_00 54:01

Yeah, absolutely. I think um we could carry on this conversation for an hour, and it's been almost 50 odd minutes already. So I'm so sorry for listening. I hope you found some value. It

Three Critical Takeaways

SPEAKER_00 54:16

happens. Oh, this is this is valuable, and but what you've just said, obviously, I'm going to take away and uh put into practice myself. Not that we not not that we don't do it already, but um uh that's fantastic. Um, so in terms of summarizing, if you could uh summarize the attendee engagement uh value or the journey, uh the value of the journey, uh speak. Um for exhibitors, what would you say are three critical takeaways that they should be um taking away from this episode?

SPEAKER_02 54:52

Um I think stop thinking about a booth as a just a purely marketing exercise as a way to be visible and start thinking about it as a proper decision environment. And that environment expands beyond just the booth and is everything you do in the lead up to it, it's everything they see as they approach, is what happens on it, and it's how it's followed up. That decision environment, you absolutely 100% have to take into consideration. If you design your stand around that, everything from the content, the people, the technology, the interactions, the follow-up all becomes immediately um incredibly clear to me. Um I think as well to start to design less for attention and more for confidence. Like, how can I make people confident in what we're doing is 100% going to be a better sell than having the big F1 machine that that's gonna say sort of take uh central place. And I think starting to think about how do you provide value for people beyond your service. This isn't just and most of my relationships, sort of from a business point of view, whether that's you know, consulting, whether that's you know, working with brands, um, like I mentioned with at Sassy Plus, with LinkedIn and uh Violia and all of those brands, it's it's you know, I have amazing relationships with them because I provide value outside of being a production company. I'm not just producing a video for them. I will talk them through why or how they should produce it to land their objective. And when I talk through that, and then the product's better, and then they get an end result that they can go back to their manager and go, look how amazing this was. That value that they feel to me means that what you're creating is less just short-term relationships and long-term um uh loyalty to you as a brand. And I I I think people value that

Where to Find Aaron Calvert

SPEAKER_02 56:52

fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 56:53

Aaron, it was a pleasure to talk to you. Um, where can our audience find you?

SPEAKER_02 57:01

Well, well, I well, I wear many different hats. So if you want to connect with me, please. If if you search my name on LinkedIn, it's Aaron Calvert. Uh, I'm sure there'll be a link somewhere around. You can join me on LinkedIn. I'd I please connect with me. Um, I'd love to see you there. Um, from a production point of view, obviously Sassy Plus is the production company that I work for. So uh you can head online and find all of the amazing things they do. Again, we work at events, we do uh content, we do uh PR, lots of different areas that we cover there. AaronCalvert.com is the other place, so that is my sort of talking, speaking consultancy space. Um, so you can head to my website, please. We I have some public shows coming up as well. So uh definitely see if you can attend those. Uh and then also just a shout out to Solo, uh, who is uh sort of very close to my heart with um everything that Sam has developed there. And not only has it taken up a pride of place as uh a staple in how performers control their show, but actually in event tech and creating interactive event experiences has really changed the game uh for the clients that I've worked with there.

SPEAKER_00 58:06

Fantastic.

Closing Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 58:07

Aaron, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for providing so much value and uh look forward to hopefully uh seeing you on the show floor somewhere or sharing the stage with you uh somewhere uh at an event or a conference or somewhere around the globe.

SPEAKER_02 58:22

Absolutely. If you need to find me, I'll behind one of those sort of pillars crying uh from the cognitive overload. So uh yeah, find me there.

SPEAKER_00 58:29

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 58:31

It's been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 58:31

Thank you so much, Aaron. Thank you.