Millennial supply chain professionals have markedly different expectations of a trade show and express contrasting reasons for visiting an event to their more mature colleagues.
A new survey of over 200 logistics professionals undertaken by Sapio Research on behalf of the organisers of IMHX 2019 (the International Materials Handling Exhibition, NEC, Birmingham, 27 -29th September 2019) shines a light on the perceptions, behaviours and needs of visitors to trade shows in the supply chain sector.
In particular, the report’s findings help indicate to those companies operating in the materials handling and logistics space key motivators for engaging young people.
For example, although just 36 per cent of all those polled rated entertainment as an ‘important’ or ‘very important’ reason to attend a business exhibition, in the younger age group this figure rises to 56 per cent which suggests that increasing a show’s ‘entertainment value’ may be a way to encourage younger people to attend an event and add to their satisfaction with it.
But, across all age groups, education and networking opportunities are perceived as the most important features of a business exhibition.
In terms of education, the ‘need to keep up to date with industry trends’ is the key driver (79%) for attending an exhibition among all respondents to the survey, followed by ‘finding new ways of adding value to processes’ (55%), ‘finding new suppliers’ (48%) and the chance to get ‘exclusive access to products you can’t see anywhere else’ (35 per cent).
When asked about networking, while ‘networking with peers’ was stated as a key reason by 39 per cent, it seems that different types of networking activities have varying levels of appeal across the age range.
Those aged 53+ said the opportunity to speak to presenters who are delivering a seminar would encourage them to attend, while only 5 per cent of those in the millennial bracket find this prospect attractive.
‘Attendance of companies I want to engage with’ (78%),‘Product and solution demonstrations’ (71%) and ‘Interactive exhibits and display zones’ (54%) were the three features of an exhibition most likely to encourage visitor attendance across the age divide.
However, ‘Technology sessions’ are viewed as an important attraction to 51% of 41-52 year olds but are less interesting to 18-40 year olds with just 29% rating them as a good reason to attend.
A ‘lack of interesting things’, ‘being sold to’ and ‘work pressures’ are the three things most likely to stop a potential visitor from attending a business-to-business trade event, but, encouragingly for both the IMHX organisers and the exhibiting companies, 88% of respondents across the various age ranges stated that they plan to attend IMHX 2019.
Interest in IMHX 2019 is particularly strong among managers in the 18-40 age bracket, who, the study found, tend to visit exhibitions more regularly than their more mature colleagues.
When it comes to pre-show marketing activities the research threw up some interesting findings. For example, of the various social media channels, LinkedIn is, by some distance, the most popular (71%) for keeping up to date with trends in the logistics industry, followed by Facebook (31%) and Twitter (29%).
IMHX
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