Teamwork is dream work – this seems to be the consensus among exhibition organisers and venue operators in UFI’s first Industry Partners Benchmark Survey, whose responses show they believe that service providers have a relatively high impact on the overall success of an exhibition.
The project was developed by the UFI Industry Partners Working Group. More than 200 companies contributed to the project between January and March 2020, the majority of which (79%) are from Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
“The survey will be of great interest to suppliers and partners worldwide, by providing key insights into the true nature of the relationships between organisers and the companies that support their events.”
“We believe this is the first survey of its kind in our industry to focus on the value that organisers place on their suppliers. The survey will be of great interest to suppliers and partners worldwide, by providing key insights into the true nature of the relationships between organisers and the companies that support their events,” says Ravinder Sethi, Chair of UFI’s Industry Partners Working Group.
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The survey showed that the majority of respondents depend on service providers to supply exhibition stands (80%) and security or security staff (79%). However most services were in high demand, excepting consultancy at only 37% uptake. “Many of the most-used services can be considered mandatory services needed to run an event, while services such as consultancy are used on a more voluntary basis,” notes the report.
“Marketing and communication services are perceived to have the highest impact on the success of an exhibition, followed by event technology and software and exhibition stand construction.”
Marketing and communication services are perceived to have the highest impact on the success of an exhibition (scoring 4,4 out of 5), followed by event technology and software (4,2 out of 5) and exhibition stand construction (also scoring 4,2 out of 5).
“The fact it is possible to track the success of marketing efforts more effectively than other services may go some way to explaining this. These services also directly contribute to securing event participation,” notes the report.
High satisfaction levels were recorded with the respondents’ preferred service providers. However, while they also indicated they were satisfied with the level of innovation being offered by their service providers, these scores were lower overall. This could suggest that there is room for more innovation among service providers.
The full report can be accessed here.
UFI is the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry. UFI directly represents more than 50,000 exhibition industry employees globally, and also works closely with its 60 national and regional association members, including AAXO, EXSA and the South African Tourism National Convention Bureau.
