Boosting Engagement at Conference Halls with ExtremeLocation
Recently, ExtremeLocation was able to help track and deliver meaningful insights to one of the largest technology conferences in the world.
GITEX is a large global tech conference featuring thousands of exhibitors from over 170+ countries. It brings together the people and companies defining the future of technology with world-class speakers and technical experts. The 2022 event was attended by more than 170,000 people at an event space spanning two million square feet of exhibition space.
Technology Needs
In order to keep everyone at the conference connected, there needed to be:
- Wireless infrastructure to support attendee and employee connectivity
- Simplified network management for quick deployment and easy troubleshooting
- Insights into traffic, location, and engagement levels of conference attendees
That is why the conference team ultimately decided to deploy Extreme Wireless and ExtremeCloud IQ to use the ExtremeLocation features.
Using Network Data to Enhance Conference Layouts
Marketing teams all want to position their event spaces in a way that generates the highest levels of engagements with their companies. These teams pay higher amounts for more “premium” booth spaces, which ideally correlate to higher foot traffic and engagement levels.
Prior to having engagement analytics data available, marketing teams would have to trust” event spaces that the higher price they were paying was resulting in higher foot traffic. Some data could be generated via lead tracking, but this can be cumbersome and hurt the attendee experience. These marketing teams had to rely on previous knowledge and guess which methods would cause higher engagement from attendees at the conference.
For GITEX 2022, Extreme deployed several access points managed by ExtremeCloud IQ, and leveraged ExtremeLocation to gain insights into the attendees and the movement around their booth. Each access point has an extra radio, which can measure the movements and location of attendees.
The event marketing teams were immediately able to see insights on an hour-by-hour and day-by-day basis. They could now track what foot traffic was near the booth, how many lingered and stayed in the booth, immediately saw were coming from, and how long the average attendee was engaging with the booth. If desired, the marketing team could also make adjustments to how they engaged customers and determine whether social media advertising was making a difference in their booth engagement.
With Extreme Wireless and ExtremeLocation deployed, the marketing team got 500%+ more engagement than in 2021 for all levels of visitors, across visitors staying 5min, 5-20min, 20-60min, and even a 385% increase in visitors waiting for 1-6 hours+. Of all foot traffic visitors, close to 1 in 5 people heard the Extreme marketing message and engaged with the Extreme brand. Ultimately this resulted in a big marketing success and an improved conference attendee experience.
Driving Better Outcomes at GITEX 2022
Extreme took a new approach to support the 2022 GITEX conference and were able to see a significant impact thanks to Extreme Wireless, ExtremeCloud IQ, and ExtremeLocation.
“The implications of meaningful location insights are monumental. Retail stores can understand which shopfront should charge a higher premium over others, office parks can learn how to design spaces for the efficient movement of visitors, and shopping malls can prove value to their retail clients.” – David van Schravendijk, Director of Product Marketing, Extreme Networks
More Engagement
Compared to the GITEX 2021 conference, engagement was up 576%, as well as a significant increase in the number of actual visitors who stayed for an extended period of time.
Improved Location Insights for Conference Halls
ExtremeLocation delivered insights into the number of impressions, the number of people lingering near the marketing booth, differentiating between passerbys and actual visitors, day-to-day or hour-to-hour comparisons, and how marketing spending correlated to actual in-person booth visits.
Strategic Planning for Future Conferences
Based on the insights delivered from the location data, changes can be made to future shows to improve engagements further. Marketing planners can hold event vendors accountable using location data to ensure their budget is spent correctly on high-value and high-foot-traffic areas.