As I sit on a packed plane on my way to Houston for the Informex Specialty Chemical Conference I can’t help but wonder….
Do you ever feel your voice isn’t being heard or your opinions don’t matter – every once in a while I have a funny feeling mine don’t. For example when I book a flight and there is a new crazy fee, or when my favorite french shoemaker discontinued the world’s best sandal, or just as I get hooked on a new TV series it gets cancelled. It really makes me wonder how businesses keep their audience happy. If you don’t listen to your customers what sort of service are you providing?
If we didn’t listen to our audience at Informex, we wouldn’t have a show. It’s quite obvious that in the chemical industry you need to be flexible and change as your audiences needs and wants change. The chemical business is heavily rooted in tradition, but it is also incredibly fast paced and constantly transforming. So to keep Informex a must-attend event we depend upon your feedback. It’s really your opinions that make the show.
We sent out a survey immediately after the San Franciscoshow to get feedback, and the results were really fantastic. The overall show satisfaction rate went up 15%, we had a higher presentation of people that said they were likely to exhibit again, and we had more people say they found good leads than they had in 2009. It really validates the show, and our jobs, to hear that our audience was able to conduct productive business.
We are also calling around to attendees and exhibitors and asking them for more anecdotal feedback from the show (so if a friendly voice calls and says they are from Informex, please talk to them!). The team has made about 30 calls up to this point and they report that people have been so gracious to talk with and that they’ve received very useful feedback. We have even had people returning voicemails, which is something that just doesn’t happen in most industries. The main trends we have heard so far: people would like to see more structured networking events, that we should have more chairs around for people to have a seat (it gets tiring walking around the show floor all day!), the VIP program was a terrific way to get in new buyers, attendees would like an easier way to find out what exhibitors are selling prior to the show, and that the showcases need to run more smoothly.
Any feedback of that sort is completely priceless to us. So speak up! Let us know what’s on your mind. Drop me an email jjessup@informex.com. (Hopefully one day soon you’ll be able to comment on this blog --- I’ll keep you posted)
Thanks for reading!
JJ
