I’m coming at this from a company perspective, I’m the President and Chief Scientist of a small company and we exhibit at scientific conferences, generally it’s me who does the exhibiting, but I also have over 100 refereed publications, several patents, have chaired some conferences and have edited some conference proceedings. Scientifically, I’m no slouch and have a well proven track record. At the moment, the company I founded (not the first) is transforming the Atomic Layer Deposition Industry with innovative and well researched plasma sources that are replacing legacy technology with 21st century technology, over 150 new generation plasma sources have been sold in 16 different countries. Something else that I should mention is that I’m from Australia, and that background can be far more critical and vocal than many North Americans are comfortable with.
Here’s the rub, a few times now we’ve been invited to exhibit at conferences that really shouldn’t have wasted our time, or theirs. Sometimes the need for conference funds exceeds the willingness to actually provide for an exhibit, and commonsense goes out the window, well maybe it’s more than sometimes. Having organized conferences myself, I realise that this is a time honored means of raising funds for a conference, but hold on a second, if you go that route and try and get exhibitors to your conference then you have obligations to the exhibitors and your reputation hangs on keeping them happy, if you don’t they will remember that, they will spread the news and you will lose part of your credibility in the industry. That’s just reality.
I recently went to a conference to exhibit at a great location, had a terrific time, but the exhibition was basically… hopeless. They only got about 4 or 5 exhibitors, the conference probably already had a bad reputation for exhibiting, but I hadn’t realised that, I was asked by a couple of the conference chairs who I had known for years, and was disappointed at the outcome. There was no announcement about the exhibitors at the beginning of the conference, and no entreaty to visit them. The coffee breaks were meant to occur near the exhibit, that only happened twice during a multiday conference, the rest of the coffees were only offered down the other end of a large hall so that there was no traffic at all near the exhibits. I had complained about this to one of the conference chairs, and he had tried to get the coffee down near us, so that was the second coffee near us, which happened 5-10 minutes before the end of the coffee break. Nothing beyond that. The conference reception was no where near the exhibit. In the end the conference support was so poor that the exhibitors just ignored the conference organizers and we moved some of our stuff up to the reception to have some visibility. The posters didn’t happen anywhere near us, same thing, we just went there anyway. I complained quite a bit to one of the conference chairs, and there was a mention of the exhibitors at the end of the conference during the wrap up as a result… far too late. Too little, too late. A conference we will never support again.
Many conference chairs are actually ignorant of any responsibility they have to exhibitors, some have very poor social skills, and are happy to maintain that ignorance, some use arrogance as a means of avoiding that responsibility. But exhibitors are not foolish people, we know who does not support us, and those individuals have reputations they probably don’t know about. So, if you’re going to actually have an exhibit during your conference here’s the Do’s for conference chairs, I’m actually not bothering with the Don’ts because they’re the anti-theme of the Do’s.
Do:
- Acknowledge your exhibitors at the beginning of the conference and entreat the attendees to visit their exhibits.
- Visit all the exhibits yourself, introduce yourself and thank the exhibitors personally for their attendance. That’s just basic courtesy for people who are paying large amounts of money to support your conference.
- Holy cow, how hard is it to make sure that coffee breaks happen near the exhibits. Please organize that. For large conferences this is not always possible and multiple coffee stations are needed, but try and attract as many people as possible to where the exhibitors are, better cakes at the exhibit hall or some such. Lunches, the same.
- Have the poster sessions near the exhibitors. I’ve heard of one conference venue where supposedly the exhibitors complained about this, but that’s not a thing. Those exhibitors should be taking every chance to display their wares. Posters near the exhibitors!
- Every instance where you control large gatherings of people, you should be thinking about how your exhibitors might benefit. You need to be strategic and scientific in your approach. Totally doable with very little effort.
- At the end of the conference thank your exhibitors at the wrap up and remind the conference of their support.
It’s actually not a very big to do list, it’s not hard to do, but one that everyone should follow if you’re going to take on the responsibility of being a conference chair. Surprisingly, not many rise to complete this list, but as an exhibitor I very much appreciate those who have. If you’re not up to that then maybe you should rethink being a conference chair. Another possibility, if you’re not up to these responsibilities is to delegate them to others who are more capable, and that’s alright too. However, some conferences just shouldn’t have exhibits, and that might be the way to go for some.
The conference I went to above, should not have had an exhibit, they should simply have sought sponsors. I told that to one of the conference chairs, I hope he’ll take that on. It was basically an American conference held in Canada to allow better attendance from countries with visa problems. One of the biggest sponsors was a Canadian company who didn’t show for the conference. Some will do that. You can attract more by offering invited talks, many companies have a lot of very good science to talk about and they can find that of more value than an actual exhibit. I would have done that if asked, and totally could have as we have good science in our company. As it was the exhibit was a total waste of time, and I’ve noted that for future conferences involving those chairs and that conference which we won’t be bothered with in the future.
I’ve actually been to worse conference exhibits where the lack of support of the conference chairs I think made it uncomfortable for some of the delegates. They ticked nothing off the list. Not a big to do list. Get on board. Be a responsible chair, and do your job, otherwise don’t take it on if you’re not up to it. Or at least don’t try and scab exhibitor money you really aren’t supporting, its grubby to do so. Or delegate, that’s a thing too. And not that hard either.
Cheers, Scott Butcher, Chief Scientist, Meaglow Ltd