Trade Shows (CONT’D FROM PAGE 1)
free version, you’re vulnerable to it ingesting and possibly sharing whatever proprietary information you put in there.” Bonus tip: Ask your chatbot what additional company information it needs to strategize a trade show attendance plan. Step #4: Ask AI to find the best exhibitor contacts You may already have a good idea of high priority ex- hibitors you want to see. But ask your chatbot for its own list of names, based on its knowledge of your business goals.
grams that excel at synthesizing information across multi- ple documents. Of the many competitors to Copilot, the most popu- lar are ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok. You may also want to look into a device called Plaud Note that attach- es to the back of your smart phone and can automatically analyze recorded exhibitor interactions (See the sidebar, “Your Menu of AI Programs” for relative strengths of each of the above options). Bonus tip: It can be helpful to ask colleagues what AI programs they are using for their trade show visits. Step #2: Teach AI about the show Supply your chatbot with any information you have about the event. “Start by providing the URL for the offi- cial website,” said Heffernan. “Then upload catalogs, bro- chures, exhibitor lists and seminar descriptions that might not already be on the Internet.” (Most chatbots allow you to “upload” materials such as Word documents, PDF files, and photos by dragging and dropping the files from your computer’s directory onto an open chat window, or by se- lecting them using an upload button.)
But don’t stop there. Your chatbot can research the se- lected companies and come up with contact lists which can help you spend your time wisely. “Your goal is to talk with someone of influence at each booth, rather than spend time trying to find somebody who has the right product or service information,” said Peter LoCascio, a Salem, Ore- gon,-based consultant ( tradeshowconsultants.com ). AI programs can also track down the often-unpublished email addresses and phone numbers of key people, noted Orvel Ray Wilson, a trade show speaker and coach ( Guer- rillaGroup.com ). “If you just call the companies’ home of- fices for contact information you will likely be confronted with a whole army of people who are missioned to keep such questions at arm’s length.” Wilson suggests giving your AI program a prompt like this one: “You are our company’s VP marketing. Our goal is to get the best deal from vendors, not necessarily the lowest price. For each of your recommended exhibitors provide the names, job titles, phone numbers and email addresses for these five positions: CEO, sales director, and regional sales manager.” Then tell the program to deliver the information in your form of choice, be that a Word doc- ument, PDF file or spreadsheet. Bonus tip: Find additional contacts by asking your AI program to create a LinkedIn post announcing your show visit and the reasons you are attending. Step #5: Have AI plan your trade show strategy Your AI program can now leverage what it knows about the event and your company to strategize an approach that will make your time more productive. “Ask the program to organize your approach to the show, by determining what action steps will help you ac- complish your goals for this year and the next five,” sug- gests Heffernan. “What specific questions should you ask
You can also ask your AI program to gather as much additional material as it can about the event. It might scan online forums such as Reddit and LinkedIn on its own ini- tiative, but you can help it along with prompts. Bonus tip: Ask AI to gather “lessons learned” from pre- vious industry shows, by analyzing social media experi- ence posts from participants. Step #3: Train AI on your company strategy The next step is to have your AI program create a pro- ductive interface between your business objectives and show offerings. To do so, it needs knowledge about your company. “Input your strategic plan and goals for the com- ing year,” said Heffernan. Perhaps you have already been working with a chatbot that has a good idea of what you want to achieve. If not, you can teach it. “As you use the tool more it reaches a greater understanding of your com- pany priorities.” Sharing company goals can raise security concerns. “Keep sensitive information out of the hands of compet- itors by paying for an enterprise level chatbot subscrip- tion,” advised Nancy Drapeau, VP Research at the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (ceir.org). “If you use the
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