PodiatryMeetings.com, a joint project between myself and Sarah Breymeier, recently executed our first virtual trade show, PodiatryExpo. Our event had a sold-out exhibit hall and 131 paid attendees. We offered access to exhibitors, their resources and a few sponsored webinars.

Back in April 2020, when COVID-19 was officially wreaking havoc on the events industry and causing our beloved podiatry conferences to be cancelled left and right, I couldn’t help but think of all our exhibitor friends that rely on these events to meet new customers, chat with loyal users, and showcase new products and services. Coming from a small company, I know all too well how success at a trade show can impact sales for the month. Imagine all trade shows for the foreseeable future being cancelled! So, I brought this idea to Sarah about hosting an online trade show to help our exhibitors connect with DPMs, but done in a way our industry had never seen before. I told her I wanted to host this event in May of 2020. She told me I was crazy and we set our sights on August 2020.

We took it one step at a time, pricing the event came first. We didn’t set out to make any money for ourselves – this was just to help out our exhibitor friends. I wasn’t sure what exhibitors would pay for a virtual booth and I had no real idea of what kind of engagement we could generate for the vendor so we priced it low – $219 for exhibitors and $419 for sponsors. Are you noticing a theme? Hint: COVID-19. We limited our exhibit hall to 19 vendors: 14 exhibitors plus 5 sponsors. Looking back and after talking with our exhibitors, I think a better price point would be $697 for exhibitors and $997 for sponsors. It’s difficult to drive traffic to a virtual trade show and generate quality leads for the vendors so I believe that you couldn’t charge more than that and expect exhibitors to look back on the experience in a positive light.

Sarah and I did everything ourselves, from the idea to the website design to the booth templates and more. This was how we were able to keep our costs low. During the 2 “live” days, we generated excitement by sending out frequent emails, going live on our FaceBook page, being live on all the webinars to answer questions and remind attendees about what to expect, and personally moderating all the chat forums. We tried to recreate the excitement you would normally experience at a conference.

All the feedback we’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re thinking about doing something similar in the future. We continue to receive feedback and suggestions and our minds are still racing about what worked well and where we can improve. We know many podiatric meetings are going virtual, so if this is something you’re considering – I would love to brainstorm and find out what your thoughts are and tell you about our experience. As always, you can email me at ann@cloverconferences.com