CES and the future of MICE
Interview with the Korea Economic Daily
MICE industry is one of the last areas where disruptive innovation occurs. MICE, which is based on the premise of offline meetings, has been progressing little differently from when the World Expo was born along with the Industrial Revolution in the mid-19th century. This industry, especially exhibitions, is where the traditional concept of 'market' is still preserved in its most original form.
However, with CES 2021, the MICE industry will also undergo devastating innovation. As the iPhone and Uber presented, CES 2021 presented a model of disruptive innovation that changed the concept of existing exhibitions, not just a digitally replaced exhibition. So what was destroyed and what was innovated? We can read the future of MICE in two keywords: disruption and innovation.
Disruption
① Convention center, hotels and hospitality
Until last year, CES had used hotels in the main strip, including LVCC in Las Vegas, as exhibition venues. Thanks to the CES, which uses about 270,000 sqm of space for four days, the sales revenue from accommodation and tourism alone will be $350 million. However, in 2021, when it was converted to digital, CES came up with the concept Digital Venue. Where did all the booth staffs from the numerous companies that filled the streets of Las Vegas go? Las Vegas had zero MICE sales last year due to Covid-19. Cities, hotels, and convention centers must now survive the competition with digital platforms. The future venue is to get out of physical space.
② Booth, logistics and human service
About 4,500 companies from 160 countries participate in the CES. Assuming an average of four booths per company, it is 18,000 booths. An estimate of more than $10 million in booth equipment costs disappeared. On top of that, considering the logistics costs and labor costs needed to transport exhibits, sales of more than tens of billions of booth equipment companies, logistics companies, and service companies have disappeared.
③ Exhibition sales revenue and economic impact
If there are about 4,500 companies participating in the CES, the sales revenue of CES organizer is about $40 million. On top of that, the economic impact of Las Vegas city is more than $1 billion during the CES period. However, all of these sales plunged as they were converted to digital. Show organizers need to discover new exhibition models and cities need to review the impact of MICE on the economy. As the reason why the city wants MICE is because visitors stay and consume the city.
Innovation
① Hyper Personalization
CES selected Microsoft(MS) as its partner after switching to 100% digital in 2021. Why did CES choose a 2D-based platform instead of a platform that utilizes VR that is popular these days? CES is the world's largest ICT exhibition. It is most important to implement products and services to be displayed by thousands of companies on a stable platform. Microsoft introduced stable 'PowerPlatform' for CES, which incorporates Teams, Azure Cloud, Office, Big Data, and AI builder.
The biggest feature of CES 2021 is that people can no longer wander around the exhibition hall and see the companies and conference sessions we want in advance. This digital solution includes network tool for communicating between visitors and speakers.
Exhibitions should now prepare for the era of hyper personalization. Effective participation in the exhibition is crucial for buyers and businessmen who travel the business scene. Even if the Covid-19 ends and the CES opens again in Las Vegas, this hyper personalization service is bound to be combined. MS has already established an online MICE platform through MS events before the CES 2021. Bob Bejan, a vice president of global event marketing at Microsoft, said, "What we're looking for is connectivity between people. It's important to give people the experience of gaining knowledge and interacting beyond physical space, not just creating booths in virtual space or a perfect hotel lobby," This would have been an important part of CES's choice of MS, and it would have been an important factor that put forward the concept of personalized "My Show" rather than 3D or VR. Although CES will not represent the future of the entire digital MICE, MS services that combine personalization-based big data and AI technology will definitely heat up the digital MICE industry in the future.
② The Change in exhibition marketing – get out of the booth
As booths disappeared, companies participating in CES 2021 had to think about new marketing methods. As there is no opportunity to demonstrate directly to visitors, and as the chance to meet offline – Serendipity – disappears, we should consider ways of exhibition marketing that can be more revealing and exposed.
Companies must now get out of the booth. Reveal and expose. The award program should be actively utilized and exposed to the media as the best and most innovative company. Through the speech program, small and medium-sized companies should create an image that they are leading the market among large companies. CES 2021 has strengthened its award marketing and becoming a speaker programs as it was converted to digital. There were 182 sessions alone, and all participating companies could stand as speakers. We need to prepare landing page marketing in advance that can reach the page where our company is located through online marketing. All of this should be prepared in advance by small and medium-sized companies, but local governments and PR agencies preparing for the national pavilion should also help with pre-marketing. Discounting booth fees or selecting booth locations are no longer meaningful. Exhibition and marketing of 'Outboarding' that is exposed to visitors is needed. Organizations preparing show pavilion should make companies participating in the exhibition as exhibition marketing players.
③ Exhibition is an media.
In the digital environment, which media channels are used will eventually make the content stand out. This is because the channel is a container for contents. CES 2021 has used various formats to the extent, and I was confused it may be an exhibition or a CNN broadcasting program. It has applied all technologies that can be used such as video, interview, live presentation, VR, chatting, and documents. Now, the exhibition has become an environment where you don't have to go directly to the site. But whatever technology you use, it will be the most effective way to implement the brand experience people expect from the exhibition.
CES, which is held every January, has been a gauge of industry trends not only in the ICT industry but also in automobiles, food and healthcare, etc. CES 2021 showed the future of new MICE model in addition to this. Big data and AI solutions are probably the most dramatic technologies that can be applied to exhibition and conventions. This is because it is necessary for participants to collect data from countless people and companies and recommend them to visit the most efficient exhibition and conventions. Now the MICE industry must prepare for the hyper-personalization, My Show era triggered by CES.
* You can watch the full contents regarding this interview as below YouTube link.
