CEIR GLOBAL VIRTUAL EVENT TRENDS SERIES Case Study: 1st Arabia Tradeshows & Conferences 7 Exhibitor Messaging 1st Arabia offered many benefits to convince companies to exhibit and explain the value of doing so – advertising for brand exposure, website listing, social media – providing as much benefit as possible to get them to agree to participate. Different packages were offered. Biggest Learnings To-Date Hybrid is a must in the coming year as a fallback option, if COVID-19 persists. If possible, 1st Arabia would prefer to avoid virtual events. Though if required, as long as organizers are satisfied with virtual events, people will be convinced to participate too. Attendees can be easily secured it is more difficult to secure exhibitors. Building Virtual Platforms, AI Features Are Labor-Intensive and Generate Low Engagement 1st Arabia has worked hard to connect the most important platforms for virtual and hybrid, aligning with all of them. There were many platforms. Given these experiences, virtual platforms do not appear to be working for exhibiting. Physical events for exhibits work better. Maybe virtual platforms will work for conferences. People are not engaging with the features, or actively searching there is little engagement with these tools. WHAT MAKES 1ST ARABIA MOST PROUD The organization tried its best to have no issues with the broadcasting and coding. The organization delivered virtual and hybrid events with no technical issues they ran smoothly. All aspects of a virtual event cannot be controlled, such as assuring everyone has a good Internet connection, etc. Many rehearsals were held before the event and connections double-checked. This effort drove speakers crazy however, it was important to confirm their Internet connections. All speakers used the same screen backgrounds for a consistent look.