Next week, RFID Journal will host its 16th annual RFID Journal LIVE! conference and exhibition. As the exhibit hall has gown larger throughout the years, attendees have sometimes struggled to find the exhibitors offering the solutions they need. This tends to be an issue at all events, but it is a little more challenging when it comes to radio frequency identification, because most executives running RFID projects have other responsibilities as well at their companies, and thus don’t have as much time to keep up with what’s going on in the RFID industry. Plus, few RFID companies advertise their solutions.
Throughout the years, we have introduced a variety of tools to help attendees find the right solutions. For example, we introduced a product showcase five years ago, featuring images of some of the latest new products and the booths in which they can be found. We launched a mobile app that allows attendees to search for exhibitors by the products they offer (tags, readers, sensors, software and so forth). And we introduced an “Ask the Experts” booth, at which attendees can stop by and receive advice on an RFID project and suggestions on the exhibitors that could help them; this year, the booth will be staffed by volunteers from the RFID Professional Institute.
For a couple of years, we did a variation on “speed dating,” in which we set up short meetings between attendees, who filled out a survey indicating they were looking for specific products, and the exhibitors who offered those products. We abandoned that concept, however, because exhibitors were not showing up for their scheduled appointments, which made attendees angry.
This year, we’ve added a guide, which is emailed to attendees, that lists exhibitors by product category, by RFID applications (asset tracking, inventory management, vehicle identification and so on) and by industry (retail, health care, manufacturing, etc.). The aim is to help those in a specific sector find either the exhibitors that offer solutions relevant to their industry or an application they are trying to deploy, or simply individual products they might be looking for.
Our goal, as always, is to deliver as much value to our attendees as possible. We do that through the tremendous education program we offer, but also by doing everything we can to help those in attendance find the solutions they came to the event searching for. I hope you’ll join us next week in Orlando, Fla., for LIVE! 2018. I’m sure, with the tools we’ve developed, you’ll find exactly what you seek.
Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark’s opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog or the Editor’s Note archive.