by Chris Kappes, Exhibit City News
From Business Cards to Tech-Data
Welcome to a tug-of-war. When corporate marketing teams meet to discuss their fiscal budgets, there’s arm-twisting, debating, and back-room negotiation. The marketing channels rewarded with the most money are the ones that produce measurable outcomes and can prove return on investment.
Today, 48% of marketers invest approximately 21% of their marketing budget on in-person events (Truelist 2024). Further, approximately 60% believe live events are the most important channel to achieve their company goals (Bizzabo).
What makes this possible? In a word: Accountability.
Accountability in the tradeshow world is powered by data produced by registration and lead management solutions. Data equates to power, and power wins the budget tug-of-war that fuels the growth of live events.
Today, the event management software industry is valued at $28B and comprised of hundreds of solution providers. But ask exhibitors how satisfied they are with their data and data collection tools, and you’ll hear a lukewarm response. This is about to change.
AI is revolutionizing every industry, including ours. A new AI booth sales assistant app for exhibitors, called BACKTRACK, was recently introduced. It summarizes and organizes important conversations at tradeshows and links this data to a corporation’s CRM system. To appreciate this technology, however, requires a look back at how far we’ve come.
BABY STEPS
Before registration and lead management systems, show attendees would fill out a form with a golf pencil, get in line, and wait until a typist was free to enter their information. Lead generation in exhibits was often a handshake followed up with a business card.
A more formal data collection process started modestly in 1976 when Compusystems Founder & Chairman, Clark Williams, and “one fantastic data entry worker” started a typesetting company. That company is credited today with 23 “firsts” in tradeshow registration, data analytics, and lead retrieval systems. It wasn’t until the Consumer Electronics Show in the early 80s that advanced registration and data collection became a “thing.” That “thing” was powered through a relationship Compusystems forged with Bill Glasgow, who was hired by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) as show manager for the fledgling Winter and Summer Consumer Electronics Show (CES). As a show manager, Glasgow was an early pioneer who recognized that the registration experience and data transparency were key to his show’s viability. With the advent of microcomputers and dot-matrix printers, CES was one of the first shows to adapt to this new technology. Soon thereafter, tradeshows boomed, and show organizers raced for solutions to manage front and back-office requirements to better service shows and their attendance.
DIFFERENT BALLGAME
Data management and collection has gone through a long journey fueled by entrepreneurial vision, trial and error, serendipity, pure grit, and a lot of help from technology. With this as history, BACKTRACK is looking to reinvent data collection.
“Backtrack addresses the common challenge of forgetting vital information gathered during trade shows, conferences, and networking events by backward recording and automating CRM entries using an app,” explains Jordan Walker and Hunter McKinley, co-founders of BACKTRACK. “It’s physically impossible to remember what happens at a show, never mind send personalized emails, record detailed notes and manually enter comprehensive lead information into CRM systems. BACKTRACK is in the memory business.”
Here’s how BACKTRACK works.
The downloaded app runs privately and locally on smartphones. Conversations are captured backwards (giving you the option to choose which ones to save after they happen), saved or erased on-demand by the user, synched to a business card, QR code, or email, and linked to the corporation’s CRM system with an AI-generated summary and transcription. This integration provides richer data for the sales and marketing teams.
“Legacy data collection tools are linear…they capture only what’s entered, generally shorthand of the actual conversation, and are not linked to CRM systems,” shares Walker. “BACKTRACK captures entire conversations, and in a single click, inputs this data into the CRM systems for improved sales and marketing visibility, reference, and tracking.”
BACKTRACK is available as an iOS and Mac app, and has previously been #1 in 10 countries, Top 10 in 50 countries, and in discussions with major tradeshows and associations to be their lead generation resource for exhibitors.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As tradeshow floors bustle with activity and the cacophony of conversations fills the air, one can’t help but wonder: what if every handshake, every pitch, and every fleeting exchange was captured and converted into actionable insight?
With BACKTRACK, this futuristic vision is now reality. As the app continues to climb the charts and capture interest, it’s clear that the future of tradeshow data collection isn’t just about gathering information—it’s about transforming it into a powerful narrative that drives success and innovation. So next time you find yourself at a bustling event, remember that the engine driving these interactions is more sophisticated and transformative than ever before. And with BACKTRACK, the story of every tradeshow is just beginning to unfold.
For more on BACKTRACK please visit: https://www.usebacktrack.com/
