The meetings industry has transformed significantly over the past few years. nTAG sits down with industry leader, Bob Lucke, Vice President of Product Management at Experient, Inc., to listen to his views on trends, changes at Experient, and the future of the meetings industry.
Your company recently undertook some transformations of its own. Could you describe the major changes in your organization and how these will benefit the industry and your customers?
The genesis of the changes with our company started with our strategic plan. However we did not start out with change as our end game. We asked ourselves “If we were to design a company that was going to serve this market well, what would that organization be? How would that organization appropriately pursue our strategic plan?” First we decided that we needed to unite all of the resources that the company could bring to bear for our clients under a unified organization with one clear mission. We began laying out all of the various components of our company and essentially putting all of those pieces back together in a way that we believe is going to align us with our strategic objectives and serve our customers well. By doing so, we have created a single organization under a totally new brand, Experient.
Our vision is to perfect the event experience. Essentially everything we do at Experient will be in support of that vision. I believe that for years the industry really focused solely on flawless execution, concentrating on making sure that event professionals could execute the tactical aspects of event production. We are now seeing an emphasis on delivering memorable experiences -- the experiential event-- in order to create additional value. We believe that we can help our customers deliver those experiences and achieve their event objectives.
More and more of our customers are making this shift from a tactical to a strategic, more experiential focus. Is this truly a transformation in the industry or a passing trend?
I think the “experiential event” is a hot topic that goes beyond a passing trend. Many of the events that we see today look like tradeshows that were held in the 1950’s. The format hasn’t changed in decades. But others, the experiential events, are like good interior design - when you see it, you just know it. The experiential event is about creating a memorable experience for your audience that achieves a certain objective. Take Disney, for instance. They are in the happiness business, not in the amusement park business. To a large degree, the reason they have been so successful is because they rely on experiential events to consistently deliver experiences with the objective of generating happiness.
In our industry, the successful events will be those that discover how to harness and deliver a great experience. And when they do, they will create great customer loyalty. Events that don’t transform in this way will be at risk because short of the experience, prospective attendees can gain knowledge, research products, and even network over the web. But sitting at a keyboard is not an experience. It doesn’t tap people at an emotional level which is what our industry can provide with events focused on great, memorable experiences. This will be a very powerful realization for the event industry.
Experient has recently partnered with nTAG as a reseller of the nTAG System. How do you think this partnership will benefit Experient and nTAG customers?
The nTAG and Experient partnership goes right to the heart of the growing trend of event producers doing everything they can to deliver value to their participants. Event producers want to leverage new ways of doing things and bring new technologies to the marketplace to make the time spent at events more valuable. The best and only way to do that is to make transformational changes in how business is conducted while at an event. I believe that the nTAG system essentially creates a toolkit for event participants and producers that really has never been available before. It is a suite of capabilities designed to achieve specific event objectives. How those applications are deployed has a lot to do with what is trying to be achieved - education, interaction between parties, feedback collection, data dissemination. nTAG is the first example of a centralized and well architected system to address all of those needs that had previously been addressed with disparate tools that did not interact well. The nTAG solution allows Experient to illustrate to an event planner how we can fundamentally change how people experience events and what they get out of them.
What do your customers look for when it comes to meetings technology?
Most of our clients that realize that efficiency and precise execution are no longer enough to provide great value for participants. Our customers often look to us to provide the consultative expertise to help them achieve this added value and the nTAG solution is one of several that we have deployed with that end in mind. I think what will have a profound impact on the ultimate success of these events are those revolutionary transformations that significantly change how people participate in events. Think about the young generation and the tools they use and take for granted every day. If the event experience does not engage this generation, does not provide the level of interaction, immediacy and emotional connection they expect, this audience will simply not attend events.
You have been in the meetings and event industry for over 20 years. What is the most satisfying aspect of working in the meetings and event industry?
One of the things I like best about the event industry is that you establish very deep and personal relationships with your customers, and those customers put great trust in us as people to help them be successful. We are a subcontractor to them and we are only successful if they succeed. One thing I have always found rewarding is that you both have the same goal in mind, you work for months if not years toward that goal, and it has a relatively finite conclusion. You enjoy the celebration of success with your client and you strive to succeed again and again. Through this business, I have clients that have been some of my best friends for 20 years. At the end of the day, we are in the service business and we provide a service to people. While that sounds somewhat cliché, I think it is really what makes this business exciting.
About Bob Lucke, Experient Inc.
A co-founder of Galaxy Information Services, he has held many key roles throughout his 20-year tenure with the company, including vice president, sales; president, marketing services; and chief operating officer. In addition to fulfilling his management responsibilities, Lucke serves as executive account manager for several of Experient's key accounts. Lucke is acknowledged within the tradeshow industry as one of the individuals most knowledgeable about the sales lead management and registration businesses. Active in many tradeshow industry associations, Lucke is a frequent lecturer and task force participant.
