What To Do If Your Tradeshow or Conference was Cancelled

Don't Lose Your Leads Due to Conference Cancellations

Around most of the world, tradeshows and conferences have been cancelled, and for many companies, these are an important connection to new business. 

The good and bad news is that trade shows have been cancelled for everyone. It is a sad state of affairs, but it also means that you and your business aren’t being left behind. Rather than dwell on cancelled events, we want to help you take the time to consider other options for your business to help it grow. 

An important thing to remember is that any networking, reaching out, or sharing that you do should still provide value to the person you’re contacting. Whether you were a speaker, a sponsor, or an attendee, don’t just reach out cold, but remember to provide people with the benefit of listening, connecting, or chatting with you. 

Build a Landing Page

Maybe the conference you were planning to attend is going virtual and you could create a landing page to share as a virtual “booth.” The page can provide specific content around the conference's purpose and the info you were planning to bring.

If you do attend a virtual conference, a landing page can be a great place to send attendees. And, if you don’t attend virtually, you can still share that landing page via social media or direct paid traffic to it, since you’ve already narrowed down a specific target audience.

A landing page can also be a great place for some of the content ideas that we’ll share later on in this article. 

Consider Using A Live share Platforms

If you were planning to at a conference you can no longer attend, consider doing a webinar or video recording to give your talk anyways. If you were going to be on a panel, consider reaching out to the other panellists and see if you can video chat with them. Creating and sharing this content can still be helpful to the people who signed up to attend as well as show your commitment to providing value.

Even if you weren’t planning on speaking, but still have a way to provide value, you can create a video to share it with your audience. 

Connect With Potential Attendees

One of the best parts of conferences and trade shows are the relationships built through networking. But, without the event, that’s difficult. Don’t give up hope - some conferences will share the list of attendees, and with the circumstances lately, more people may be willing to share their contact info or email with helpful information.

We recommend you look into connecting with those attendees - but remember - provide value! If you don’t have a video to share, consider creating a helpful infographic, whitepaper, or eBook.

Think Long-Term Strategies

If you don’t see a virtual conference or reaching out to attendees as a viable option for you and your business, consider other ways you can invest the money you would have used towards printing materials, flights, or hotels. And remember, if you already have materials made, you can always use them next year! If you haven’t already spent or reallocated your trade show budget, consider investing that money in another long-term strategy: like building up your organic SEO, working on marketing materials for next year, or even a website redesign. 

As you navigate through this continually shifting work, it’s hard to know what the best next steps are. At efelle, we’re pushing on and working hard. And we’re confident that the work we do now will pay off even more, as time goes on. 

Cancelled tradeshows don't have to mean lost business

To remember these tips and tricks, you can download our whitepaper with these tips so you can remember for future reference.