Podcasters rethink trade show experience at Buildex Vancouver
The Site Visit recorded a marathon of episodes from the trade show floor.
The Site Visit podcast records an episode at Buildex Vancouver.
The Site Visit podcast took their show out of the studio and onto the road last month.
Instead of just bringing their content to listeners’ digital devices, the Site Visit team brought their recording setup to the trade 162,000-square-foot show floor of Buildex Vancouver.
During the two-day trade show event, hosts James Faulkner and Christian Hamm embarked on a marathon of recording, producing 10 episodes with scheduled and drop-in guests.
It was a deliberate departure from the usual methods they use to promote their construction management software company, SiteMax. The company offers field management software for construction designed to meet the needs of a general contractor or subcontractor on a commercial, multi-family residential, hi-rise or light industrial project. The complete jobsite management platform has generated millions of daily logs, safety reports, photo records, time entries and more worldwide.
“We had this idea to switch up the trade show strategy from a typical presentation to a more interactive engagement that can build momentum and create something that’s unforgettable to exhibitors and guests,” said Hamm. “The typical trade show experience is sending a few sales guys with the latest product and you just try to engage whoever will talk to you. But it’s a lot of time and capital to get a booth at a show so we felt that we might as well create something engaging enough to make every dollar worthwhile.”
The setup included a full mixing board, microphones, headphones, a table, couches and even a ping pong table. Speakers even broadcast the podcast live to passersby on the trade show floor.
“For the first five minutes you think about your words being broadcast to exhibitors but after that you sort of lose yourself in the conversation,” said Hamm. “It actually kind of got fun having a live audience as opposed to waiting to see the downloads.”
Hamm said he enjoyed hearing stories from builders and entrepreneurs who have created something from nothing. But he noted the podcast also branched out into discussing topics and trends.
“The things we learned from the live show experience will heavily influence even how we do things in the studio,” he said. “We want to do more topics and trend segments, maybe even segments of tips and tricks. We would also like to have regular guest contributors and host live events. We want to invite a live podcast audience, even online, so questions can be fielded.”
The team is also considering deploying the mobile podcasting concept at other events.
“Can we replicate it in another market for another trade show? There are so many great ones in other markets,” said Hamm.
Check out all the Buildex Vancouver podcasts below:
