I am responsible for the organization of a Vendor fair at an itSMF conference.
One of the concerns from previous years is that patrons felt uneasy approaching vendors with questions. As a solution, we thought it would be a nice jesture to our customers to provide them with a list of suggested questions for vendors by category such as software, process consultants, training,procurment agencies, hardware vendors.
Any questions or suggestions would be helpful
Thank you
Colleen Saving Changes...
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Mike DonoghueTechnical Communication, Marketing, and Training Initiatives| New! Improved! CommunicationsWest Hartford, Ct, United States
Another direction to take would be to ask your vendors what common questions they receive - this may give you a way to determine if there is overlap and perhaps a "top 10" list. Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Dear Colleen, a nice jesture to your customers would be to understand what they want and then to give it to them. Do your patrons, "attendees", want to talk to a vendor? If not, don't bother with the vendor fair. If your customers do want a dialog with the vendors, then confirm that and determine the kind of dialog that they are willing to have. And then ask yourself, is there enough interest to sincerely invite vendors or would you be misrepresenting patron interest and leading your vendors on. Some conference organizers view vendors as a way to fund the conference, rather than to provide a value to the attendees and an ROI to the participating vendors. Two things strike me about your post. 1) it seems that you are pursuing a solution without first understanding why the patrons felt uneasy approaching a vendor. Wouldn't you be better off fixing that problem and enabling a mutually beneficial and personal dialog and information exchange between patron and vendor? And 2) you noted patron concerns, but no vendor concerns. Hmn. I would offer that a good measure of success for your vendor fair is whether or not your patrons and vendors spend any time together. Pre-planned questions and answers lists, though well intended, may actually and accidentally serve to "separate" your patrons and vendors from spending time together. Hope this helps. -- Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
