Relaxation of quarantine is promising that business life in Ukraine will soon start to revive. It gives green light to agricultural exhibition events, forums and conferences, since they have always been drivers for innovations both for agribusiness and economy in general.
The team of the international exhibition of agricultural machinery and equipment InterAGRO (26-29 October 2020) has been working to prepare projects and planning events according to new norms and rules. During quarantine we have been giving informational support to participants of agro-industrial market. We have published over 50 news and product offers by companies on Internet resources of the exhibition.
The quarantine has quickened the transfer of event industry to virtual format. Online events such as conferences, webinars, seminars are following each other in a row. However, communication with exhibitors proves that virtual events will not be in TOP for quite long on agricultural market.
Since for many operators of the market personal communication is what they value most in business events and exhibitions are those interactive platforms where personal communication and presentations of innovations become the beginning of new cooperation.
What are the drawbacks of offline events compared to online?
- Absence of good Internet connection in rural areas, where many farmers and agronomists work limits their ability to attend online events. And though there is good Internet connection, it is not always possible to have good connection at online event (one cannot hear or see the speaker, presentation does not run, technical problems).
- To prepare good content and find a great speaker for online event is just half the battle. It is much harder to keep attention of the audience online. That is why the duration of presentation even of the greatest speaker should be limited.
- Surely, one can prepare worthy and interesting content. But can videos and pictures substitute the chance to touch and see with one’s own eyes? Based on statistics from our visitors, it is highly important for agrarians to have the chance to see and try different tools, machinery, seeds etc.
- Face-to-face communication cannot be substituted. Our potential visitors and exhibitors think that exhibition is the key platform for professional communication, discussion of problems and prospects of the industry with experts and can ensure successful networking during business events held at the exhibition.
Online events are a nice format but it will take much time before they become successful on agricultural market.
In the end, we would like to mention that the team of InterAGRO keeps fingers on pulse in order to be number one on Ukrainian exhibition market. We learn experience of foreign organizers and plan how to hold exhibition safely in conditions which occurred due to fight against СOVID-19 pandemic.