While innovations in exhibit design and technology continue to drive the trade show industry’s evolution, the development of lead capture and post-show strategy can be overlooked. To remedy that, Gateway, a St. Louis-based exhibitor services company, is now offering a next-generation digital lead capture system designed to help exhibiting companies improve their show metrics.

Launched last month, LeadConnect is an interactive platform integrating lead capture, qualifying surveys and digital collateral on a custom-branded device. The system gathers data instantly and syncs with most CRM or marketing automation systems.

Upon badge scan in a booth, event attendees are greeted with either a survey or a user-friendly home page that hosts event collateral including PDFs, web content and videos. Visitors and booth staff are then able to instantly send collateral to the email provided.

“We’ve come a long way from the days of collecting business cards,” said Andrew Swyers, marketing director of Gateway. “This product will provide a seamless lead capture solution for exhibit managers in every industry.” 

Depending on the size of the event, LeadConnect can be used via an app on either a touchscreen, PC, tablet or smartphone, he added.

With its live reporting feature, LeadConnect helps give exhibit managers a competitive edge by allowing them to track information including total badge scans, leads by location, visits per day and number of leads per staff member.

According to Swyers, with companies and their marketing teams having to justify trade show budgets more than ever and with ROI reporting critical to the event industry’s success, LeadConnect helps eliminate the need for a host of antiquated and inefficient exhibiting practices, including handing out printed marketing collateral or collecting business cards.

“Tracking the success of a show stems from the leads and business generated at the event, yet we’ve seen some companies not collecting lead information at all,” Swyer said. “We also saw the need for an engaging booth experience that allowed a booth staffer to have a seamless conversation with a prospect.”

At FABTECH, held last November at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, existing Gateway client, Closed Loop Recycling, had the chance to try out LeadConnect, which had recently completed its beta testing phase. 

“The best part was when we were able to show and send [a potential client] our demo videos as well as our reporting and info packets from our touchscreen kiosk that Gateway hooked us up with,” said Jillian Groff, director of human resources and marketing at Closed Loop Recycling.

She continued, “[The attendee] turned as he was leaving and said ‘Look at that, already got your email!’ as he held up his phone — proving again what a great addition this was to our booth.”

LeadConnect will be available for demo in booth 739 at ExhibitorLive next month in Las Vegas. To learn more or to schedule a demo, go HERE.