The total business support package has been key to Bizzone’s success, according to organiser Sarah Trotman, who has been involved right from the start.
She was lucky, she said, to set up the first Small Business Expo with Claire Foughy, who she describes as hugely influential in terms of the concept and execution of the event and also the smartest marketer she has ever worked with. “Claire taught me how to execute events well and how to leverage sponsorship,” Sarah Trotman said.
“We made a $50,000 loss on our first expo – but it was a budgeted loss because we knew we were not just a one-event wonder.”
The key to the success of any expo, she said, is getting attendees through the doors. Independent research conducted in 2007 showed that attendees at the Small Business Expo were not just there to look - 59% of respondents stayed at the expo for 1-3 hours, 21% stayed for less than 1 hour and 13% stayed for 4-7 hours. Furthermore 51% of respondents had conducted business while at the expo with a further 76% planning to conduct business with exhibitors in the future.
The Vero Insurance New Zealand group has exhibited at every expo since it began, regularly winning ‘best interactive stand’ awards for exhibits that have included ‘no bull’ in a pen and ‘surf’s up’ where visitors braved burglars, fires, thunderstorms and floods to become a “Vero Hero’. Vero also has a high profile at the Expo as the foundation sponsor of the Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards.
“The Expo is all about bringing together high quality products and services that serve small-medium business owners at one venue, giving them the opportunities and information required to help them run their businesses more effectively,” Vero Chief Executive Roger Bell said.
“The success of the Bizzone Business Expo is also down to how well connected we are in the business support field,” Sarah Trotman said. “Having 600 business influencers turn up to our gala awards dinner each year is testament to their success.”
More initiatives have been added each year to keep attracting business owners, exhibitors and sponsors to the expo. This year’s sponsors are all high profile organisations, and in Auckland include Auckland City Council, NewstalkZB, NZ Herald, OGGI and the Marketing Association.
Speciality zones, such as this year’s Statistics NZ Business Information Zone, the Meridian Energy Sustainable Zone, the Smart Marketing Zone and the MED business.govt=business services Zone I have made it easier for people to find information more quickly. Government stands have been an extremely popular attraction with NZ Statistics proving to be the most popular of the many government exhibits. In 2007 the interest from government organisations was so strong a special flyer was given to all attendees providing specialised information on their exhibits.
The National Bank Seminar Series, there from inception, is a great drawcard providing free all-day seminars tailored to meet the current needs of business owners.
Another key initiative has been theming each expo. Last year’s ‘sustainability theme’ saw a huge increase in recycling at the expo by the organisers and exhibitors, the introduction of a regular Meridian Energy Sustainability Zone and the certification of the event as CarboNZero. This year’s ‘smart marketing’ theme was chosen after Bizzone, joined forces with The National Bank to find out how they can best support business owners in 2009; Cashflow and Sales & Marketing were up the top of the list. “Smart and confident marketing is going to carry business through a recession.” Trotman said.
With the more challenging economic market this year Bizzone has also been doing some of its business through contra deals. “We have been working 20% harder to get to improve on last year,” she said. A new website www.bizzone.com has been another improvement this year providing more information about the events and sponsors and making it easier for people to register.
“We had a huge push from the regions at that time; now our focus is global,” Trotman added. “If we can succeed with the expo concept in Christchurch, the smallest market in which we now operate, then we can prove it anywhere in the world.”
Research shows 88% of attendees polled indicated they were likely to attend next year’s Expo and Sarah Trotman is confident this trend will continue.
“It is a much more sophisticated offering than earlier expos with many of our exhibitors now having custom-built stands – which speaks volumes about the commitment of our exhibitors.”
CAD Partners has exhibited at the Business Expo from day one and will be at all three Bizzone Business Expos this year. The company went into the first expo as a good way of raising their profile. “It’s worked for us, we have got business from it and a great spin-off has been the relationships we have formed with other exhibitors,” Paul Vlaic said. It is the only expo CAD Partners exhibits at because, “it is an event that has grown and continues to be promoted and none of the others are as focused”.
Bizzone was 29th on the 2008 Deloitte/Unlimited Fast50 list of fastest growing companies in New Zealand, and it has major plans for expansion despite the interesting times that we operate in. As well as franchising the business, plans for an online version of the Bizzone Business Expo are well underway.
“We have succeeded with the Bizzone business support package because we do things properly; we plan with great clarity, we stay connected with business and execute that plan with excellence and that’s why the business has continued to grow.”
