Birds of a feather flocking together is big business

Kenyan brands travelling to Tanzania for the Mobile 360 Series Africa conference, which starts Tuesday, stand to bring in $10 (Sh1,000) in new revenue for every dollar spent, in a return that saw 40 per cent of business leaders intending to spend more on face-to-face meetings and conventions at the start of 2016.

The meeting at the Julius Nyerere Convention Centre (JNCC), Dar es Salaam from July 26 to 28 is bringing together industry players from across the world to audit emerging mobile trends and their socio-economic impact.

“We are looking forward to convening players from across the mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries to discuss the unprecedented opportunity that mobile provides to improve and enhance social and economic development in the region,” said Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer of GSMA, the conference organisers.

For those who attend, the study, The Return on Investment of US Business Travel reports that brands can earn an extra $10 for every dollar spent on such conventions.

This is a return that appears to have been logged by many business leaders, with a survey by APCO Insight, on behalf of US Travel, reporting that 92 per cent of US C-suite executives in mid-sized to large companies plan to spend a similar amount or more on face-to-face meetings, conferences and other events compared to last year.

Four-in-ten expected to spend more, while 55 per cent planned to invest around the same amount.

According to advocacy campaign Meeting Mean Business (MMB), “companies depend on face-to-face meetings to win new customers, close deals and develop high-performing talent.” Brands are also twice as likely to convert leads from such conventions into customers.

However, according to Ali Hussein Kassaim, a marketing and technology consultant, the significance of an industry convention to a brand depends on the type of convention.

The Mobile 360 Africa series, for instance, will see “people get to share from different parts of the world and get to know about new trends, understand coming trends, and how they are affecting different parts of the world,” he said.

In the mobile money sector, Kassim says that some industry players may be curious to know why it has succeeded in Kenya, yet failed in South Africa.

“Such conventions give people an opportunity to get to learn expert techniques and benchmark what’s happening in the industry,” he said.

In fact, industry conventions do not usually have impact immediately but rather in the long-term. “What one needs to look at is the long-term in terms of building institutions and building companies. The more people increase their capacity through avenues like conventions, ultimately this will lead to better revenues and hence better shareholder value,” said Kassaim.

The key, he says, is engagement. “Brands are realising that engagement with customers is key. Brands live in customers’ minds.

Once they realise this, then they are able to turn sales leads into revenue, because customers will be buying from a brand that they trust due to the engagement built over time,” said Kassaim. Conventions, can, additionally lead to quick gains. “If the convention is fully focused on sales then it is possible. These are the type of conventions whereby the deals are even signed there,” said Kassaim.

A 2015 report Global Event Benchmarks Study that surveyed 2200 meeting professionals on ways in which brands measure their return on investment from industry conventions found that 25 per cent of participants measured success by the number of new leads, 21 per cent by new business won directly, and 16 per cent by new customers.

-African Laughter