How to Plan a National, Regional or Local Crowdfunding Trade Show
By Robert Hoskins, Front Page PR
Crowdfunding is a growing industry and more and more people are discovering the benefits of using the power of the crowd to finance their new business. While Equity Crowdfunding is not legal yet, rewards and perk based Crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, iCrowd and others are growing at double digit rates on a monthly basis.
Many people are just now discovering the Crowdfunding industry for the first time and are actively searching for trade shows, conferences, seminars and workshops to learn about the Crowdfunding process.
Like any new industry, the Crowdfunding industry is replete with supposed Crowdfunding experts that want to charge hundreds to thousands of dollars to share their infinite Crowdfunding knowledge with newcomers seeking to learn all there is to know about Crowdfunding. If any Crowdfunding event does not have an agenda like the one published below, you might think twice before spending your hard earned dollars to attend their event. There is nothing to be learned from rehashing last year’s news.
There is nothing unique about the Crowdfunding industry other than the fact that President Obama signed the JOBS Act into law on April 5, 21012 with full bi-partisan support.
Crowdfunding portals are nothing more than an eCommerce center that allows entrepreneurs, startups and even existing small businesses to raise donations and collect money via a website. In fact, anyone with a WordPress website can download a Crowdfunding widget for around $99 and start raising money right now regardless of how long the SEC stalls the actual Equity Crowdfunding industry.
In fact, most people that are in the Crowdfunding industry have very little experience in running a real industry, which is why we created this trade show marketing template to show anyone, anywhere what most industries already know – how to set up a national trade show event.
At the current time, Crowdfunding subject matter experts are charging $500 to $10,000 per speaking engagement plus travel expenses to share their twelve month’s of experience with naive people who want to learn more. These subject matter experts have very little industry experience in talking about what really matters in building an industry-grade Crowdfunding platform, which is the underlying technology or marketing strategies that differentiate one platform over another.
Instead of inviting Crowdfunding executives for keynote and panel discussions, it would be a much wiser to decision to staff an industry Crowdfunding trade show and exhibition with high technology subject matter experts that can address how to set up an effective, yet safe Crowdfunding portal.
Learning how to setup a Crowdfunding portal with 99.999’s of reliability, security software applications that will protect their investors/Crowdfunders against fraud, business partner programs, Crowdfunding audit statements, call centers, cloud-based data centers, or network management facilities would be a much wiser investment for attendees that want to learn how to get into the Crowdfunding business.
For Crowdfunding campaign managers (Crowdfunders), Crowdfunding trade shows should provide an actual trade show floor that is full of Crowdfunding exhibitors such as platforms, portals and ancillary Crowdfunding Service Providers (CSPs) or full-service PR firms that can help Crowdfunders execute targeted Crowdfunding marketing campaigns to make their Crowdfunding campaigns successful.
It would also been a great opportunity to introduce both Crowdfunding portals and Crowdfunders to licensed Broker Dealers with extensive SEC regulatory experience in order to help both parties structure Equity Crowdfunding portals or Crowdfunding campaigns to meet or beat any set of Crowdfunding guidelines that might be issued by the SEC in the very near future. In fact, early leaders in the Equity Crowdfunding portal space are already actively raising equity investment capital for small businesses via accredited investors through traditional securities guidelines.
In order to attract speakers to a Crowdfunding event all that an event really needs is a Crowdfunding conference website that follows the guidelines below and that publishes a call for papers or presentations via a well written press release.
Aggressive PR professionals are always on the lookout for great events to place their executives for free speaking opportunities including keynote speeches, breakout sessions, panel moderators/members, tutorials and many other types of speaking/publicity opportunities. These executives speak at events for free.
There are also numerous trade show portals that aggregate trade event information and publish the details via trade show directories. Once listed, PR people are sure to begin pitching their executives to furnish free presentations on their expertise in return for the publicity and the free brand share awareness that these events generate for their companies.
This Crowdfunding Trade Show template is meant for executives at national trade show companies such Freeman, GES or Reed Exhibitions, that want to delve into putting together a large-scale, professional-grade Crowdfunding trade show, which is predicted to become a $300 billion industry.
Great targets for Crowdfunding trade show hosts would include IDG, Tech Web, or Ziff-Davis publishing.
In fact, any industry trade publication, TV station or newspaper with more than 100,000 readers/viewers, should not only host a Crowdfunding event, but should also consider launching their own Crowdfunding portal to support their local community.
Collecting a five percent commission on all money raised is a prime opportunity for newspapers to not only add a badly needed revenue stream, but to help their local communities launch new businesses, which will provide a dramatic economic development stimulus package without incurring any new tax burdens for their citizens. A typical Crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter is raising between $100,000 to $1,000,000. Ten $1 million dollar campaigns per month equals around $6 million per year.
All high technology industry trade associations that host national trade shows should also include a low-cost Crowdfunding pavilion at their trade show events in order to educate their attendees as well as their exhibitors on how to use Crowdfunding to raise investment capital for existing and new startup businesses. The more businesses that are launched, the more potential exhibitors will be at next year’s show!
Example National Crowdfunding Exhibition & Conference
1st Day Kickoff Event
9:00 am Breakfast Keynote: National Trade Show Executive Director
10:00 am Kickstarter Presentation: Record Growth in 2012, Projections for 2013
11:00 am IndieGoGo Presentation: Record Growth in 2012, Projections for 2013
12:00 pm Lunch Keynote: Financial Analyst – Crowdfunding: A $300 Billion Market Opportunity
Lunch Round Table Discussions:
Round top table discussions will be seated and grouped by industry segments, which will contain a table 20 subject matter experts including journalists, industry analysts, Crowdfunding Service Providers (CSPs) and successful Crowdfunding campaign managers for each business segment.
Many national associations won’t have a need for all of these industries, but these should give you a good idea of what is possible for most business-to-business associations on state-by-state basis:
Table 1: Information Technology/Cloud Computing
Table 2: Computer Networking/Telecom/ISPs
Table 3: Security/Fraud Prevention
Table 4: Games/Video Games/Smart Phone Apps
Table 5: Film/TV/Entertainment
Table 6: Music/Concert Venues
Table 7: Art/Dance/Fashion/Theatre
Table 8: Publishing/Comics/Books
Table 9: Real Estate
Table 10: Crowdfunding Service Providers
Table 11: Gadgets/Gizmos
Table 12: Bring Your Own Social Devices
Table 13: VC/Angels/Financial Analysts
Table 14: Adv/PR/Social Media/Email Marketing
Table 15: Pres. Obama/Congress/SEC
Table 16: Social Giving/Community Outreach
Table 17: Bio Tech
Table 18: Oil/Gas/Renewable Energy
3:00 pm Crowdfunding Press Conference Example
Speakers:
- Press Conference Moderator
- Economic Development Official
- Venture Capital
- Licensed Broker Dealer
- Perks-Based Crowdfunding Service Provider
- Equity-Based Crowdfunding Service Provider
4:30 pm Crowdfunding Service Providers/Venture Capitalists/Potential Crowdfunders Mixer
8:00 pm Crowdfunding VIP Party Awards Dinner
- MVP Award – Outstanding Crowdfunding Achievement
- MVP Award – Fastest Crowdfunding Portal Growth
- MVP Award – Best Business to Business (B2B) Portal
- MVP Award – Best Business to Consumer (B2C) Portal
- MVP Award – Best Social Community Outreach Portal
2nd Day Preliminary Breakout Sessions:
Welcome to the National Crowdfunding Exposition & Conference breakout session agenda, which will consist of moderated panel discussions covering the follow topics:
8:30 am Continental Breakfast/Coffee Bar
9:00 am – 10:00 am Breakout Session #1
CSP: Rewards-Based Crowdfunding
Creative: Games/Video Games/Smart Phone Apps
Financial: Venture Capitalists
Technology: Information Technology
Community: Education
10:30 am – 11:00 am Coffee/Bathroom Break
11:00 am – 12:00 pm Breakout Session #2
CSP: Equity-Based Crowdfunding
Creative: Film/TV/Entertainment/Music
Financial: Angel Investors
Technology: Security/Fraud Prevention
Community: Emergency Relief
12:30 pm – 1:00 pm Coffee/Bathroom Break
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Breakout Session #3
CSP: Donation-Based Crowdfunding
Creative: Art/Dance/Fashion/Theatre
Financial: Financial Analysts
Technology: Computer Networking/Telecom/ISPs
Community: Churches/Houses of Faith
2:30 pm – 3:00 pm Coffee/Bathroom Break
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm Breakout Session #4
CSP: Create-Based Crowdfunding
Creative: Publishing/Comics/Books
Financial: Real Estate
Technology: Gadgets/Gizmos
Community: Economic Development
Speakers Bureau:
Welcome to the National Crowdfunding Expo & Conference press room. All editors, reporters, successful crowdfunding campaign managers and industry analysts with press credentials will be allowed to attend this event for free as a VIP guest with access to all keynotes, breakout sessions .
Speakers need to submit high-res photo, 300-word biography and 800-word description what they would like present during keynote speeches, panel discussion and round table discussions. Deadline for submission is February 28, 2013. Click here to fill out the speaker request form.
Press Conference:
Press conference should look just like the one we did for the Crowdfund Texas Conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CEd2A2jXsAA
Only credential members of media will be allowed to attend. The five speakers will make 5-minute comments on their vision for development of American Crowdfunding industry followed by short question and answer session.
Remote site reporters will be provided an audio bridge to listen in on the press conference and ask questions during the Q&A session via twitter by posting questions to @Crowdfunding_PR
Press Rooms:
Three quiet press areas will be available for PR people to reserve to conduct interviews with journalists on the National Crowdfunding Expo & Conference media list. There will be a small RSVP charge around ~$25.00 for 30 minutes to help pay for press room space to make sure rooms are used and are available on a first come, first served basis.
Press List:
Welcome to the National Crowdfunding Expo & Conference press list. All editors, reporters, successful Crowdfunding campaign managers and industry analysts with press credentials will be allowed to attend this event for free as a VIP guest with access to all keynotes, breakout sessions.
Press Kit Room:
All exhibitors will be allowed to provided printed materials for inclusion at the onsite press room as well as the virtual press room on the trade show website.
- press releases
- white papers
- research studies
- power point presentations
- video clips
- photos/logos
- executive bios/head shots
Media Sponsorships:
Welcome to the trade show media sponsorship page. All publications that list a short description of the on their publication’s event calendar and a logo with link back to trade show website will receive a receive a reciprocal mention on the trade show website and publication bins to provide bonus trade show distribution of their magazines to all attendees. Magazine distribution sponsorship to attendees rooms is also available. Click here to download sponsorship opportunities.
Exhibitors:
Welcome to the National Crowdfunding Exposition & Conference exhibitor’s page. All publications that list a short description of the Crowdfunding Expo on their publication’s event calendar and a logo with link back to trade show website will receive a receive a reciprocal mention on the trade show website and publication bins to provide bonus trade show distribution of their magazines to all attendees. Magazine distribution sponsorship to attendees rooms is also available. Click here to register for an exhibit booth.
Front Page PR has helped setup many industry trade shows and would be happy to help anyone setup a national, regional or local Crowdfunding event. Please contact us for more details.
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