While some manufacturing organizations are reeling from trade show and conference cancellations, others are finding new ways to connect exhibitors, peers, and prospects. This week on The Kula Ring, Michelle Edmonson, Senior Director, Exhibitions Operations and Marketing at The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT), talks about transforming The International Manufacturing Technology Show’s (IMTS) 6-day, in-person trade show into a 7-month virtual destination. She talks about bringing new content to the IMTS audience, including live broadcasts, and why the IMTS created a digital platform instead of a virtual trade show booth.

Manufacturing marketers rely on trade shows, but many have been cancelled since the pandemic began. How can marketers replace an in-person trade show presence, at least in the short term, and connect with prospects remotely? Jim Cermak, host of the Trade Show University podcast, talks to Jeff and Carman about how manufacturers are adapting to trade show cancellations and how to translate the elements of a good trade show booth into other kinds of wins.

With trade shows and conventions postponed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), what can manufacturers do to showcase new products and services they had lined up for 2020? In this special episode of The Kula Ring, Jeff and Carman talk about how manufacturing marketers and other internal stakeholders can adapt to this new reality by moving parts of their business online and serving customers digitally.

Michael Blake, Director of Marketing for KM International, joins Jeff and Carman to discuss his company’s ecommerce launch, the evolution of their trade show strategy, and how he thinks video will be the differentiator between manufacturers that get ahead and ones that fall behind. In discussing these different marketing and sales tactics, Michael gets at the heart of KM International’s forward-thinking strategy: meeting their customers where they already are.

Greg Palmer, Director of Marketing at National Nail, talks with Carman and Jeff about how the marketing and product teams work together to use a customer-centric approach to product development. They also discuss which channels National Nail finds successful when launching products including trade shows, social media, and print.