New virtual methods delivering customer value and connections while in-person events remain largely paused
 

Trumbull CT (September 23, 2020)  -  With the impact of COVID-19 continuing to affect the live events business, Clarion Events North America has taken bold steps to not only pivot towards virtual opportunities but to also develop a core set of new digital product offerings that will continue as a share of Clarion’s principal product mix looking ahead to the future.

As customers have become more accustomed to a digital way of doing business, and event technology has developed rapidly, the Clarion event models have flourished within each of their 10 industry sectors. Clarion’s new digital offerings includes a full suite of virtual opportunities—built to meet the unique needs of each sector. The suite of offerings consists of Virtual Product Showcases, Episodic Content Series, On-Demand Education Membership Packages and Virtual MATCH Meetings.

Greg Topalian, Clarion’s North American CEO commented, “The events industry has been overdue for a change and our teams have taken this as a time to reimagine our offerings, working with their customers to define what matters most across each of our industry sectors.”

Additionally, with the diversification of product offerings Clarion has found new ways to connect the communities served, driving new business for exhibitors and sponsors with a highly-engaged audience—exclusively through virtual experiences. Regardless of the format—through product showcases, moderated education, peer-to-peer networking and guaranteed decision maker meetings—the emphasis is centered on fostering new, qualified relationships. These products have been key to developing opportunities for lead generation for exhibitors and sponsors and have proven to be an audience acquisition tool for many of Clarion’s event brands.

Clarion’s early digital product adopters have come from the North American Power and Energy Series, Fire & Rescue, led by FDIC and Insuretech. The leadership driving these brands have strong customer connections and have delivered exceptional ROI for both attending and exhibiting customers. The brands have ambitious plans and some such as ITC, have been successful in bringing customers together in a focused multi country world-tour engaging partners in different regions to help host mini-events for that locality. With more than 90 hours of programming the teams are able to provide a platform for sponsors and decision makers to connect—a reach that before this time was not considered possible.

Topalian further commented, “Part of our focus in the delivery of these new products is to ensure our team is structured in a way that will swiftly drive innovation, allowing us to learn, enhance and share ideas across portfolios while supporting each team to execute the customer journey in a way that will deliver the audience.” In a commitment to deliver, now and into the future beyond today’s current challenges, Clarion has expanded their staff, creating a central Virtual Product Team whose focus is to support the digital product offerings across all facets of the commercial business. This highly skilled team is concentrated on product development, integration, customer journey and audience engagement. The Virtual Product Team is led by Liz Irving, EVP – Head of Marketing, Technology and Customer Experience.

Clarion’s new digital offering has already begun rolling-out within the 10 industry sectors in North America with plans for all 50+ events to implement new virtual components supported by the Virtual Products Team. This is part of the overall business play to further the diversification of business by not only providing new areas of growth of audience and revenue opportunities but also competitive intelligence allowing the teams to be able to address the ongoing and ever changing needs of their customers’ throughout the year in addition to in person events.

To find more information about Clarion Events North America, including open positions learn more here: https://us.clarionevents.com/