Worldwide Trade Shows Go Online

John Passalacqua, president of ExpoWorld.net, must be one of the few people who first created his Web site and then his corporation. Before his site, ExpoWorld.net was created, Passalacqua was a freelance research analyst and tradeshow strategist. Today he is the creator of ExpoWorld.net, a corporation and Web site that caters to the worldwide trade show industry.

Passalacqua still analyzes the trade show market in order to ensure that events are executed in a way that best serves their particular market. This entails finding the appropriate venue, conducting feasibility studies, and determining the key players.

Before the Web, this research was conducted by a time consuming process and a costly investment in items like $2,000 manuals, books on associations, and research from the government. When the data became overwhelming, Pasalacqua decided to organize his industry online. "So I went out and did that and categorized the links, then turned it into a company and thought I'd see what would happen."

"What happened was that I became a known personality in the industry and have been asked to talk at functions nationwide," says Passalacqua. "The big thing was researching and categorizing different sites within one site. This took about six months of research," he says. Eventually, Passalacqua created a massive database that is easy to work with.

We asked Passalacqua how, once the database was created and became more well known, he saw e-commerce in general succeeding, and what he thought the obstacles might be.

Obstacles to the Growth of E-Commerce

• Integrated solutions for merchants: "This is difficult to do because a lot of the banks are still skeptical of online transactions. A lot of times banks aren't sure whether e-commerce is viable or not."

• Non-standardized currency: "I think that this will be solved with the introduction of the euro. Then there will be the dollar, the euro, and the yen."

• Integration of a secure socket: "The secure socket is so important because it ensures security during online transactions. The problem is that right now you have to deal with two separate companies: banks who give the merchant number, and a company that supplies the secure socket. There are a few companies who give you a complete package, although it's fairly expensive. I think it's worth the cost, though, because it secures the transaction for the merchant and for the consumer."

Fraud Online
"I don't believe fraud is an issue online because it can happen anywhere. If a credit card vanishes physically and someone starts using it, until it's unbarred on the system, they can make those transactions on or off the net."

According to Passalacqua, the issue of online authorization is important. "If the merchant is getting online authorization as part of the secure socket, it will take an extra few seconds to approve the transaction in order to make sure the card is valid. I think that even though there is some time involved, it's worth it because the risk is minimized."

Without online authorization (in real-time), the following happens: "A person can register for a conference, for example, through the Internet, and in doing so, put all his information into a standard form which goes to the receiving party as an e-mail. The receiving party will then process the credit card manually. That's very dangerous because it's not a secure transaction and the card has not been authorized online. The problem with online authorization is that it is fairly expensive. It involves special software and protocols with the banks. The good part about this system for the merchant though, is that they are able to reject a transaction if it's not approved."

One way of getting around the problem of security and wariness of traders is, from the consumer's side, to know that when they go to a site to buy something, they are presented with some sort of confirmation that a secure socket is being used. Consumers want to know that their credit card numbers won't be stored with the rest of their information. And often this is how transactions are done--some information goes into the database and the credit card number goes to the billing department. Passalacqua believes that consumers should be worried if they don't see a secure socket warning.

Ways to Collect Information About Site Visitors

• Cookies: "I don't set cookies to collect demographic information about people visiting ExpoWorld.Net. A lot of sites ask if they can set a cookie. Even when you say no, some set it anyway."

• Gateways: "A lot of companies also make you drop your whole life story before you can get into their site, but lots of people give false information so often the information collected is not that accurate."

• Newsletters: "I have a newsletter and anyone coming to the site has the option to become a member of the newsletter. We have about 2 to 3 people subscribe per day, so we have about 90 new members per month. These are what I call very important people because they're providing us with excellent information. We don't ask them their names or addresses, just for their e-mail addresses, and in return they get free updates and newsletters, which go out once a month. This is how we capture information. It increases business because as publishers, we provide information to all our past clients and everyone who subscribes to the newsletter. The information is important to their professions and helps us to remind them that we're in business, and we can build up a rapport with them."

Impulse Buying
"I think impulse buying is something everyone's looking for. When people shop online, they're looking for something that's very 'hot' like a new CD, or item of clothing, and I think impulse buying can be promoted by offering consumers a way to get items that appeal to them in the easiest way possible. That could mean shipping it to their homes and including the shipping cost in the item, rather than making it a separate amount. High shipping costs often put people off, especially when the cost is just about the same as the item they want to purchase. Another idea is to offer appealing promotions. I think the answer is to make it as seamless and effortless as possible for online shopping to be appealing."

Marketing
"My marketing strategy, and the way I got traffic to the site initially, was by gathering information on all worldwide associations and their e-mail addresses. Then I did a press release for newsgroups, chat groups, and bulletin boards, and I offered an award to all sites that qualified to register with ExpoWorld, as well as offering them a lot of cross links. We enticed many top-notch industry magazines this way."

Site Creation
Passalacqua contracted out to a company that built the Web site and maintains it. "They do the programming but we do the marketing."