Keynote speaker, exhibitor details announced for CIFST Coast to Coast: A Virtual Showcase

The Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST) will be hosting a virtual showcase on October 28 and is pleased to announce that the opening keynote speaker will be Chris Cummins, a six-time TEDx speaker and author of “The Human Side of Business.”

Chris Cummins is a seasoned keynote speaker on sales, leadership, and personal development. He speaks to audiences of all shapes and sizes. Whether a senior leader or a seasonal hire, business professionals appreciate Chris’s unique ability to deliver highly-customized, educational content in a hilarious, approachable and real-world style.

The team at CIFST has had an opportunity to view the technology platform that will be used to deliver the Virtual Showcase (and can report that it’s amazing) and has provided some details on how the  virtual booths works to help exhibitors understand the experience:

Experiencing a virtual trade show isn’t a “follow-up with me later” situation – the whole point is that exhibitors and attendees are aware of each other in real-time. They can communicate, exchange ideas, generate business opportunities, and more without delay.

Solution: Exhibiting staff in our virtual event portal have a real-time feed of all attendees visiting their booth. They know precisely who is there, for how long, and can immediately start engaging them in real-time.

Experiencing a trade show isn’t a “I’m going to send you a text message” situation, people want to see people! The best interactions are ones where exhibitors and attendees can see each other, shake hands (oh, how we miss this!), smile, laugh, and be human.

Solution: Exhibitors and attendees can instantly jump into live video/audio conversations straight from the virtual event portal. No additional technology is needed, it’s all built-in to our technology platform. Exhibitors and attendees can share screens, videos, files and so much more. Going virtual doesn’t mean going faceless.

Exhibitors are typically exhibiting for one reason – to generate leads and grow their businesses. If this critical element disappears, so does the ROI exhibitors expect. The problem is, lead generation cannot only be attendee initiated (i.e. attendees express intent). Like any live trade show, exhibitors have the opportunity to capture leads and convince attendees to pay attention who would have otherwise wandered off.

Solution: Thanks to our technology platform’s real-time booth visitor feed, exhibitors can get a powerful list of all attendees who ever stopped by their booth and expressed interest. A real-time experience using our platform can allow for this, and give exhibitors the opportunity to initiate conversations instead of waiting for attendees to connect.

Trade shows and exhibit halls aren’t experienced in isolation. As an attendee, you want to know and see who’s around you, maybe join a conversation someone is already having with an exhibitor or meet a fellow attendee who’s waiting in line because they share similar interests.

Solution: Our technology’s exhibit hall experience is social, not isolated! What this means is that attendees always can see and chat publicly with all live attendees at any booth. They can branch off into private conversations, or join larger ones that an exhibitor is having with a large number of attendees.

Interested? To become an Exhibitor and Sponsor, please CLICK HERE

CIFST Coast to Coast: A Virtual Showcase

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST

Registration for attendees will commence on September 1, 2020.

Questions? Please contact Constance Wrigley-Thomas, CIFST Executive Director at constance@cifst.ca