QD Events Maintains a 30-Year Old Legacy of the Scottish Caravan Shows with vFairs

The Background: QD Events Host of Some of The Best Shows in Scotland

QD Events is the largest consumer events organizer in Scotland. The company organizes events across a wide variety of markets and some notable examples are caravans and motorhomes, wedding shows, sports events, and gaming events. They host Europe’s largest indoor funfair, the IRN-BRU Carnival, which is a hundred years old. 

QD Events has also been hosting the Scottish Caravan, Motorhome & Holiday Home Show for over 30 years. This is the event that they wanted to take live.

The Problem: Maintaining a 30-Year Old Legacy of Caravan Shows

Despite COVID-19 causing a lot of events to be canceled, QD Events wanted to make sure their flagship event, The Scottish Caravan, Motorhome & Holiday Home Show went ahead.

Here were some of the main motivators to take their event online:

• For the organizer: Prior to taking their caravan show online, QD Events had hosted a virtual event with some success. However, the platform was difficult to navigate and not as immersive as they’d have liked. This experience allowed them to understand areas of improvement as they searched for better technology.
• For the attendees: Most consumers have access to only a handful of dealerships in their local area so they really look forward to the caravan show as this gives them the opportunity to see lots of dealerships in one place. The option to easily browse caravan motorhomes, holiday homes, campervans and accessories, take advantage of show discounts, gain inspiration, and buy on the spot is extremely convenient for consumers. 
• For the exhibitors: As nearly all caravan shows across the UK had been canceled for 2020/21, some businesses were struggling, and they were also missing out on the chance to connect with the community.  

Given all this, QD Events wanted to take another shot at a virtual trade show. 

The Solution: A Virtual Events Platform Ideal for All Stakeholders

While reviewing their options, the QD Events team attended an event based in Australia, and the visuals, feel, and usability of the show made them seek out the vFairs’ team. 

The objective was to have a show that offered great content, a captivating visual experience, and an opportunity for people to connect. They wanted to make sure all stakeholders were able to benefit from the show. 

Here’s a breakdown of what QD Events and vFairs put together for the Scottish Caravan, Motorhome & Holiday Home Show.

1. Generating business for caravan suppliers with a wonderful showcase

Caravan businesses had been hit hard by the pandemic, as they were forced to close their showrooms during the ongoing lockdowns. 

Secondly, nearly all the caravan and touring holiday shows were canceled in 2020 industry was looking for ways to connect with both customers and other business owners again. 

So, the first objective for QD Events was to uplift their community of businesses by bringing them extra business and an opportunity to connect with one another. 

For this purpose, QD Events made sure that they put up a captivating showcase for all participants at the Scottish Caravan Show. Exhibitors could book a stand on the show floor. They were also offered a 30-day on-demand period and branding options in the lobby as add-ons.

Let’s take a look at what the trade show floor offered.

It had stands running side-by-side like at an actual event and attendees could easily scroll through them. Here’s what an individual booth looked like:

Here’s everything the stand featured:

• Products to explore right from the stand display
• Description of the company
• Video and PDF resources 
• Links to contact the company and explore their socials 

These performed really well, and the stands were very easy to set up, with exhibitors comfortably customizing them and uploading resources. Every time a visitor wanted to look at the product, they simply had to click on it to be taken to its product detail page. 

While the expectation was that most sales would happen after the event was over, some visitors did buy really high-end products such as motorhomes across the show weekend. Sales also continued for several weeks after the show was over. 

2. Helping attendees make purchases and take inspiration from the event

The second objective was filling the show with great content for the attendees and making it easy for them to navigate the event. They also wanted to give attendees the feeling of actually being at the event. 

To ensure the event was not intimidating for some of their less tech-savvy visitors, QD Events posted a navigation pop-up video and a PDF guide to help them find their way. 

Next, QD Events wanted to run a great show for their attendees. Though showrooms were closed,  caravans, motorhomes, holiday homes, and campervans were high in demand as they offered a safe way to travel and go on holiday during the pandemic. To browse stands, visitors just had to scroll through the exhibit hall. To view products, they simply had to click on them for the product detail page to open up.

Clicking on the vehicle took attendees to the company website, where they could view all the details for the product and make a purchase decision.

In addition to this, there were interactive seminars with carefully curated content. This was a new opportunity for QD Events as there was a lack of space at the on-site shows to host a theatre. 

3. Enabling the organizer to run a great show

So, how hard was it for the organizer to put together all of that?

Not at all! QD Events was able to closely work with vFairs to get every detail right for the show. They were able to customize the event visuals, add helpful guides and videos for their attendees, and educate the exhibitors regarding the product. 

The QD team especially appreciated the event data analytics they were able to access with vFairs. They were very pleased with the level of detail the reports offered by going into the backend and appreciated not having to request the service provider for reports. This enabled QD Events to truly measure the success of weeks of effort. 

Conclusion: An easy-to-use, visual treat for all stakeholders

While virtual events are still relatively new to the consumer events market, QD Events were really glad to see that all of their stakeholders had adapted really well to their virtual show. There were thousands of visitors at the event and only a handful of queries which were all resolved quickly, and all their key stakeholders enjoyed the event!

“There was positive feedback across the board.”

Comparing this experience with their previous virtual event, QD Events were glad that they found an intuitive and visually appealing solution for their needs. It really felt as though entering the website was like walking into an exhibit hall and that’s what really sold QD Events on going ahead with vFairs.