GANA Virtual Tradeshow An Online Success
By Brian Pitman, GANA Director of Marketing and Communications

One of the new features of last year's BEC Conference was a virtual tradeshow. We created this new feature as a way for many of our member companies to showcase their products and services to the industry without the cost of travel, shipping and time spent manning a physical booth. Additionally, the increasing popularity of online tradeshows has proven that this means of marketing is full of potential for the commercial glass and glazing industry. The tradeshow was online with heavy promotion during the BEC Conference last year and it drew great national and international traffic for our exhibitors.

Of course, many asked about doing it again this year. Building on the success of last year's online exhibition, the 2010 GANA Virtual Tradeshow brings new exhibitors and a revamped online experience for our visitors.

The first thing visitors notice when opening the tradeshow in their browser by going to the site at www.glasswebsite.com/tradeshow is that the design has been upgraded to a more efficient and clean design which further showcases the exhibiting companies. A new animated navigation system offers thumbnails of exhibiting companies' products, as well as basic information about each company. The site also features the sponsor of this year's event, the PPG Certified Fabricators Program, which is a nationwide group of elite fabricators rigorously trained in the processing of all of PPG’s glass product.

When visiting a virtual "booth", visitors can get a great deal of information from an exhibitor. A wide variety of product and company videos are featured in the booths this year, as well as up to ten downloadable resources, such as product whitepapers, detailed product information matrices, LEED credit guides for products and more. Visitors may also browse through up to fifteen photos per exhibitor in a lightbox-based photo gallery showcasing the many beautiful product applications and job photos, as well as download product brochures and SWEETS catalogs from the exhibitors.

Extensive contact information covering sales, technical support and more is provided for each company, as well as a simple lead sheet form to provide contact information if a visitor is interested in learning more from the exhibitor. With thousands of attendees during last year's two month run of the Virtual Tradeshow, this contact information was used by many to make the connections to these companies offering such great products and services. When you take a few moments to check out the Virtual Tradeshow, you will see what I mean.

This year's tradeshow kicked off on March 1st and will continue until the end of April, so you have about another month to see some great products, download technical and sales information on those products, watch several online videos illustrating the brilliant work done by our exhibitors, and make the connection to be able to offer these products in your company's bidding process for contract glazing jobs. Keep in touch with this and other current GANA projects through our website at www.glasswebsite.com, or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/glassnation. We will continue to bring you great opportunities without having to leave the comforts of your desk (if at all possible.)

Copyright, GANA