 What is an online exhibition or VTF?
- It is an online replication of a physical show, which simply leverages the power of the internet.
- An online exhibition consists of a virtual stall, with powerful in-built features like product catalogues, online chat, a module for setting up appointments, blogs and newsletters.
How does VTF help you (an exhibitor) in developing your business?
- It has an in-built feature to display information in 11 international languages, at the click of a button; hence it provides your business a global multi-lingual edge.
- It allows your products/services to be searched in a wide variety of ways, backed by a powerful cataloguing technology.
- It helps you to pack in a large volume of information, within this compact module. Your prospective clients can access your stall at all times and remain better informed about your business.
- Provides ample scope for enhancing your brand visibility, through options like side panels, banners and sponsorships.
What are the major features of VTF?
- Create and manage your own virtual exhibition booth which will be available 24 hours a day
- Display your complete business information including contact details, attractive product catalogues and team details.
- Register your company under multiple product/ services category to increase your visibility.
- Display you product catalogs in multiple languages.
- Network and communicate by meetings and chat scheduling features with business visitors and other exhibitors.
- View and post trade leads in trade zone
- Get statistics of booth visits including the profile of visitors who visited your virtual stall.
- Enjoy increased business visibility through precision search
- Create a blog which would enhance flow of visitor traffic to your stall.
How does an exhibitor start with VTF?
- Please contact the Project Manager/ National Sales Manager at TOI, when you decide to start with VTF.
- Make the payment through a cheque drawn in favor of “Times of India”.
- You will be provided with unique User Name ID & Password.
- Visit the official website – www.-------- and click on “Virtual Trade Fair”
- Enter your unique User Name & Password, in the LOGIN section.
What are the formalities and documents required for setting up a virtual stall?
- Please send relevant photographs of your products and services (maximum 5) in a digital format.
- Please send detailed descriptions of your products/ services, including technical specifications (as per attached EXCEL sheet).
- Please send us details of your team personnel, whose names you wish to include within the VTF.
- You may include more photographs and product descriptions (beyond 5), but these would require additional payment.
- Only after receiving the same, would your virtual stall be prepared, complete with product catalogues and your product/service descriptions.
- The implementation time for setting up your virtual stall, would be 7 working days.
What are the various components of the VTF?
- The VTF allows any visitor to easily access your stall and also presents all relevant information in a ready-to-use format.
- The Info Centre gives all background information about the event.
- The Visit Exhibition Hall takes the visitor to the floor plan and a click from there to the respective virtual stalls.
- The Trade Zone is used to post and view leads related to both buyers and sellers. There are 2 main sections here – “I Want to Sell” & “I Want to Buy”.
The Conference Session takes the visitor to the details of the international conference, including the web-cast (which is a paid option).
How to manage the virtual stall and operate various features?
Once you register, the Exhibition Organisers (Times Of India & SME Business Services Ltd) will set the basic booth layout for you by displaying your contact details and product information. There are 2 types of Virtual Stall users for each stall:
- Booth Administrator
- Booth Personnel
Booth Administrator functions
The Event Manager will provide you with an Administrative User Name and Password. To manage your booth, go to the homepage of the VTF and log on with your login id and password. All booth management features can be accessed only after successful login by Clicking ‘My Home’ on the main page.
Following features of booth management are available to you:
In the VTF you can add / delete / modify information about your team. In order to access details about your booth personnel click on the ‘My Booth Personnel’ link in ‘My Home’
This will display a list of Booth personnel you have added
To create new booth personnel, click on the ‘Create New’ button. Depending on the designation/ role of your employee you can create 2 types of personnel:
- Front Desk Executive
- Management
Each member of the booth personnel will be given his personal login id and password to manage his activities.
The Booth Administrator can also alter his working time by clicking on the ‘My Working Time’ link in ‘My Home’
The Booth Administrator can access diary information recorded by his Booth Personnel by clicking ‘Booth Personnel Diary’ in ‘My Home’
How do you manage your communication and networking, on this online module?
When the VTF is hosted, several visitors/ exhibitors may like to communicate with you .You can manage the following communication and networking features:
- Request for Information (RFI) Requests: When a visitor posts a RFI to you, it can be seen in your ‘My Home’ under ‘Visitor Request for Information (RFI) Requests’. As the Booth Administrator you can:
- Directly respond to the RFI
- Assign the RFI to one of your Booth Personnel by clicking Change in the ‘Assigned To’ column
- Request For Quote (RFQ) Requests: RFQ are handled in exactly the same manner as RFI
- Chat Requests: When visitors/ exhibitors send a chat request, it can be seen under ‘Visitor Chat Requests’ section of ‘My Home’. The visitor requests for a chat with either a Booth Personnel or any other designated person. By default the chat request is assigned to one of the Booth Personnel based on their availability. As a Booth administrator you can assign the Request to any one of your available Booth Personnel. This can be done by clicking the ‘Modify’ button with each request. You can also change the type of personnel with whom chat is requested. For e.g. if a visitor has requested for a chat with a ‘Front Desk Executive’ and you feel that the visitor should actually chat with the Management, you can assign the request to a personnel in the ‘Management’. Once a chat request is assigned to particular personnel, the details are also available with the booth personnel.
- Schedule A Meeting Requests: Meeting requests by visitors/ exhibitors can be seen under ‘Visitor Meeting Requests’ section of ‘My Home’. They are handled in exactly the same manner as chat requests.
How long would the virtual stall be available online?
As a special incentive, we would keep your virtual stall “live” till 30th November 2009. |