Cooking up Hosted Buyer Experiences

for the Institute of Food Technologists

JUNO is teaming up with 360 Live Media and the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) to help produce and create IFT’s digital event experience: FIRST. IFT’s FIRST is a food industry event that highlights new foods and beverages backed by science and technology to solve global issues. FIRST is centered on digging deeper, problem solving, and trying to create innovative solutions for the distribution of the accessible food people desperately need. JUNO will be the platform for the IFT FIRST digital experience, executing on 360 Live Media’s strategic planning and revenue strategy creation. FIRST will be an opportunity to connect buyers and sellers in an online venue to expand impact and reach.

To facilitate these important connections, many opportunities will be implemented in the IFT digital space including a popular mainstay in event revenue stream, the Hosted Buyer Model. Through meaningful and intentional connections enabled by the JUNO platform, buyers and sellers will have the ability to interact with each other in win-win scenarios. Starting with the registration process, AI-powered matchmaking will allow IFT to pair attendees and organizations together to deliver hosted buyers into seller appointments.

“The technology to support the digital hosted buyer format is available but be careful to select the right one for your organization,” said 360 Live Media’s Don Neal. “There are many good ones and many start-ups that aren’t ready for prime time. Matchmaking, scheduling, and room-hosting are the key features to start off with.”

While most events rely on declared and discovered tags to match attendees with experiences, people and content, the Hosted Buyer model developed by 360 and IFT targets even more personalized and engaging connections.

Specifically, JUNO’s onboarding tags and scheduling systems pin down true interests. JUNO’s advanced human interest modeling creates profiles that enrich the experience for both buyers and sellers. The elegant platform showcases the IFT brand and serves as a home base for the marketplace. In fact, live video capabilities enable meetings to occur within the organizer’s platform rather than taking those outside the show’s purview.

For buyer members, a program like this can make the best use of their time and advance their goals quickly. A virtual marketplace allows buyers and sellers alike to make multiple connections within a few hours, rather than over the course of a few days, and all with the ease and accessibility of digital. As a revenue strategy model for associations, digital hosted buyer programs deliver on key needs for corporate brand partners.

“The event organizer starts off with the understanding that every supplier wants three things: access to individuals with buying and influencing authority; top-quality prospects and to start a relationship that sets the stage for the next step in the sales process; and to fill their sales pipeline with as many new, qualified individuals as possible,” Neal wrote in his article for PCMA. One best practice for launching this kind of program is to communicate openly and early with stakeholders to ensure alignment.

IFT FIRST will welcome hosted buyers, suppliers and other participants to their digital experience on JUNO. Live broadcasts, a professional keynote and panel sessions will be enhanced with food sample boxes to activate those senses that would be engaged in-person.

IFT’s FIRST is scheduled for July 19-23 on JUNO. To read more about the event please visit http://www.iftevent.org

For more about how 360 Live Media and JUNO work together please visit futureproofmyevent.com