Thought Leadership

How Digital Marketplaces are Disrupting Exhibitions

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Thought Leadership16 February 2024

I find it difficult to think back to the days before digital marketplaces: the ease of finding products, comparing options, and completing a purchase in seconds. That simplicity is what we set out to bring to the world of exhibitions with Passes 360 Manual & Marketplace.

The problem we set out to solve

For decades, exhibitors at trade shows have had to navigate a complex web of supplier forms, manual processes, and disconnected systems just to get their stand ready. Order furniture here, electrics there, catering from somewhere else entirely. Each form slightly different. Each deadline its own.

What if all of that lived in one place? What if exhibitors could browse a curated marketplace of approved suppliers, compare options, and complete all their orders through a single, intuitive platform?

Where we are today

Today, our Manual & Marketplace platform is used at some of the world's largest exhibitions, saving organisers thousands of operational hours and dramatically improving the exhibitor experience. The feedback consistently centres on one word: simple.

That's what marketplaces do – they disrupt by making things simpler. And in the events industry, simplicity is a competitive advantage.