Snöball Introduces Reel Snö to Bring Personalized Video to Event Advocacy

Welcome to the latest edition of Snöcap.

SPOTLIGHT: Your event advocates are ready for their close-up! Snöball has launched Reel Snö, a new feature that lets speakers, sponsors, exhibitors and attendees record personalized videos that play right inside the social share cards they post to promote an event. No separate app, editing software or complicated setup required.

Why does this matter? Static share cards have long been the go-to format for event advocacy. Reel Snö gives advocates a way to put their own face and voice behind the invitation, bringing a more personal touch to event promotion. With video posts getting 20 times more shares on LinkedIn than standard posts, there’s a compelling reason to rethink how your event shows up in people’s feeds. And yes, it all happens within Snöball’s existing share widget. Get more details below.

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Snöball Introduces Reel Snö to Bring Personalized Video to Event Advocacy

Snöball has launched Reel Snö, a feature that lets speakers, sponsors, exhibitors and attendees record videos that play inside the social share cards they post to promote an event.

Reel Snö is positioned as the first video advocacy post. Event promotion has long relied on static share cards that combine a headshot, a name and a line announcing a person’s participation, placed on a branded template. Reel Snö replaces that format with short videos recorded by the advocates themselves.

The feature is also a response to AI-generated content. AI tools can create faces, avatars, voices and scripts. Reel Snö is designed around real speakers, exhibitors and attendees explaining on camera why they plan to attend or take part.

Reel Snö sits inside the existing share widget, so users do not need a separate app, a login or editing software. The process takes three steps:

• Open the share card and select the video option.
• Record a clip in the browser or upload one, with the help of a teleprompter, automatic captions and a trimming tool.
• Publish the video card, which plays directly within the social post.

Event organizers keep control of branding. They can set a maximum video length and aspect ratio, style captions with brand fonts and colors, and write teleprompter prompts for speakers, exhibitors or attendees.

Key figures:

• Video posts get 20 times more shares on LinkedIn than standard posts.
• At least 19 social channels are supported, including LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube.
• A video card is built on top of an existing event design in under 30 seconds.

CloserStill Media Adds ROAR B2B’s Event Brands to Its Growing Portfolio

CloserStill Media has acquired London-based events business ROAR B2B, adding five trade show and conference brands to its portfolio. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquired brands are Environmental Services & Solutions Expo, Naidex, Contact Centre Expo, Customer Experience Expo and B2B Marketing Live. They will sit within CloserStill’s infrastructure, technology and healthcare divisions, and each event will continue to serve its existing professional community.

The flagship event in the deal is Environmental Services & Solutions Expo. It is held each year at the NEC in Birmingham, England, and draws 15,000 attendees and 700 exhibitors.

“We are delighted to welcome the ROAR team and its five event brands into the CloserStill Group,” said Gareth Bowhill, CEO of CloserStill Media. “These brands have built strong reputations in their respective markets through a deep understanding of the needs of the communities and sectors they serve.

“The sectors represented by these brands are a natural fit with CloserStill’s existing infrastructure, technology and healthcare portfolios. The acquisition strengthens those portfolios while giving the brands access to the scale, expertise and resources of the wider CloserStill Group.

“Just as importantly, the ROAR team’s entrepreneurial culture and specialist focus closely align with our own. We are hugely excited about the next stage of growth for these events.”

ROAR runs specialist, content-led trade shows and conferences. The deal gives its brands room to expand their reach and enter new markets.

“This deal represents a new era for our business,” said Duncan Kirk, CEO of ROAR. “We have built a successful portfolio of sector leading events in important growth markets, and have developed an entrepreneurial culture and a team of talented people.

“CloserStill’s decision to acquire the ROAR portfolio is not only testament to the quality of the business we have built but also recognition of the talent, resilience, passion and commitment of our people. I’m incredibly proud of the team and our achievements to date. We are very excited about the future and feel that CloserStill is the natural home to harness the potential of our events and develop the careers of our team.”

European Exhibitions Drew 49.9 Million Visits Across 13 Countries in 2025: UFI

Exhibitions in 13 European countries drew 49.9 million visits in 2025, according to a report from UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry.

The figures come from the 16th edition of UFI’s Euro Fair Statistics report. It compiles certified data from 10 industry bodies and partners across the continent.

“The Euro Fair Statistics report gives our industry a credible overview of the European exhibition market, with this year’s data covering around 50% of it, according to UFI estimates. For organisers, venues, policymakers, and stakeholders, this is a trusted reference for planning, investing and advocating for exhibitions in Europe. We thank all participating organisations for their ongoing collaboration and for sharing their certified data,” said Chris Skeith, UFI’s CEO and managing director.

The report’s main findings for 2025:

• 1,758 exhibitions were covered, 209 of them with the UFI Approved Event designation.
• 19.4 million square meters of net space were rented.
• 503,552 companies exhibited.
• Visits totaled 49.9m.
• 38% of the exhibitions targeted trade visitors, 21% targeted the public and 41% targeted both.

Nineteen Group Targets 15,000 Attendees for New Texas Build Expo in Dallas

Nineteen Group is launching Texas Build Expo in Dallas and expects more than 15,000 people to attend its first edition.

The two-day event will take place Nov. 3-4, 2027, at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas. It adds Texas to the Build Expo portfolio, which runs shows in New York, Chicago, Miami, London, Sydney and Melbourne.

The expo will bring together contractors, architects, developers, engineers, government agencies, product manufacturers and solution providers serving the construction industry in Texas and the South Central region.

Nineteen Group expects:

• More than 15,000 attendees
• More than 200 exhibitors
• More than 400 speakers
• Nine conference tracks covering sustainability, real estate, government, HVACR and facilities management, among other topics

The event will also host networking sessions, including Women in Construction and Diversity in Construction events. A Government Hub will connect attendees with agencies running projects in Texas. An Architect’s Hub will display designs and 3D models of planned developments from architecture firms in the state.

“We are delighted to add Texas to the worldwide Build Expo community. Its reputation as a hotspot for tech, energy, and manufacturing giants, and status as the leading state for commercial construction spending, makes it a natural choice to continue our formula of success through collaboration. We can’t wait to bring the Build Expo philosophy of festivalization to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas in 2027 and beyond,” said Rachael Shattock, portfolio director, Built Environment USA, at Nineteen Group.

CEIR Report Highlights Untapped Potential in Speaker, Exhibitor and Partner-Led Event Promotion

Fewer than 4 in 10 business-to-business exhibition organizers measure how well invitations from exhibitors, partners and speakers drive registrations, according to a report from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research.

The report, “Attendee Acquisition Practices Driving Growth Today,” is the first in a CEIR series that updates research the group conducted in 2022. It reviews how organizers attracted attendees to B2B exhibitions held over the past two years.

Most organizers track total registrations, but fewer track the sources behind them. The share of organizers measuring each area:

• Total registrations: 81%
• Industry segment: 45%
• Marketing channel: 44%
• Net Promoter Score: 42%
• Exhibitor invitation performance: 38%
• Partner invitation performance: 32%
• Speaker invitation performance: 29%
• Movement through the sales funnel: 27%

CEIR said this gap leaves organizers able to see that results improved without knowing what caused the change.

The report also found that most registrations arrive late, even though promotion starts early:

• 87% of organizers begin marketing six or more months before the event.
• 62% reach 90% of their registrations between two and nine weeks before opening day.
• 6% reach that mark 10 or more weeks out.

Starting early did not correspond with growth. Events with declining attendance were more likely than growing events to begin marketing nine to 12 months ahead.

Of the events surveyed, 36% grew attendance over their previous edition, 38% held steady and 25% declined. Growing events appeared at similar rates across all size categories. CEIR linked growth more closely to planning and execution than to scale. A small number of organizers listed expanded influencer outreach among their new initiatives.

The findings are based on 154 qualified responses to a global survey of B2B exhibition organizers, conducted from August to early September 2026. The margin of error is plus or minus 7.9 percentage points. CEIR describes its findings as associations rather than causes.

The report is available as a free download for members of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events.

Find Snöball At These Events: UFI Global Congress, ETL, Expo! Expo!, IBTM World

Exciting news! Snöball will attend four event industry shows in Bahrain, London, Milwaukee and Barcelona in November. Our team will demonstrate the platform’s peer-to-peer marketing tools and meet event organizers.

The schedule:

• UFI Global Congress 2026: Nov. 2-5, Exhibition World Bahrain, Sakhir. On site: Saad Tawfiq.
• Event Tech Live London 2026: Nov. 11-12, ExCeL London, West entrance. On site: Saad and Rachel Stephan, CEO and founder.
• Expo! Expo! 2026: Nov. 16-18, Baird Center, Milwaukee. On site: Saad and Ian Davis, vice president of marketing.
• IBTM World 2026: Nov. 17-19, Fira Barcelona Gran Via. On site: Rachel.

At each show, the team will present four products:

• Reel Snö: Speakers, sponsors, exhibitors and attendees record a short video about why they are attending, and it plays inside their social share card.
• ROI report: Organizers share details about their event and receive a custom estimate of what a peer-to-peer campaign could add, generated in under 30 seconds.
• Snöbank: It turns a peer-to-peer campaign into sponsor inventory, so the sponsor’s name appears in each advocate’s network and the campaign covers its own cost.
• Snöboard: It shows how an event’s audience behaves across more than 19 social channels, identifies the most influential advocates and shows which channels to direct paid advertising toward.

Visitors can book time with the team before each show through Snöball’s Snö on the Ground page. Find the link below

Who is hiring?

Shepard| Event Strategy Manager

MathWorks | Senior Event Manager – Customer EventsNetApp

NetApp| Marketing Specialist, Global Experience Marketing

Shopify | Experiential Marketing Lead (Head of Shopify Spaces, London) (United Kingdom) 

fal | Event Marketing Manager

Avetta | Events & Marketing Coordinator – B2B

Nintendo | Assistant Producer – Experiential Marketing