I want to step up my measurement game. What are some tools that will help me track attendee movements, engagements, and more?

From personalized pop-up ads to curated Facebook feeds, our every move seems to be tracked and/or monitored. But when it comes to knowing what attendees are doing in our exhibits, metrics have been lacking — until now. Multiple tools exist today that help you determine how many exhibitors are visiting or interacting with your exhibit, staff, content, presentations, and more. Plus, some tactics can help you gauge the quality of visitor engagements. Here are a handful of tools that can bring your measurement game up to speed, including some pros and cons for each.

Badge Scanners and Clicker Counters
Badge scanners are ubiquitous trade show tools, but few exhibitors are using them to their full potential. Most can be loaded with critical qualifying questions that can not only foster the lead-sales cycle but also offer valid insights about booth visitors and their preferences, and areas for improvement within your stand. Along these same lines, fewer tools are more lowtech than handheld clicker counters. A staffer simply presses their thumb on the clicker to count how many people entered your booth, watched a presentation, talked to staff, sat down for a demo, etc. The downside of these tools is that they're only as effective as the staffers using them.

Eye-Tracking Technology
Paired with special apps or software, smartphone and tablet cameras can be used to measure and track content effectiveness. Eye-tracking technology can determine how long people engage with your messaging, watch a product demo, etc. The tech can reveal time-spent metrics as well as heatmaps showing which areas within your booth most effectively engaged attendees. However, since this is truly an eye-tracking tool, an attendee's eyes must land on a focal point as opposed to their feet simply entering a tracking zone.

Sensors and Beacons
Some sensors and beacons track individuals by using their Wi-Fi or Bluetooth-enabled smartphones. This means you can use sensors and beacons to gauge the quantity of booth visitors, traffic patterns within your booth, and length of stay in the exhibit or at a particular demo. Related heat maps can also show you hot spots generating the most engagement. The only downside to this technology is that it doesn't capture info from all attendees — only those who enabled the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on their phone, so you'll likely miss a few visitors in your metrics.

Under-Carpet Tracking Mats
Tracking mats situated under your carpet (or even on top of hard-surface flooring) allow you to track a host of metrics, such as booth or presentation occupancy, wait times, traffic flow, and bottleneck areas. The technology also can trigger messages or promos as the attendee steps on them, providing an interactive experience. The drawback is that insights are limited by the placement and number of mats in your booth.

Whether you take a low- or hightech approach, these tools can provide valuable insights about both the quantity of booth visitors and the quality of their engagements. Over time, they can also assist you in measuring your stand's ROI and ultimately improve your trade show effectiveness.