Get 75% off the cost of tradeshow space!

Posted December 7th, 2008 by Karl

Before I overcame the initial hurdle of gaining experience in trades hows and exhibitions I tried a tactic to keep the costs down.

Bear in mind that I had been exhibiting for a couple of years and knew enough to know what I was doing; my trade show display and marketing collateral were all in place and I only had to land and set up to be in business.

I had to fly to the West coast for a show in LA, head back to base and four days later fly back out to San Diego.

Those four days were dead space; I should have stayed in California but there simply was nothing to do and I couldn’t justify the expense of a four day “vacation” in the sun.

The following year, the time dead zone was six days; a real pain in my constructive and productive neck so I did some research and found secondary tradeshow events in the area open during that time slot.  When I had a shortlist, I called them about a month before I was due to fly out and feeling full of myself I asked if they had any space left and what was the best deal they could offer me.

I was completely open about what I was doing – looking to fill some dead space in the diary and asking around.

The result was I was offered two slots in San Diego for 25% of the listed cost and 30% on the other; both one day events while in LA I managed three events offering 50% and more off space rental.  All the event managers were offering much more aside from simple discounts off the space rental with a host of extra services to try to entice me to take their surplus space.

The moral of the story is simple; if you don’t ask you won’t get!