Put Your Checkbook Away!

Posted December 10th, 2008 by Karl

Before you step into trade show exhibiting you need to research and prepare; this is especially true if you are a first timer and looking at the wide range of events and kit for you to acquire in order to mount an impressive presence.

The fact is that you need not reinvent the wheel; all of the mistakes you can think of and many more you have no inkling about have already been made by the tens of thousands of businesses who already are using trade show displays to make billions of dollars of revenue every year.

The first thing you should be doing is attending trade shows and exhibitions but not as an exhibitor, attend them as a simple attendee!

The cost may be free or it may be a small fraction of the cost of renting space and investing in a display.

Firs of all, select a range of exhibitions you are interested in; choose a varying selection as a shortlist and visit them.

You are looking for two primary pieces of information; firstly, look at the venue and the attendance both by trade exhibitors and also by the number of attendees who are there – how many of each; what is the type of exhibitor and pay careful attention to their display presence; spot anything exhibitors are doing that makes then stand out from the crowd; who is attracting people and who are sitting around drinking coffee?

Learn with your eyes and ears and this will give you a whole host of ideas for you to assimiliate in your own effort and also, and perhaps more importantly, what you should not be doing!

The second thing you will be able to acquire is the actual experiences of exhibitors; for those who will spare the time, ask them how they are finding exhibiting at the event, what is working for them and why did they choose this particular event; ask them for their experiences and recomendations for other events that they exhibit at and more importantly, how much business are they generating from their activities.

Bear in mind, people only like to talk about their successes so you will need to treat some of the information with a pinch of salt but you will be getting first hand information from someone who has actually gotten their check book out and committed money to the project.