Event Planning

But how do you know what show is right for you? Here’s a hint: It’s not necessarily the one with the largest ads in the trades or the one that is offering deep-discount exhibit space. Instead, ask yourself these ten questions about the shows you’re considering, and you’ll soon discover which are right for you.

1. How well does this show fit our marketing needs?

This is the paramount question. Exhibiting at a show must clearly fit into your marketing strategy. Whether you are planning to launch a new product, expand into a new geographical region, or reach out to reinforce existing consumer relationships, every show should have a well-defined goal that is an integral part of your marketing plan.

2. When is the show?

Show timing is crucial. Not only should an event be convenient for you and your staff, it should not be in conflict with other major industry shows or events. While there is a seemingly endless supply of competitors out there, there is only a limited amount of customers. They have to pick and choose what shows they’ll want to attend. Don’t undermine your chances by exhibiting at a small show that conflicts with the larger event that ‘everybody’ goes to.

3. Where is the show?

Location is everything. Some events purposely locate at destination locations such as Las Vegas or Orlando to entice attendees. There is some validity to this strategy, although you want to watch against the tendency to attend a show because of the amenities nearby. You’re sending a team to sell your products and services, not to visit SeaWorld or gamble the night away.

4. Who comes to this show?

A show must attract your target audience. Use attendance data from previous shows to determine what percentage of attendees are likely to be interested in your products and services AND are from your major service areas. It’s no good presenting your products to an audience that you can’t sell to.

5. Who else will be there?

You will want to know which and how many of your competitors will be exhibiting at a particular show. Remember, you need to be visible to be memorable! If you are not in front of the public, and your competitors are, the public will remember your competitors and not you. However, a savvy marketing strategy might be to exhibit at a show that attracts your target audience but is outside of your immediate industry.

6. How successful is the show?

While individual success is the responsibility of each exhibitor, there is a great deal that show management can do to ensure a high quality show. Discover what organizers do to promote the show, and take a look at previous shows. Ask for a list of previous exhibitors to contact about the show and ask them for their thoughts. Would they exhibit again?

7. Has someone from my organization actually visited this show?

A first-hand perspective from someone who fully understands your marketing goals and objectives can be an invaluable tool. Do they think the show is a good fit? Ask them about show logistics. Did things appear seamless, or were there some rough edges?

8. How much does the show cost?

Participating in a show can be expensive. Make your decision only after looking at some real life figures. Add in every expense affiliated with the show, not just registration fees. How much will it cost for items such as signage, graphics, literature, travel, lodging, meals, giveaway items, etc? And, don’t forget to calculate your indirect expenses – your people’s time away from the office.

9. What kind of help will we get?

Ask show organizers about promotional assistance. Are there sponsorship opportunities to raise your company’s profile at the event? What types of media are being invited? Also, ask for audience quality information before you decide. Are the attendees the type of attendees you want to meet?

10. What return on investment can be expected from this show?

Return on investment will in part depend on what your goals are for any given show. If you are concentrating solely on lead generation, and do not plan to be doing any selling at the show, return on investment will appear to be lower. It may take several weeks, months and even years for those leads to generate sales. However, with that in mind, set a benchmark ROI, or ROO (return on objectives) that your company would like to achieve from participating in the show. Does this mesh with reasonable projections?

1. Identify Where The Show Fits In Your Marketing Strategy

Every show has a purpose. Do you want to introduce a new product to a new market? Increase existing services in an existing market? Increase your visibility in a new geographical region? Reinforce existing customer relationships? Knowing what you want to achieve at any given show is vital to your success.

2. Decide Which Products To Focus On

Your company may produce dozens, even hundreds of different products. Obviously, you can’t showcase all these items at a trade show. Attendees would be overwhelmed. Instead, with one eye on your marketing strategy, select those products that need to take center stage. Remember that 70% of people attending shows are looking for something NEW!

3. Identify Your Target Audience

Ideally, every show would be attended solely by consumers desperate to buy your products and services. However, things don’t always work that way. Determine who the decision makers are in your industry, and exhibit at the shows they attend. You want to spend your time talking with the people who have the power to make purchasing decisions.

4. Identify Your Exhibit Objectives

Clearly explain to your booth staff what goals you expect them to meet during the show. Make these goals quantifiable. Examples could be number of leads generated, target sales figures, gathering marketing intelligence or educating your target audience.

5. Write an Exhibiting Plan

Writing out an exhibiting plan not only clearly deliniates what needs to be done before, during and after the show, what your exhibit team need to do, and a timetable. Include every step of the show in the written plan, leaving nothing out. Re-reading this plan will allow you to identify any items you’ve overlooked.

6. Establish an Exhibiting Budget

An exhibiting budget should include every item needed for show participation. Beyond registration and space rental fees, include charges for show services and transportation. Add in the cost of your exhibit design, signage, graphic, and display materials as well as advertising, promotion and special activities. And, finally, don’t forget your exhibit team’s travel, accommodation and meal expenses.

7. Reserve Your Booth Space

Prime real estate go fast! To get the booth space you want, remember to reserve early. Avoid ‘discounted’ spaces in out of the way aisles or near the bathroom. The savings realized won’t balance out all the attendees who never get near your booth – or worse, who go by in a big hurry with other things on their mind!

8. Pay Deposits

Check in with the accounting department to make sure deposits are paid on time. This often-overlooked item can cause all kinds of headaches, not to mention high late-payment charges.

9. Ensure Booth Design Meets Objectives

There are no one-size-fits-all displays. Make sure your design meshes with your marketing plan, helping to support current objectives while maintaining your corporate image. Booth layout is vital. Make sure it contains all the needed elements, including a ‘quiet’ place to talk with hot prospects.

10. Assess Your Current Exhibit

Give your current exhibit a critical once-over. Does it still look sharp and engaging, or is it tired, faded, and worn? Signage and graphics sometimes travel around the globe several times in a year – and they don’t always look better for it. Check flooring material for wear and tear as well as your other displays.

11. Purchase New Items as Needed

Order new graphics and signage as far in advance as possible. This way, if there are any mistakes, you’ll have time to make necessary corrections. Additionally, allowing yourself extra time gives you the room to negotiate for the best deals. As you replace worn items, make sure the old ones are disposed off – you wouldn’t want your booth staff setting up last year’s signage by mistake.

12. Order Show Services

Show services should be ordered in advance. These can include electricity, signage, audio/visual equipment, booth cleaning services, plants and flowers, telephone and computer hookups, waste removal, and furniture. You’ll be sure to get everything you need, and enjoy a substantial savings over those who wait for the last minute to order these items.

To ensure a top notch performance, begin preparing your booth team four to six months prior to the event. You will need the answers to the following questions:

1. How many people are needed to staff the booth?

A number of variables need to be considered. How big is your exhibit? How long is the show? Will you need employees to give product demonstrations, work the hospitality suite, teach seminars, or supervise contests? Ensure you have enough staffing to have your booth manned at all times, while giving your team a break every four to six hours. No one can be ‘on’ for twelve hours at a time.

2. Who are the best people to represent the organization?

Working a trade show requires a unique mix of skills. You want employees with excellent product knowledge, superlative people skills, killer sales instincts, and a warm, engaging personality. These people should be motivated self-starters, able to think on their feet and work with little or no direction.

3. Has staff training been organized?

To ensure success, prepare your team with all the skills and tools they need. Training should cover assessing visitor types, asking qualifying questions, handling difficult attendees, lead generation and follow up, and many other factors.

4. Has a pre-show meeting been scheduled?

Pre-show meetings play a critical role in ensuring that your team understands their goals and objectives, expected roles and duties, and is adequately supplied with background knowledge to handle any unexpected surprises. Use this time to clarify any areas of confusion and to address any staff concerns.

5. Is the booth team familiar with the products or services being displayed?

To effectively sell products, you need to have thorough, complete product knowledge. Too many times, organizations send out rookie employees who only possess rudimentary knowledge. This is frustrating for attendees, who won’t come back to find another employee who might have an answer – they’ll go to the competition instead.

6. Has a practice demonstation session been organized?

Never assume that your employees know how to use the products that they sell. It is entirely possible that they are not completely familiar with every feature, especially if you are introducing a new product. Take the time to thoroughly train your team, and have them practice demonstrating the product to familiarize themselves with the show floor routine.

7. Will a technical representative be available to answer questions?

Depending on your product/service line, it may be entirely appropriate to send a technical representative to handle specific product questions. Train this person in the basics of salesmanship, but keep their duties largely relegated to providing technical answers. Make sure they are aware of the possibility of trade show espionage, to prevent them from sharing too much information.

8. Has a dress code been established?

Well before you arrive at the event, a dress code should be established. Uniforms may be appropriate for your company, but if they are not, clearly specify what you want your team to be wearing. “Casual business” gives far too much leeway. Instead, spell out “Black trousers or skirt, white shirt, black blazer, red tie,” or the equivalent.

9. Have badges been ordered for all booth personnel?

Everyone on your team needs a badge to enter the show floor, access hospitality areas, and move freely about. Order these badges well ahead of time, so that any errors or omissions can be remedied in a timely fashion.

10. Do booth personnel have sufficient business cards?

It is amazing how many business cards you can hand out during the course of one trade show. Make sure your team is adequately prepared.

11. Has a booth schedule been planned?

A complete schedule will cover every moment from show arrival to departure. Include who will be staffing the booth, break times, technical support and assorted responsibilities. It may be a good idea to include ‘check in’ time into the schedule, so sales people acting as booth staff can check messages back at the home office and make needed phone calls. This will alleviate a great deal of staff anxiety.

12. Who will oversee booth installation and dismantling?

Often overlooked, these two items can quickly become logistic nightmares if no one is prepared to address them. Delegate two people to this detail. Many show organizers provide this service for a fee, but you may still want to have staff members on hand supervising.

13. Does that person understand the move-out procedure?

Someone has to arrange for moving the exhibit out of the convention center, ensuring it is properly packed, and coordinate shipping the whole thing back to the home office. Again, a team should be clearly delegated this responsibility, and provided with all the tools and resources they’ll need to succeed.

It might seem that way, but the reality is that preparing now for post-show activities is one of the wisest decisions you can make. By clearly deliniating your plan for after the show, you’ll be able to streamline your operation, delegate people to the proper duties, ensure all leads are followed up in an effective manner, and maintain valuable business relationships. Key to this are these nine questions:

1. Has a lead taking system been organized for visitor requests?

One of the most valuable things an attendee shares with you is their questions. By asking for specific items, or special features, or novel new applications, attendees are letting you know what they are in the market to buy. However, many lead cards only record the bare minimum contact information. Make sure your team has a place to note visitor requests – and have them use it!

2. Has a daily debrief session been scheduled?

The temptation for many booth staffers is to flee the exhibit hall as soon as the show has closed, catch the shuttle bus, and enjoy the attractions of a new city. However, it is important that your team meet as a whole every evening to discuss the day’s events, enjoy any triumphs, discuss any concerns, and plan for the next day.

3. Will “Thank You” letters or e-mails be sent to every registered visitor?

In our information overload society, “Thank You” notes have become the rarest of correspondence. Yet they are a quick and easy way to let your attendees know that you appreciate their time and attention – and that you will value their future business! It’s a nice, personal touch. Delegate one or two staff members to this task, and have it done within 48 hours of the show close.

4. How will show leads be handled?

Without a system in place, lead management can be a nightmare. Some will go into the common pool, others will ‘disappear’ into booth staff pockets to be followed up independently and still others just disappear. Designate a location for all leads to be collected, and make your team aware that ALL leads need to go to this common pool. Keeping some back will skew your trade show results downward!

5. How will sales from the show be tracked?

This will differ by company, depending on the types of products or services you sell. However, there needs to be a system by which you can track sales, especially those that are directly attributable to show participation.

6. What kind of reward or recognition will booth staffers receive?

Exhibiting is tremendously hard work, especially at larger shows when your team is ‘on’ for many days in a row. Make sure to give your team a tangible reward. Yes, representing your company is part of their job – but the extra effort and preparation that goes into successful exhibiting deserves a reward. It’s nice to have a ‘known’ treat for your team to work toward, plus a ‘surprise’ to spring.

7. How will the show be evaluated?

You’ll want to know more than “Gee, we were busy every minute!” Business decisions are made with hard numbers, including the number of attendees, number of sales, number of qualified leads, and other factors. Talk with management before the show to find out what kind of information is important to their decision making and evaluation process – and make sure you come back to the office with that information!

8. Did we manage to stay within the estimated show budget?

Budgets are an invaluable trade show tool. Compare what you’ve spent to what you were supposed to spend. Are there areas you saved money – by pre-registering for show services, for example? Did you go over budget in other areas? Unforeseen circumstances sometimes push costs up, but consistently missing your targets may mean either budgets or choices need to be adjusted. Discuss which it is, and make changes as needed before the next show.

9. What other show opportunities – nationally and internationally – could be explored?

One or more of your employees should plan on attending networking events. During this time, it is a good idea to ask about other shows exhibitors have participated in. Were they pleased with the event? Will they exhibit again? Make sure this information is brought back to headquarters, where it will play a vital role as part of the first step in the next round of exhibiting.

To continually improve, you have to have a very clear and concrete idea of where you are right now. An objective measurement of performance is the only way to plan for and achieve an improved result at subsequent shows. It serves as your baseline.

How do you get this baseline measurement? It’s a two part process, incorporating both measurable and intangible criteria. The combination of these two criteria gives you the most comprehensive picture possible of your performance.

Let’s start with the measurable criteria. These are your goals and objectives, spelled out in black and white. If you say that you want to do $X in sales or collect Y number of leads, then you can compare your results against your goal. It’s simple. You met your goal, you exceeded your goal, or you fell short.

However, there are other factors in tradeshow performance to consider. These are the intangible, hard to measure things that affect your show: staff performance, booth design, general ambiance, and a host of other criteria. You need to know how you’re performing before you can improve that performance.

Where can you get information on these intangible criteria? After all, there’s no magic ball where you can look and see how you did. Tradeshow exhibiting is not like Monday Night Football, with cameras tracking every move and instant replay only a moment away.

This is where a mystery shopper’s services can be critical. By providing an objective, focused analysis of your exhibit, a mystery shopper can pinpoint weaknesses, identify strengths and on occasion, offer suggestions for improvement.

It’s important to take the mystery shopper’s report into account. However, it is not the only point of view you’ll want to consider. Often, valuable information can come from your booth staffers themselves. During your end-of-day debriefing session, go over what worked, what didn’t, and what challenges arose during the day. Take time to meet with your staffers a short time after the show as well — giving them time to reflect upon the event and gain some perspective may yield up new insights.

Another source of information might be your customers. Offer your best accounts — and some new clients that you want to reinforce your relationship with — an opportunity to critique your team’s performance. This can be done as a simple e-mail survey or during a follow up phone call. Often, an attractive incentive item can persuade people to share their opinions with you when they would otherwise keep quiet.

You may wish to offer an anonymous comment area on your organization website as well. Some people may very well have commentary to make, but fear to say anything as they feel it may jeopardize a profitable business or professional relationship. If you do this, be prepared for commentary that’s markedly harsher than you’d otherwise get — people will say things behind the cloak of anonymity that they’d never dare voice otherwise. If you offer an anonymous option, though, you have to be fair about it — no sneaky tracking of IP addresses to later ferret out who said what!

Combining the mystery shopper’s report the information garnered from your staffers and customers will give you the most comprehensive picture of the intangible factors that influence show performance. Coupled with the measurable criteria, you’ve got your baseline measurement.

Collecting this information is only the first step. You have to consider what the information is saying and decide how it will influence your future actions. For example, if you find that you’ve fallen short on the number of leads that you want to collect and your intangible criteria indicates that you had surly booth staffers reluctant to engage with the public, you’ve got a clear cause and effect relationship spelled out for you –and an obvious point indicating where training is needed. Additionally, these reports have historical value: comparing this year’s reports with previous years will show you in black and white how the team’s performance has evolved over the years and the clear value of your training efforts.

Data in isolation is useless. If you’re going to compile for reports just for the sake of compiling reports, don’t bother. However, if you’re going to use this information to identify problem areas and take actions to improve performance, you’ll find your efforts well rewarded.