What You Should Know about Exhibit Planning

•Start the planning process early and assign someone to handle the schedule
•Create a budget that reflects the true costs of exhibiting
•Select the right size exhibit for your budget and marketing goals
•Trade shows can be expensive, but it’s not difficult to maximize your Return on Investment (ROI)
“Build it and they will come” — This phrase should be your mantra when designing your trade show booth. With a carefully designed trade show booth, you stand a much better chance of attracting potential clients, making sales, gathering contacts, and generally spreading the word about your company. Think of your booth as a microcosm of your business.

Planning and Budgeting

It is best to plan early. Assign one person to be in charge of timetables and scheduling. Assign another person to draw up the budget and to define the marketing goals. This person will have to account for the cost of renting or buying a booth, the cost of accessories such as literature racks, as well as travel expenses. Travel expenses will vary depending upon the location and duration of your stay. If you decide to rent, you should expect to budget:

•25% on renting your booth space
•20% on design and graphics
•15% on electrical, cleaning, and drayage
•10% on shipping materials to and from the trade show
•10% on press kits and preshow promotions
•20% on staffing, travel, and other miscellaneous expenses
If you decide to purchase an exhibit, you will want to work with a professional exhibit designer. Most exhibit distributors have a designer on staff or rely on their exhibit manufacturer to supply design and rendering services. You will need to follow the rules and regulations on booth design for your particular show as well as observing basics such as fire, electrical, and safety codes and providing wheelchair accessibility. Rely on your exhibit designer who understands these requirements.

Size Matters

When considering the dimensions of your booth, you will want to take into account the number of booth staffing, as well as account for kiosks, counters, conference rooms, and the storage of materials. Be sure your design allows for free flow of attendee traffic in and around your booth. Remove any obstacles at the designing stage. Kali Pearson, writing in Profit Magazine, reminds exhibitors to “Keep your traffic objective in mind. For instance, if you’re there to demonstrate a new product, erect walls that force passers-by to cluster at the front of your booth.” Keep your booth from getting too busy and complex, so people are not confused or overwhelmed by your booth. As a rule of thumb, your exhibit space should resemble a well-organized party and not a crowded disco.

A 10 x 10 booth is sufficient for a small business. At 100 square feet, you can accommodate at least four people at once, two staffers and two attendees. Consider a 10 x 20 for a medium business, and islands for a larger business. The size of the booth, however, depends on your goals and products. At a trade show, size matters, but it should complement, not dictate, your exhibit marketing goals.

Other Considerations

Think of your both as a three dimensional advertisement for your company. You should include your company’s colors wherever possible, unless you are using a theme that necessitates certain colors. It is also a good idea to display the company logo as prominently as possible. You will want to coordinate the flooring with the rest of your booth, either by renting carpet from the show decorator or purchasing more upscale solutions such as hardwood flooring, raised flooring, or cushion flooring.

In order to both conserve space and add an exciting look to your booth, display your literature in a literature rack. Audio/Video presentations have become commonplace and affordable for any size exhibit. These allow show attendees to participate in the booth experience and learn more about your company. Large screen monitors are perfect for product demos, interactive videos, or entertaining promotions. Like a moth to a light bulb, show attendees are instantly drawn to professionally produced videos.

For more information, be sure to consult with an exhibit designer or trade show professional. Participating in trade shows can be expensive but it’s not difficult to maximize your Return on Investment (ROI) with the right planning and expertise.

For more infomation about trade show or events marketing, give us a call or send us an email. We welcome the opportunity to assist you with your next event.

Article Author:

Mel White
Classic Exhibits Inc.

Tips on Using Social Media to Ramp Up Your Trade Show Event
Vickie Siculiano, ExhibitCraft

So, you’ve made the investment in a fired up trade show display and you’re ready to ramp up your booth traffic. To do more than just build your physical presence at a trade show, use the opportunity to ramp up your virtual presence using social media.

The online conversation can multiply if you use some of these simple tips to get your show started.

1. Tweet before, during and after the show.

You can use a free online tool such as hootsuite or tweetdeck to schedule a thread of tweets to run before, during, and after your trade show. You can change one word in each post, such as “10 days left…” “9 days left…” You can also vary them a bit based on what kind of message you would like to post. Think of what specific message you would like to promote, and then schedule it around your event to maintain your presence even while you’re away.

2. Develop a content development strategy.

Fresh and valuable content takes time to develop. And like a fine wine, it gets better with age. You should have a strategy, or some kind of content calendar in place if you plan to have regular fresh content development moving through the social media funnel. Think of the types of content you create. Maybe it’s industry-specific news of relevance to your audience. You should also have an internal content calendar to spread your organization’s content you want to share – such as photos with clients, photos at headquarters, blog posts, etc. Take all of this valuable content, and schedule it to post throughout your event, so you can drive traffic not only to your valuable online properties (your website, your social media profiles, etc.), but so that you can have rich properties to drive search engine traffic.

3. Listen to thc conversation already happening.

Is there something that is already being discussed around the event? Make sure to pick up on keyword phrases that are being used over and over again, and align yourself with the conversation by using those same keyword phrases. Perhaps it is the name of the event. Find the hashtag that is being used for the event. One popular event hastag that we were jumping in on recently was #CHAShow. We were able to learn about videos being shot at the exhibit, and were able to jump right in the conversation. You can do this, too, if you keep track of the tweeters that are already having a conversation. Join in.

4. Reach beyond Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Listen to the conversation on different social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, but don’t ignore the value and power of Google+. There are industry specific blogs you can follow (if you don’t know which ones, Google your industry name and the world “blog” and you’ll not only get a list of currently active blogs, but the first page of results will have blogs that rank highest in the search engines. You already have your homework done for you. Now, you just need to align yourself by commenting or contacting the blog authors to let them know where you’ll be.

4. Foursquare discounts and prizes.

You can engage your booth visitors by offering discounts using Foursquare or Gowalla. Maybe you might have a check-in premium, a special event check-in at the trade show, or a scavenger hunt. Whatever the offer might be, engage and encourage your exhibitors to do the same.

5. Post your event photos!

Photos are one of the most viral pieces of social media content, because they don’t take any time investment to share – as long as there is an easy way of sharing them, people will spread the word. Don’t just post them on flickr, but post them using services like twitpic, and definitely share them on google+, too!