Trade shows represent a large investment with huge potential ROI. A recent survey from ABM found that 89% of B2B marketers rate face-to-face event attendance as the most effective platform in creating awareness and generating targeted leads among prospective buyers.

However, in order meet your trade shows goals, event staff must be properly prepared. According to industry statistics only 10% of exhibitors conduct training before all their events and only 26% hold training sessions before most events. This despite the fact that depending on the size of the show, anywhere from hundreds to potentially thousands of buyers will come streaming past your booth. It would be easy for unprepared booth staff to become overwhelmed by the crowds and by the presence of so many competitors vying for attendee attention.

As a value-added service to our clients, ExpoPlus offers training to exhibit staff, both through this blog and through in-person training sessions. In preparation for the 2014 Georgia Building Owners and Managers Association Trade Show, we designed a customized training session for first-time exhibit booth staff.

The training session was customized and aligned with the theme of the expo. The scope of the training spanned everything from pre-show logistics to developing a staffing plan to setting goals to capturing, qualifying and following up leads. In future editions of this blog, each of these topics will be discussed in greater detail. Please join in and follow the discussion.