The Ultimate Trade Show Survivor Tips
1. My feet start to hurt
2. My brain begins going a mile a minute
I am no rookie when it comes to trade shows and planning events. On the contrary, I say I am the mastermind to trade shows and events. I have executed “world’s largest” festivals and managed over 80 trade shows in one year, internationally and nationally. If you name it, I have seen it go wrong. From my own trials and errors to the sales team—nothing surprises me anymore.
Since we tend to learn from our mistakes than our successes, here is a real life example and survivor tips that have helped me ensure trade shows run smoothly. Just imagine. . .
It’s the day before the start of a three-day trade show, you are feeling good. You have checked off all your lists and double-checked them. You have confirmed with marketing that pre-event emails have been sent to your contacts. You looked over your business attire for the next three days to ensure there are no holes or stains on anything. You walk into the conference center and think to yourself, “Wow, what a mess, how is this going to come together? At least, I am ready.” You continue to walk to your booth and as you get closer, your jaw drops.
The booth is empty. The freight that was supposed to arrive is nowhere in sight. The tables and carpet you ordered are also nowhere to be found. You want to have a heart attack but as an experienced trade show veteran, you pull yourself together and start making calls.
Over Communicate
From office personnel to trade show attendees, over communicate the details and save everything by e-mail. This timeline has proven to be successful:
Three months prior to trade show
- Confirm you have reserved your booth
- Reserve your hotel space
- For larger trade shows (20,000+ attendees) book your hotel the minute hotel space is available
- Remind the sales team of who is attending
- Typically, shows are booked a year in advance. This is a great time to send an Outlook or Google calendar invite.
Two months prior to the trade show
- Create a timeline for marketing pieces that need to be completed
- Typically materials will be used over and over, so create a timeless piece where sale reps and the marketing team only have to change the time and location.
- Purchase electricity, lead machines and services like material handling (get the discounted because, why not?)
- Register team for badges
One month prior to trade show
- Develop a trade show plan that includes details on the hotel, dinners and meetings attendees need to attend
- Begin creating your marketing pieces
- Confirm when your shipment (if needed) will be picked up and delivered
Two weeks prior to trade show
- Send all materials to the show site.
- If you can save the money, send smaller items, that are easily carried, to the hotel where you are staying
- Send the sales team and management details for the meeting including reservations
One week prior to trade show
- Confirm your services
- Email the last reminder to sales team of what to pack and items they need to bring
Be Patient. As I mentioned before even with all the preparation and lists, things go wrong. While attending a trade show, you are one of hundreds of people requesting assistance from freight, electric and furniture, etc. Be patient and calm. This is quite possibly the hardest of all, but these people who are going to help you are also getting pulled in a thousand directions and they secretly are as distressed as you.
If you have freight and booths coming in, I can only recommend you become friends with the team of men and women who ride the forklifts. They can make your life great or they can make you miserable by making you wait—I have been in that position and luckily, I redeemed myself after a four hour wait. You choose!
Create a Trade Show Emergency Kit. Just like people have emergency kits in their cars, all trade show booths–no matter how big or small—need an emergency kit. This will help you with any problem your booth or personnel may have during a two-, three- or four-day trade show.
This kit can be broken down into two separate kits, one for the booth and one for the team staffing it.
Booth Emergency Kit
- Ball point pens
- Cleaning wipes
- Crazy glue
- Duct tape
- Envelopes
- Notepads
- Packing tape
- Power strip
- Spare batteries (all sizes: AAA, AA, D)
- Stapler and stapler remover
- Shower curtain hooks
- Tool box: screwdriver (Philips and straight), Allen wrench, hammer, box cutter, wrench, etc.
Team Emergency Kit
- Aspirin or Advil
- Anti-bacterial wipes
- Ballet flats for women
- Bottled water
- Breathe mints
- Avoid purchasing gum as this looks tacky when speaking with current/potential customers
- First Aid Kit
- Lanyards
- Mirror
- Plastic sleeves for badges
- Protein Bars
- Safety Pins
- Sewing kit
- Ties for men
- Tums
- Visine
As the Key Executives Mega-Conference approaches, our trade show booth will have these emergency kits because you never know what will happen and Affinity Express will be ready for anything. What do you have in your trade show survivor kit?