The Exhibitor's Resource – Trade Show Marketing Blog

When preparing yourself or your booth staff for an upcoming trade show, it is important to consider what questions you should be asking visitors when they enter your space. Here are some tips to help you prepare:

• Come up with several direct, but open-ended questions to ask of booth visitors that will first qualify them, and then engage them if they’re your target.
• Encourage qualified visitors to tell you what’s on their minds and ask them what business problems they have that your offering could address.
• Stay away from opening questions like “May I help you?” “How is the show treating you?” and “What do you do?”
• Ask good follow-up or probing questions to find out more.
• Make sure your answers to attendee questions intrigue and feed the conversation. A conversation is about getting information as well as giving information.
• Rehearse your booth presence with some role playing with your colleagues, you’ll be surprised how much better-prepared you’ll be after a dry run.

Popularity: 19% [?]

A very popular feature within trade show display spaces is the product demo. Depending on the product being demonstrated, this could be computer-based or a hands-on demo with the actual product that the exhibitor is introducing to show attendees. Either way, booth staff will benefit from rehearsing their presentation. Even seasoned veteran sales staff who know the product inside and out need to put the time into demonstrating its features and functions in front of an audience to ensure that everything goes smoothly at the show. A test audience can also give feedback about how clear the demo was, suggest changes to help comprehension, and give feedback about what details might benefit from call-outs on supplemental graphics or handouts. Does putting the product in the hands of the audience to pass around help, or is it a distraction? Should audience members be invited to “drive” the computer-based demo? If AV is involved, will it be visible to all of the expected crowd? Run-throughs will help staff answer these questions ahead of the show, and help them get comfortable with their time “on stage.”

Popularity: 9% [?]

Exhibit Resources was recognized at the 2009 Top100 NC Small Business Event at the Sheraton downtown Raleigh tonight. President and CEO Lana Calloway accepted the award to cheers from fellow small business leaders and their guests.

Business Leader Magazine named Exhibit Resources to the list from more than 260 nominations based on its business success and community leadership over the past year. The publication limited the criteria to include only companies with fewer than 100 employees and that also do a majority of their business in North Carolina. The full rankings will be published in Business Leader Magazine’s June issue.

Popularity: 8% [?]

There is a new gadget in the seasoned exhibitor’s toolbox – the Digital Media Display. For several years now, it has been very common to see LCD screens running demos and video clips within trade show display spaces. However, until now, these eye-catching bursts of color and movement have been difficult to integrate into the trade show display architecture because they need to be attached to a DVD player or computer. Housing that equipment in a hidden or attractive, yet secure location hasn’t been easy. But now there are Digital Media players built right into LCD display units, providing exhibitors with an easy to manage AV display option. These integrated systems contain firmware that allows an exhibit marketing pro to upload their content, whether a slideshow of still images, a video clip, or another presentation, to the unit and configure the playback settings. No more worrying about shipping both the display screen and the computer or DVD player, no more worries about hiding cables between the display and the unit. The “brain” of the units is built-in, and a lock secures your content and prevents you from being the victim of high-end AV theft. The most sophisticated Digital Media Displays even allow remote content updates, eliminating a laborious manual content change in large trade show exhibits with many demo units.

Exhibit Resources has partnered with a Digital Media Display expert to deliver turn-key AV solutions to our clients. Let us know if you need creative help with building this type of technology into your new or existing trade show display.

Popularity: 64% [?]

Have you taken a look at your existing trade show display and wondered how you will be able to showcase your company effectively with such limited display real estate? While all exhibitors are looking for a manageable trade show display, a successful trade show depends on a good fit and enough display space to achieve your exhibiting goals. Is your current display unable to accommodate the AV demos you want to feature at your next trade show? Is there more branding that you would like to do that your display just doesn’t have space for? Does your trade show booth staff complain that there isn’t any seating or private meeting space in your display to facilitate more in depth conversations with their prospects?

These are just some of the reasons that it might be time to look at upgrading your trade show display. Luckily, there are trade show display options that can meet your needs, but not exceed your budget. One option is to rent the trade show display for your next show. Another is to upgrade your current trade show display. We offer a new line of upgrades for the popular Nomadic pop-up display, that allow you to add AV demo stations, header graphics and other accessories to enhance the look and functionality of your trade show display.

Popularity: 25% [?]

No Sitting!
There is no reason for booth staff to sit while in the exhibit space, unless your exhibit space has a lounge area or conference are and you’re having a productive conversation with a prospect or client. Booth staff need to be up and actively reaching out to potential visitors. Sitting behind a table creates a barrier between booth staff and visitors. Booth staff should wear the most comfortable professional looking shoes they have. And schedule your staff so that they can take regular breaks to rest those legs and feet.

Absolutely No Eating or Drinking!
Schedule breaks and lunches for you and your staff so that staffers can have snacks or meals somewhere else other than in the booth space. And leave the coffee cups and soda cans in the food court, you’ll be able to get more at the next break. And think twice about that stick of gum, a mint might be the better option.

No mobile phone usage or texting.
Of course these days it’s very easy to quickly check your email or txt messages on a smart phone, but while you’re representing your company in your booth space, you shouldn’t reply to those messages or receive or place calls. Set your email outgoing message to let your clients know that you’ll be at the show, and will return their calls ASAP if you happen to be unavailable when they call. Adhering to this rule will ensure that you are available to make eye contact with show attendees and effectively engage them in conversation when there is interest.

Never leave an booth unattended.
Be sure to schedule booth staff so that breaks and meals are accommodated. It’s wise to try and have two staffers in even the smallest booth space, just so that there is some overlap in case one person must leave. An unattended booth during show hours is the just like a store being closed during the posted “open” hours. Again, you’ve spent enough money to reserve the booth space, design and set up your display, get staff to the show, so get the most our of ever expo hour with a staffed booth.

Don’t neglect housekeeping.
All booth staffers, no matter how much of a super-star they may be, need to be vigilant about keeping the booth space neat and tidy. Keep trash cans out of sight, personal belongings in storage areas, pick up any trash that appears in the booth, place furniture back into the default locations when visitors leave, replace any light bulbs that may burn out, vacuum the carpet at the beginning of expo hours, and generally do whatever you can to keep your space looking its best.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Exhibit Resources just started using twitter to see what all the hype was about. We initially thought that it would be no more than a novel way to discover like-minded trade show exhibit professionals and display designers and suppliers. Little did we expect that this twitter thing actually had a lot of value. So far, we’ve made some pretty interesting connections.

We’ve also noticed a lot of trade show producers using twitter to communicate with attendees and exhibitors. One example is InfoComm09, which posts informative links, info and statistics on the InfoComm show in mid June. How else would we learn that 7.2 miles of Aisle Carpet will be installed at the show, or get a handy link to planning your trip to the show? Here are some recent InfoComm09 tweets:

# From move-in to move-out approx. 18,058 hours of labor will be used to produce InfoComm 09
# Visit InfoComm’s booth, #5261 to find out more about membership, certification, education & social media
# 7.2 miles of Aisle Carpet (38349 liner ft) will be installed at InfoComm09
# Don’t miss over 100 new exhibitors at InfoComm 09!
# 50% of Classes are new at InfoComm 09! Check out all the classes, http://bit.ly/OUBI7
# Planning your trip to the show? Find deals to Orlando from Total Travel http://bit.ly/12UsDk

We’ve also seen some companies tweeting about the trade shows they are preparing to exhibit at to drive traffic to their trade show booth, tweeting from their trade show display during the show, and using twitter to update followers from live demos, key note addresses and conference sessions.

Exhibit Resources plans to participate in a webinar on the future of “Digital’s Role in Exhibit Marketing” on June 4th, when The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) will share the findings of their recent survey findings on the topic. The session will include stats on measurement, ROI, budget for digital media and best practices exhibitors can use to integrate digital and social media into their event marketing plans.

Popularity: 17% [?]