Exhibition Boss or Organizing Aunt? Rock-hard deadlines and a thousand and one things. Make managing your next exhibition more manageable. In this article, we give you 5 great tips that will make life a lot more pleasant in the run-up to your next exhibition!
Tip 1 – Create a detailed budget
Create a detailed, specified and flexible budget in advance. This takes some time, but ultimately makes the difference between running a smooth exhibition project versus a costly, stressful and marketing nightmare.
The Trade Show Institute offers some practical budgeting tips:
- Assume you’ll spend at least 3 times as much as the rent of your stand space (this is a rule of thumb and can vary enormously)
- Make your budget flexible so you avoid getting stuck unnecessarily in the run-up to the exhibition
- Create a specified budget so you know exactly where your money is going.
Perfect and specified budgeting is immediately a great way to ensure that you are perfectly prepared and therefore haven’t forgotten anything.
Tip 2 – Know your target audience
Exhibitions attract a wide range of people, even if the exhibition is aimed at a specific industry. In the aisle you will encounter a wide diversity of people such as managers, salespeople, buyers, marketers, entrepreneurs, freelancers, students and many more. Therefore, focus on those people who are interesting to you, namely your target audience! With a well-focused concept, you will “automatically” filter out the right people. Only then can you achieve a good result with your sales team.
Tip 3 – Choose a stand space that fits your goals
There are about 400 exhibitors at an average exhibition. Therefore, choose a good strategic location! Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you want to speak to visitors directly when they arrive at the exhibition? Or just after they have also seen your competitors?
- How does the routing in the exhibition hall work? You can learn a lot about the best place by visiting an exhibition prior to your exhibition in the same hall.
- Where are the large, interesting and leading companies at the exhibition? They will attract many visitors!
- Is it smart for you to be close to your competition? If you offer a better deal, that could be a very good idea!
Tip 4 – Prepare for many practical questions!
Familiarize yourself well with the situation on site in advance. Where are the power points, how is the light, do I need a water connection, how many build-up days are there, how about the WiFi and how does it work with parking passes and access badges?And many more of these practical questions. It’s handy to know these things in advance to avoid surprises at the last minute! A good stand builder will relieve you of this.Tip 5 – Be realistic about the quality of the leads
If you’ve scored hundreds of leads, it’s very tempting to immediately think that your exhibition was a great success! But be careful, many of the leads you generate at an exhibition may also have spoken to some of your competitors. So it’s important to be realistic about their true value. In the weeks and months after the exhibition, during the follow-up, you will know whether the exhibition was a success or not.
As you do more exhibitions, these tips will change from conscious strategy to natural behavior!
Inspiration? Check out here a number of projects realized by expospaces!