Autumn is upon us. That means tradeshow season—and all the work that entails—can’t be far behind.
Every year, preparing for upcoming events raises a number of questions and concerns. Some of these are new and unique to the current season, but most are recurring issues or themes that are critical to effective planning but are also easy to forget. Learning from the past can help you prepare for the future, but it’s hard to remember all those details when you’re busy with all your other important projects.
As you well know, there are lots of factors you need to think about ahead of any new trade show season. You want to be as prepared as possible to avoid the normal chaos that surrounds every event. Effective planning means not having to scramble at the last minute to get materials produced, or resort to expensive expedited shipping methods to get those materials to your booth on time.
What’s the best approach? Every year is different, but we’ve assembled nine key questions to ask yourself at the beginning of each tradeshow season to help ensure you’re as prepared as possible and don’t have any gaps in your event strategy. Knowing the answers to these questions ahead of time not only helps you execute your plan, it also provides more time to create a higher-quality booth that enhances the visitor experience while reducing the stress on your team.
Let’s get started.
How many shows are you exhibiting at?
An important place to start is to list out the various events you are committed to for the season. This will help you effectively manage budgets for travel, lodging and incidentals like meals for those who are working at the event. This information will also help you determine how much material, such as printed collateral and branded promotional items, you’ll need to order to take advantage of volume pricing. If any of these shows are multi-day events, you will also need to provide multiple event apparel options since booth staffers will need clean clothes for each day and won’t have time for dry cleaning.
How far apart are your events? Are there multiple shows in a week?
Not surprisingly, materials can’t be in two places at once. If you have multiple shows scheduled during the same week in different locations, or on overlapping days, you may need to order extra table throws or booth signage to ensure your teams have the resources they need.
Even if you believe you have plenty of inventory, consider that these table throws need to be dry-cleaned between events, or damaged signage will need to be repaired. That all takes time. You need to have enough extras on hand to cover all other events.
As for personnel, if you have multiple events scheduled in a week and limited human resources, you’ll have to schedule flights for booth staffers to go from event to event. If you have a larger team, you’ll need to coordinate who is going to which events, or whether local staff can provide additional coverage. Planning all of this ahead of time saves a lot of stress down the road.
How big are the events you’ll be attending? How much space do you have for each?
The bigger the booth, the more complex your display will be. If you have a standard or modest booth space, you’ll only need the basics (table cover, backwall, and pop-up banner). If you have a larger space at a larger conference, you’ll probably need a custom booth with more advanced displays and additional materials. Unless your company has invested in a modular booth property, this will take longer to coordinate and create. Even if you have your own booth, you’ll likely want to customize to some degree to fit the event and reflect the appropriate messaging.
Bottom line: bigger events require more preparation. Plan accordingly.
Are you sponsoring any events?
If you are sponsoring anything at an event, this introduces a level of support that is above and beyond traditional tradeshow preparation. You’ll need to coordinate cobranded giveaways and day-of logistics with the show. You’ll need to update signage to promote your sponsorship. You’ll need to create additional booth space or adjust the layout to accommodate the anticipated influx of guests. You may even modify corporate apparel or administrative material to reflect your status as a co-sponsor. Get started on this planning early on
Are you hosting any events?
Is your company planning to host any specialty events such as sales kickoffs, industry or analyst meetings, or customer or partner gatherings? If so, these will generate a significant demand for signage, giveaways, corporate apparel, administrative materials, maybe even security and special furniture or decorations. Build these into your overall event deliverable schedules.
If you are hosting, you’ll also need to secure and manage locations for the event itself as well as any breakout sessions. Après event activities such as dinners or happy hours are easy to overlook; make sure they are accounted for in any budgets.
What are your giveaways? How many will you need per each event?
When it comes to giveaways, you have a couple of decisions to make. First, do you want the same giveaway for each event so you can take advantage of volume pricing, or do you want to mix it up? Obviously, this decision will have a tremendous impact on your budget.
Second, how many giveaways will you need? This should be fairly easy to determine; find out how many people are registered to attend the various events, estimate what percentage you expect to visit your booth, and order an appropriate quantity. If you are sponsoring the event, you’ll probably need more. Be sure to include collateral numbers in the giveaway totals; make sure you have enough to satisfy expected demand or have a print-on-demand solution lined up if needed.
How far in advance do these shows allow (or require) you to ship your material?
Understanding when you can or must ship materials to various events will help you coordinate availability and strategically schedule deliveries to ensure you will have sufficient materials on hand where they are needed without resorting to expedited shipping.
If an event requires you to ship materials to a Freeman’s or some other secondary or intermediary warehousing center, you may have a slightly larger shipping window that you can use to your advantage, but it’s critical the materials arrive within that timeframe or you won’t have a show. Also, these warehouses also require special labelling, so it’s critical to understand these requirements to ensure your material is received correctly and delivered to the right booth.
Are you hosting any breakout sessions or meetings at the event?
If you’re hosting any special gatherings within an event, you’ll need additional higher-priced giveaways or gifts for the attendees. Be sure to have those on hand. Also, these special sessions will require reserving space and preparing custom materials for the topic being discussed.
Does the event have a theme, or are you currently running a campaign around which you want to focus your booth experience?
While this isn’t always necessary, it can be a fun way to periodically spice up your booth experience with a special theme. This works best if you have a bigger booth space, as it requires renting or ordering specialty materials, new branded promotional items, and maybe even including an activity that attracts visitors. Work with the marketing and sales teams to coordinate this.
Tradeshow Season is Upon Us. Are You Prepared?
Preparing for tradeshows is always easier when you have a partner to lighten the workload—someone who can make sure your event materials are in good shape and who knows exactly what your current branded promotional and printed material inventory is so you won’t get caught shorthanded.
OnFulfillment offers a comprehensive event management service that helps with your preparation as well as post-show cleanup such as inspecting signage for damage and drycleaning dirty table throws to make sure they’re ready for the next event.
To learn more about how we can offload the heavy lifting so you can focus on more strategic issues, schedule a meeting with us to go over how we can help with all your event season.
