Trade Show
Chairs. I have a love/hate relationship with the chairs that often come with your trade show floor space. The basic booth package for a 10 x 10 space is the pipe and drape, one 8 foot table, and two folding chairs. I often hide or give away the chairs that come with the booth.
Why? I want my people engaged with the attendees. Chairs can bring comfort but they also tend to bring out cell phones. And cell phones often mean that the booth staffers are not talking with the attendees.
Think back, did any booth draw your attention have a staffer sitting in a folding chair? Most of the ones you skipped by had a table placed in the front, with two chairs behind it and the staffer staring at their computer or phone.
For shows that I am unable to attend, I send a diagram of how the booth should be set up and request pictures. My booth staff and sales team understand my motives and why I keep the chairs out of the booth. They do not always agree with me but they understand. In the smaller booths, they have also seen an increase of leads by shifting the table to the side or the back and removing the chairs.
Here are the instances that I allow chairs in the booth:
- The booth is bigger than 10 x 10.
- The objective of the booth is the have attendees sit and talk with you.
- The show is longer than 2 day or 10 hours.
- Health reasons
If the objective of the show is to have attendees sit and have a long conversation with you – I upgrade the chairs and I always make sure that I have 3 – two for customers and one for a booth staffer and a table for them to work on.
Chairs are welcome and can provide a place for prospects and customers to sit and stay a while – keeping them away from your competition. The expectation needs to be that the chairs are for the customers and the sales team and booth staff is at the show to gain more leads – not sit and do normal work.
Do you have a take on chairs in your trade show booths?
Trade Show
I love brainstorming sessions. I love to stand in front of a huge whiteboard and bounce ideas off of others. To build on ideas. To think up wild ideas. Some of my fondest memories of afternoons at work have been huddled around a white board and dragging random people into the brainstorming.
Below is an example of the questions I ask myself and others when brainstorming.
- What are my objectives and goals? This is obvious. Your booth design must work around your objectives and enhance them.
- Does the show have a theme? I exhibited at a show with the theme of Alice in Wonderland. I created hundreds of paper flowers as a backdrop.
- Is there a holiday nearby? The World Ag Expo always falls on the week of Valentine’s Day but I have never seen anyone take that and run with it.
- What hot trends are out that you can capitalize on? Photo booth? Bell Bottoms? Unicorns? Mermaids? Will any of the major trends work with your objectives?
- How can we make it interactive? What will draw your customers in?
- Does your company have an anniversary or milestone that it is hitting? These make great themes and get to celebrate your companies longevity.
- What constraints do you have? Booth size, budgets, materials, staffing.
- What would I do if my booth was half the size?
- What would I do if I had half the budget?
- What has worked in the past? You do not need to reinvent the wheel. Use what has worked and build on it.
I use words, doodles, and images to capture the ideas that come out.
I like questions 8 and 9 because it helps to distill your ideas down to their core essence. I ask these at the end of a brainstorming session. They strip away all excess and fluff to bring the objectives to the front.
What are your best brainstorming tips and tricks? What questions do you ask your team when building your ideas?
Trade Show
Engagement is the big buzz word in trade show planning. Getting people into your booth and creating a memorable experience can be daunting but there are great places to gain inspiration. Below is a list of places that I look to for ideas and concepts to push my booth ideas to the next level.
- Zoos and Aquariums – everyone loves to look at the exotic and graceful.
- Theme Parks – the excitement and thrill. Nearly everything is interactive.
- Art Installations – your booth is a work of art, what ideas can you get from others.
- Casinos – very few places are as good at getting people inside and keeping them.
- Museums – they are built to be living exhibits.
If possible, I do two walk throughs, the first to see what grabs my attention and the second, at a slower pace to see what catches other peoples attention. Find a bench and watch the people flow around you. I am watching for the following things
- What causes people to stop in their tracks?
- What do people stare at the longest?
- What do people stop to read?
- Watch for people in your demographic, where do they stop?
Take a sketchbook with you, you can doodle your ideas and insights. Take photos of what inspires you. Jot down notes. However you collect your thoughts the best. Then scan them all into your file system to pull ideas from as you need them. I keep my thoughts in a folder on the cloud so I can get at them at any time.
Where do you get inspiration for your trade show booths?
Trade Show
Being on a trade show floor can be very expensive, even for a 10 x 10 or 10 x 20 booth. Just the real estate you stand on can cost over a thousand dollars depending on the show and placement. As you start adding tables, chairs, electricity, graphics, and giveaways the budget can sky rocket. This does not include the cost of freight or of the booth staff time.
Carpet or other flooring can seem like a great thing to cut to save some money but I believe carpet or flooring is an essential part of most booths. My exception to this is if the show is being held on dirt.
My Case for Carpet
- Most shows will require you to have some sort of flooring, especially if they are carpeting the aisles as well.
- It is softer to stand on than concrete. It is not much but that layer or carpet can help you booth staffs joints and feet.
- It defines your space and allows you to bring in your brand colors or accent your booth decor.
- It gives a polished look to your booth. Imagine two booths, both have a table, two high top chairs, and the banners hanging on the pipe. One has carpet, the other is concrete. I am willing to bet you like the look of the booth with carpet better.
If I am in a budget crunch, I will often forgo the cheap giveaways and get the carpet. 85% of the people that will come grab your item will be trick or treaters. We have all seen these people, they look over a booth for what they can get for free, they are the ones that grab 8 pens – one for each of their grandchildren. I appease these people with a candy dish and keep my giveaway’s hidden to give to customers or true prospects
Trade Show
Trade shows are long days of smiling and repeating the same message in different ways to a wide range of people. They can be days of watching non-qualified attendees grab your pens or sit in your booth. It is a day filled with rejection for those who staff the booth. I have a few tips to help keep your booth staffers happy – especially if they are also your sales team.
- Let them figure out their own schedule
This was an eye opener for me. My last two shows I asked the sales people when they wanted to work and for how long, keeping in mind that the booth had to be staffed for the whole show. They stepped up and worked out the schedule that worked the best for them and their family. If your sales people want to work in one hour shifts, break for an hour and then come back for four more hours – let them. Just be firm in the number of people you need in the booth and the time frames. I had a dramatic drop in complaints and many of them actually stayed on the show floor – if not in the booth 80% of the day.
2. Make sure they know why they are at the show.
Explaining the benefits of trade shows is helpful, but put it into terms they will understand. What is in it for them? The lead list that you will distribute at the end of the show. The industry connections that they can make. Then make sure to follow through with the lead list.
3. Keep water, mints, and snacks on hand.
If the show will be more than 8 hours in a day or two days long, I always make sure that I keep water and snacks on hand for the booth staff. This ensures they are not wandering around looking for something to eat and drink when they should be in the booth. When the show starts early, I will often bring in breakfast for the first shift. (This also helps with the hangovers that often occur at trade shows)
4. Listen to them
I give anyone who was on the trade show floor from our company (staffing the booth or not) a survey that I ask them to complete within a week of the trade show end date. I ask them about the booth, the quality of the attendees, competitors, and what they would change next year or if we should attend next year. This allows me to keep upgrading my designs and gives them input into the shows.
I work hard to ensure my people are happy and taken care of when working my booths. I will go so far as to book hotel and airfare for them. Working trade shows has become much less of a drag and more of a perk. The biggest being – if you work the booth, you have access to the leads and can help shape the future of the trade show program.
How do you keep your trade show staff happy?
Events, Trade Show
Juggling multiple events with different deadlines and requirements is challenging. I had missed a deadline or had to pay extra for electricity before I found my system. Here are the top 4 things that I do to keep my events organized and on time.
1.Cover Page and Notes
I have a cover page for each event that I do. I have created an adobe form template that allows me to track where I am in the process and the deadlines for each event. I was organizing over 100 trade shows year at one point but all were 10 x 10 or tables. This allowed me to systemize my cover letter and help me know what was going on with each at a glance. You can see my trade show cover letter here.
I used Adobe forms because it allowed me to input information without having to reformat the page every time. This does require the full version of Adobe Acrobat. If you do not have that, excel or number should work.
This cover letter lets my team members know what is happening with an event at a glance. It also allowed me to have a quick historical guide in one place.
Most events you can create a basic cover letter and then use an extensive notes section to cover the details.
2. Folders
I keep everything that I get for an event in digital folders. These folders are in date order and completed events are archived to another folder. This allows me to access all of the information I need in one place. I PDF emails, scan in contracts, add pictures, and keep post event surveys in this folder. This allows every team member to know what is happening should you be out of the office and keeps you from sorting through the hundreds of emails you have saved. I save everything in the naming convention of date-category-description. You will figure out what system works best for you.
3. Color-Coded Calendar
My calendar looks like a kindergarten classroom walls. I keep things color coded to allow me to recognize at a glance what needs to be done that month, week, and day. Events are purple, tailgates are red, trade shows are green, personal items are blue, marketing materials are yellow. I use lighter shades of these colors to indicate deadlines.
4. Calendar at a Glance
I keep a one-page yearly calendar that I have my major events color coded in. The codes match the above codes. I hang this above my phone next to my computer. It allows me to know at a glance if I have upcoming events, what kind, and what I should be focusing on.
Putting it All Together
It can seem time consuming to start but the time it saves in looking for that piece of paper or email more than makes up for it.
For Trade Show A, I make a folder and create a cover page for it. I go through the exhibitor package and note all deadlines on the cover page, noting any special circumstances that are stated in it.
I will often fill out the forms I know I will need (electricity, carpet, etc.) right then.
I then save the approval/ request for the show in the folder along with the cover letter. (Side note: I always use the character ( ‘ ) at the beginning of the cover page name so it sits at the top of the file structure.) I then take the cover letter and put the event and all deadlines on my calendar. I subtract a week from each deadline to ensure that I am never late and add a reminder on that calendar event.
I then pull up my Calendar at a Glance and add the event to the calendar and reprint it.
As I get emails and other communication in from the events those are saved to the folder and notes are placed on the cover page.
Let me know your tips and tricks for keeping your events straight.
