Speaking from Experience: Exhibitor Tips

Let's do a show! If only it was that easy. Exhibiting at any event requires a good bit of planning and forethought. Of course, you need to focus on the message you'll be delivering, develop a booth and collateral that delivers that message, and possibly even create new demos (we'll have a post on that later), but there are plenty of other details that you need to pay attention to in order to make the show a success. We wanted to share some tactical tips we've learned (through success and failure) that will help you and your team get the most out of exhibiting.

• Mark your calendar to take advantage of early bird pricing for exhibitor materials and services. It can save you some big money. Ship or bring other supplies like trash cans, power strips, and extension cords with your booth rather than renting them from the show vendor.

• When you place those orders, spend the money for the carpet padding. Sitting in chairs is not an effective way to man a booth and look engaged to passers by. So with all that standing, your feet will thank you for spending extra on the padding.[Tweet "With all that standing, your feet will thank you for spending extra on carpet padding. #GovEventsBlog"]

• You never know how the temperature will be in the exhibit hall. Dress so you will be comfortable if it is on the warm side and bring a sweater in case they have the AC set on arctic blast.

• Staff your booth! We can't tell you how often we've seen empty booths at events. And make sure you staff it with the "right" people. This article provides some good tips.

• While having a staffed booth is important you also need to get out of your booth and talk to other vendors. The power of tradeshows is having a real time connection to people you may not have another chance to talk to. Walking the floor is critical for networking, business development, competitive analysis, and even getting ideas for your next tradeshow exhibit. If you don't have extra staff, get to the floor a half hour before it opens and use that time to network.[Tweet "Even as an exhibitor, walking the floor is critical for networking and business development. #GovEventsBlog"]

• Hand out mints or other hard candy. You will be the most visited booth after morning coffee and lunch!

• Get some sleep. You may be in a fun, exciting location with lots to do, but standing for eight hours is no fun if you've only had a few hours of sleep.

• Take notes. Just like we advise attendees, taking notes will help you remember what you promised to whom and will give you a handy list of action items after the show. Establish follow-up plans before the event to make it even easier to act on your notes.

• Finally, SMILE! That welcoming presence will do more to draw people into your booth than any piece of carefully crafted marketing.

We'd love to hear from you. What are your big "must dos" when exhibiting? Let us know in the comments.

In a future post, we'll take a step back from this tactical advice and share some thoughts on what you need to consider in developing messages and plans.

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