The truest representation any exhibit house can do is to show a side by side of a rendering and the final trade show floor picture.  Maybe they cannot do this every time – but certainly for their most important exhibits.  This is the exhibit house’s portfolio.  And if they do not have one, and all they can send you is rendering after rendering – you need to duck and take cover.

This morning, once again, this analogy rings true.  Two clients over the past weekend have rung our sales people up – one for help!  Because they chose to work with the other exhibit house as they loved the design (understandable, except it was now not sitting on the show floor.  Rather they had a mockery of what was promised.)  And two – a better price.  Well we all know you get what you pay for and if someone offers you a $20,000 exhibit for $10,000 – believe me you are not going to get a $20,000 exhibit.

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It's no surprise that trade show attendance has been down over the last year. The market has had a big influence upon our industry as well as upon the cities where shows are held. More surprising to me is the number of our clients who have informed us that they had a good, sometimes even a great show. All through the current slow economy, you will notice that trade show floor traffic has lessened. At many shows, attendee volume is lower that what you may have seen in recent years. Don't be concerned. The number of visitors that your exhibit tracts is less important than the type of visitors who are on the trade show floors.

Why? There are more buyers on the floor as a percentage of attendees than is normally the case. This is consistent with our experience this year. Thus, while much of the news connected to trade shows is that, for instance, hotel vacancies are up in Las Vegas, the fact of the matter appears to be that people who aren't attending shows this year are those who previously came for reasons other than to make purchases. On the exhibitor side they are bringing less booth staff and on the attendee side – less decision makers. Many people just came for the parties – and those days are over! In picking and choosing some of those people are now out and those who are there to buy have an easier time navigating the show. It's all the more reason to keep investing in your show presence.

Working with a first time exhibitor includes a lot of time, allot of hand-holding, and most importantly a lot of patience. What is old hand to the exhibit house is a whole new world to your newbie client. Do you realize just how intimidating it can be to begin to process of booking everything you need to book for a show as well as how much there is to learn? For instance, even though our rental proposal form states clearly that "Installation and Dismantling Services are included", I constantly receive emails asking how much it would be for "set-up and tear down", which is just another way of stating the same thing. We also mention that we do not cover rigging or drayage – and what a mess that can become when no one bothers to read what they are signing.

Do not become panic-stricken. Think about all of our clients that come from other countries, with English as their second or third language, and after the first year they do this! Just plow ahead. There are a lot of details to be worked out, even a table skirt with printed logo involves a lot of choices, but with the help of your chosen exhibit company you'll get through it.

Read your exhibitor manual, highlight it, then sit down with your account executive at your exhibit house and allow he or she to work you through it. There is allot of stuff in there that just doesn’t pertain to you. In our company we actually have a project manager assigned to each client – she will take you through the program and do all of your paperwork. Our clients find this type of help unbelievably beneficial. It is the job of the exhibit house to know the rules and regulations for every show. In many cases today – the trade show manager is also the sales manager, or the marketing manager, or even the owner. Take the time to forge a relationship that is comfortable and that will get your through the trade show process.

See You on the Show  Floor  -
Jan Koren - jkoren@AbsoluteExhibits.com

Sell your old exhibit – it’s as simple as that. Pack rats are obvious critters. Heaps of old record albums crowd the cd’s off their shelves; worn work shirts and bell bottoms spill out of their closets. They are graduates from the school of "you never know - I might need/want/wear that again someday." Pack-rat-edness among exhibit display owners is especially hazardous, since exhibit storage space comes at a premium far higher than a closet shelf or a dresser drawer. In many cases display owners are paying by the cubic foot to warehouse that old exhibit, and it hasn’t seen daylight since The Greatest Show of 1992. If you are not paying for outside storage, then you are using your own valuable warehouse space.

Why not sell it? There is a growing market for used exhibits - plenty of up-and-coming exhibitors want the look without the price. You’ll bring in some revenue as well as get rid of those nasty storage fees. To make the selling process easier for you as well as your prospective buyer, keep the following guidelines handy when prepping your exhibit for the market:

• Papers, papers, papers - Proper documentation is the key to selling an exhibit. Pull together all records you have for the exhibit and its operation. Include: blueprints and set-up drawings; inventory and crate packing lists; I&D and service bills; and especially photos.
• Selling parts - If you can sell 85% of your booth in one shot – do it. However think through the idea of selling certain parts – selling the centerpiece by itself may leave you with items that you can never sell.
• Repairs – Buyers should know that they are buying “as is.” Cosmetic changes do not increase the value of your exhibit. And, forget selling the sliced and diced carpet – it has no value.
• Pricing – this is a real guessing game and negotiating is the rule. This sale is definitely not a profit center – set a price and be prepared to bargain. Remember the buyer has to make alterations, add new logos, buy new fixtures and carpet – so think 30% of the original cost as a starting point and be prepared to go down from there.

See you on the Show Floor!
Jan Koren - jkoren@AbsoluteExhibits.com

No matter how small the booth or trade show is, do a canned demo every 20 to 30 minutes no matter whether anyone is at your exhibit space or not. The demo reiterates the one or two key messages your leadership has decided is most important for the show. Imagine everything you are showing will be seen by every one of your competitors, so this is not the location for showing the “secret new release.” Do that in a private hotel suite or offsite meeting room for important prospects.

Demonstrations are the heart of the booth. Without one, your booth staff will be standing in the aisles somberly waiting for someone to walk up to them. Or worse yet your salespeople will be talking to each other looking like they are too busy to be interrupted. In either cases the message becomes there is nothing interesting in this space, keep walking.” A recurrent demo lets you act like you have something important to share. Booth personnel can draw together the crowd use their sales skills to see if prospects in the audience have interest. The difference between booths offering a demo and those without one is night and day. One of them is a loser – make certain it is not you.

The worst thing you can do at a trade show is to be boring. At most any trade show there are some booths that are easy to overlook. Renting space at any trade show is not inexpensive. It is important to find a way to be attention-grabbing.

Companies do all kinds of things to draw attention to their booths, with varying results. Use your sense of humor. Use preshow mailings and email and start a humorous campaign that motivates people to join you at your exhibit. The more self-deprecating the better. And while you are at it a fog machine, a baffling lighting machine, even fun-house mirrors can catch attention and get an attendee to stop for a few seconds – then the work is yours.

Giveaways or promotional products have to go to the right people. In the “just give everyone” a handout it is evident that freebies do little more than attract people who are simply searching for free gifts. What is the effectiveness of this approach? At a small show with a concentrated group of people, where a minimum of 50% of the attendees are potential clients – this method is probably okay. At larger shows – where 5% - 10% of the attendees are prospective customers – giveaways need to be tied to something else, an interview, a registration filled out (not just a business card), a 50-50 giveaway that brings them to your exhibit booth … not just a passerby.

Collecting business cards in a fish bowl and giving something away in a drawing, in my estimation is a total waste of time. All the exhibitor has accomplished is an artificial increase in the quantity of their booth traffic, but not the quality.

Booth babes who know nothing about your product and just attract attention – may very well be sending out the wrong vibration and attracting the wrong attendees. The only justification is if you are taking photographs with your product and ask the potential client to join the model. Then you slip the photo into a holder with your name and company information. People like companies who recognize that their customers are smart. Staff your booth with the right people to talk about your products.

So to summarize – be fun, attention grabbing – don’t spend money needlessly on giveaways, if you must give something away, be certain it ties to your business or theme, and forget booth babes if you want to be taken seriously!

Jan Koren - jkoren@AbsoluteExhibits.com

In the past 3-5 years exhibit houses have been seeking out partnerships with exhibit houses in distant venue cities to keep the costs of their clients rental exhibits low.  Although we see an upturn in the exhibit industry – everyone is still concerned with their budget and we all must work together to keep costs down.

If you own your exhibit, and many still do, then your exhibit company can send a supervisor and use I&D labor from the show city.  That is pretty much a done deal.  However, be aware that show labor costs are all over the board and are sold in different manners and as the owner of the ultimate pocketbook you need to find out how much your exhibit company is being charged and in what manner and do some comparison shopping yourself.  As an example one of our venues in which we offer I&D is Las Vegas – I recently had sent our I&D rates for CES and one of our exhibit house clients called and told me that they were being charged $28 and hour more than we were charging!  So buyer be aware.

What if you are procuring a rental property?  We have found that most people still like to deal with their local exhibit house as their go-between – even if their exhibit house does not have rental equipment.  And even if they do are you really willing to pay for cross country shipping and then local I&D labor charges?  Ask your exhibit house if they possibly have a partnership with another exhibit company that can bring your costs down.  We have a division called Wholesale Exhibits that sells only to exhibit houses and with the discounts we give – the end-user’s prices are still very much in line or less for this service.

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We have a client, Hall Research, that attends amongst a number of shows in the calendar year, the Digital Signage Show (DES 2010) in Las Vegas. Using a very professional email invitation – this was sent days before the show first with this solicitation:

Please join us at the annual Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas Booth 1115 February 24 & 25 to see a number of newly released and soon to be introduced AV products specifically targeted for video signage applications.

Then with this invitation to a Wednesday Lunch and Learn :
Mr. AJ Shelat, CTS our National Sales Manager will be leading a class (Wednesday Lunch and Learn) entitled "High-Resolution Content Distribution in Recreation Venues".

This discussion will cover different methods of distributing high-resolution content throughout recreation spaces such as fitness centers, bowling alleys and other similar venues. Topics include HD video formats, distribution and switching, as well as keys to a robust system design to yield minimal down time and ease of service.

Followed by a group of pictures of the products to be discussed with short descriptions:
A number of products will be demonstrated including the new URA-XT daisy-chainable Video-over-UTP receivers.

Bottom line – everyone that attends a show has an agenda – let me restate that – any one that you want to do business with at a show has an agenda. Also – everyone gets hungry! Put together a luncheon with a group meeting. Take care of introducing your new products in a group atmosphere. Feed them – food and information. Then sit back while this group talks amongst themselves – and you have created the right environment with the right people to increase your sales in less than an hour. Consider roping off your entire exhibit for an hour and make these people special. They need a reservation – who doesn’t want to be inside the ropes? Consider this – whatever you make beyond someone’s reach - that is the place everyone will want to be. All of those who could not go beyond the ropes will be back. Thank you Hall Research for a great concept!

Jan Koren - jkoren@AbsoluteExhibits.com