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

How important is location to your exhibit’s success or failure? More important than you might think: "location, location, location" is not just a real estate phenomenon. Booth space selection is a major factor in your show floor triumph, because it helps to determine how many visitors you'll get.
Here are some of the factors to consider when selecting a booth location:
Entrances and exits - Stay away as an exhibit there is easy to miss because it gets lost in the shuffle – people are so busy orienting themselves to the show floor that they pass right by you.

·         Americans tend to go right upon entering the exhibit hall, while Europeans start with the booths located to their left. This is strictly based upon driving patterns in their home countries. You might think that it's best to be where all the traffic is, but too much overcrowding can cause attendees to move on to a less-populated area.

·         Bring only your top-selling or newest items to showcase so the exhibit is not too crowded or cluttered.

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Do you hand out promotional products to everyone that stops at your booth space?  Is that really the right way to spend your marketing dollars?  Rather than hand out thousands of widgets, banking on "real clients" to keep your giveaway and call you - why not give away something much nicer to just the right clients by premarketing to an exacting list of prequalified buyers?

Here is a classic gimmick to get visitors to your booth - and you can target your pre-selected clients, rather than hand out 1,000’s of ineffective, inexpensive throwaway promotions. Devise a two-part promotion: Send out half of a prize in the initial announcement ( in this case it was the tin that holds the Swiss army knife) and reward the clients on your mailing list with the second half of their prize when they stop in at your booth. It’s a classic promotional gimmick — and it works.

 Other ideas - one company sent out a work glove - the left hand - and told the invitee that to receive the mate - the right hand - they needed to stop by their booth and pick it up. A scratch-off game ticket fits easily into an invitation envelope - invitees must bring it by the booth to see what prize they won.

Jan Koren - jkoren@AbsoluteExhibits.comb

Good Day – I have just returned from The Exhibitor Show and while the show floor seemed much smaller this year, and there were no resounding must-sees – it was still, a great time to talk with old and new friends and experience the initial upswing most exhibitors seem to be seeing.  What did we see?  New technologies at reduced pricing.  In fact if I walked away with any one great feeling it was that manufacturers have come to our party – we all must lower pricing in order to challenge our clients to change their exhibitions.

The other note – as we are primarily (90%) a rental house – many more companies have joined our bandwagon.  If you are an exhibit house or broker and do not offer rentals … you are in trouble.  Rentals are the way of the world, owning your exhibit is a thing of the past.  Not your small exhibits – but certainly your larger builds.  Many of the portable modular exhibit manufacturers are offering rentals, as are the custom houses.  Now is the time to make an alliance with a rental builder – there are many of us out there.  Here are some prime questions to ask a new resource:

• Where do you deliver in the country?
• Will your company include the Installation & Dismantle supervision and labor as part of the billing?
• What is included in my rental package:
• Design?
• Fabrication?
• Project Management?
• Flooring?
• Furnishings, AV, Silk Plants?
• Graphics?  And are they done in-house??
• Installation and Dismantle?
• Shipping Costs?
• What is my discount?
• Is everything listed above in one price?

This is a very important group of questions.  Many rental houses do the build only and then you are on your own.  Coordinating everything else or paying allot more money to have the rental builder to complete the rental service.  Think about this.

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Virtually any major trade show venue is within throwing distance (well bussing distance, at least) of a cooking school. This is a great place to have your drinking, eating event for VIP’s while getting everyone to schmooze with everyone else. Working with the cooking school coordinate groups of 8, 10, or 12 of different company exec invitees both current clients and prospects and your staff members. The casual atmosphere of a cooking school takes everyone out of business talk and into socializing within minutes. The cooking presentation can have a few prompts for your company or you can leave this to chance with the repartee of the crowd carrying your company along – this will be a surprising, memorable night for all involved.

Hope to see all of you at The Exhibitor Show -
Jan Koren - jkoren@AbsoluteExhibits.com