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Trade shows are some of the most important events of the business year.  They are an opportunity to show off your product, to make new business contacts and to attract media interest in your work.  They are also very hard work, and can be very stressful, even for the seasoned exhibitor.  There are hundreds of trade shows throughout the UK, from massive international events to more local and specialised exhibitions.  Do your research and exhibit only at the events which are the most useful for your business.  Attending a trade show involves a great deal of time and resources and you’ll need to target the correct shows to make contact with the most appropriate buyers.

Once you’ve decided to attend a show, you need to make sure you get full details of the venue and the facilities available, including the local area, its shops and services.  It’s a good idea to try and attend a show at this venue prior to exhibiting yourself – it’s an even better idea to attend the show the year before to make sure you are going to the right place, and to get a feel for the atmosphere of the event.    Find out as soon as possible whereabouts in the venue your stall will be situated, and try to find out who will be close to you.    Many trade shows have different areas for different types of businesses, for example smaller producers, or technology companies.   The type of area you are in may make a real difference to your presentation or stand design.

At the show, you’ll be provided with basic facilities and a show area.  It’s vital that you find out everything you can about this space, since it may need a great deal of customisation to fulfil your needs.  Most exhibition space is sold in stall sized slots – for those who are attending their first show it is unlikely that you would need more than one or two spaces.   Unless you are having your space designed or managed for you by a professional, you will need to make some preparations in order to make any real use from your space, which can seem insurmountably bare on arrival.  These areas may be provided with standard screens and electricity – you should find out full details of each and make arrangements to supplement their facilities with your own, for example with coloured screen covers or extension cables.  It’s really very helpful to stage rehearse the event before arrival – recreate the stall on your own premises to get a realistic idea of how you will actually operate during the event. 

You’ll almost certainly need to provide some sort of table or desk, even if your stand is mainly taken up with some other kind of installation.  A table is useful, providing space for displaying leaflets and for customers to fill in contact sheets.  If you are planning to use a projector, laptop or other equipment, you’ll need appropriate furniture for them, too.  Chairs are also vital, since a trade show day is a long day.  Especially as the day starts to wind down, everyone on your team will be very glad of a place to sit.   You’ll also need somewhere out of sight to keep stocks of promotional items and any miscellaneous stationery and provisions.

The primary purpose of a trade show, of course, is to make new contacts, and any exhibitor needs to take a hefty supply of information and literature to give out.  A wise exhibitor will provide appropriate amounts of various different types of literature to suit the differing purposes of the visitors and other attendees.  Just because a trade show is an important event doesn’t mean small businesses should blow their budget satisfying the ‘pick-it-up’ instinct of trade show visitors.  Provide simple printed or photocopied information sheets for the casual browser, and keep back your expensive printed brochures for more serious contacts.    Use a few items of display equipment, such as leaflet holders, to make your printouts look professional.  You should also provide a media kit to the Press Office, containing some printed material such as recent press releases and newsletters, alongside a presentation CDROM or brochure introducing your business.  At least 30 copies of this should be provided to the Press Office (if there is one) on arrival, and you should check back frequently to make sure that there is still a stock available. 

It’s important to have an eye-catching stall.  Bright colours attract attention, and with the cost effective digital print technologies available, it’s cheap and easy to get large format prints and posters to decorate your show space.  Try using a spray glue to fix your large format prints to mount board or thin cardboard – material can then be reused for other purposes.  You’ll need to fix any posters or mounted presentation material to the sides of your space – sticky Velcro strips attach to many types of display screen.  Make sure you take a variety of sticky tapes, pads and strips of assorted kinds, since they are bound to come in handy.  You’ll also need a supply of pencils and paper, scissors, string and other essentials.

While your product and stall are important, they’re not the only ways to attract visitors to your stall.   Exhibition only discounts are a method of drawing people in, while freebies of any kind are bound to get some people moving in your direction.    The type of thing given away at trade events varies greatly depending on the show and the industry.   A small product from your product range might be a good thing to give away to contacts, or a company branded item such as a pen or a bookmark can be a timely reminder of your services.  The simple ploy of having a big tin of chocolates available for visitors to nibble can feed traffic to your stall and add a friendly vibe to the occasion.

Having enticed the visitors near to your main display, you’ll only have a few moments to get their full attention and to make your initial contact, and this means manpower.  Even the smallest stand should have at least three attendants – you need to allow for breaks as well as the time to look around the exhibition yourselves.   Your staff will need basic provisions on site, as well as travel and accommodation.  Make sure you have plenty of bottled water somewhere on your stall to keep your staff hydrated and motivated.  Anyone working on your stall should be well prepared and able to approach the event in a professional way.  There’s no reason for them to be full time employees, you can enlist family and friends to help.  Just make sure they are well briefed on your exhibition goals, and the fundamentals of your business and products.   Briefing your team thoroughly is important to keeping your visitors interested – provide some ‘ice-breakers’, interesting facts and ‘closers’ to focus and prepare your team for the task at hand.  Bear in mind that doing an event is hard work, and you’ll need to make sure you thank everyone properly for their help when the job is done.

Preparation is key to a successful show, but it’s almost impossible to think of everything.  You should leave plenty of time for an emergency outing to the nearest shops to pick up things you simply didn’t know you would need.  If your stand proves successful, you may find that you run out of some or all of your promotional information.  Taking a printer and ink means you’ll always be able to produce something for visitors to take away with them; of course, you’ll need to take a copy of your printout on your laptop (and one on disc or USB key, just in case).   Most of the most annoying aspects of attending a trade show can be avoided with a little care and forethought.  The (often long) journey to and from the carpark can be made much more pleasant, for example, by using a heavy duty transportation trolley, such as one might find in a hardware store.  Arrangements for accommodation should be made well in advance, since most of the more convenient hotels will be fully booked long before the event.

The trade show isn’t just about the two or three days of hustle and bustle and heated trading, although you may be able to enjoy hefty sales of your product on the day.  In many ways, the most important part of the show doesn’t even begin until after the show is ended and everything is packed away.   Use contact forms to record your visitors details and even gather a little feedback (remember, your visitors are in a hurry, so only ask them one question, but make it a good one).  Try to get contacts to agree to receiving an email newsletter to keep them updated about your work.  Record the various things you can remember about your contacts quickly within a few days of doing the event, if not you will forget and misremember vital data.  You should follow up with all contacts within one month of going to the show, and try to make it as personal as possible – group follow up emails should be avoided.   All promising contacts should be contacted within a fortnight, and further details should be sent out as requested.  It’s also advisable to try to do some sort of analysis of the show.  Did you meet the kind of contacts you expected?  Did you feel as though you made the kind of impression you wanted to make?  What was the follow-up rate?  Asking and answering questions like these will make your next trade show much more effective. 

Trade shows are very important to businesses because they represent a unique opportunity to interact with buyers and communicate with their industry partners.   To make a good impression on visitors at a business event is an investment which is bound to pay off, and a little preparation goes a long way to impressing your potential customers.  Being well prepared is also a key to feeling secure and enjoying the event yourself, and there is nothing which sells a product like a happy and well motivated salesperson.  When you’ve done your research, done your homework and got Plan B in place, you can relax and enjoy all the fun of the fair.

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