Show Services Thursday!

 

DIY Tradeshow Setup and Strike.

1^st thing: Unless you have a 10x10 pop up – don’t do this.  Hire a crew.  But if the costs are main concern consider this scenario.

You got the key rules, you got the food essentials and you know how important Show Services are to the overall success of your tradeshow as it comes to getting new business.   

Key Point of the Tradeshow:  You are there to get new business.  We at Exhibit Associates call it “Protect & Plunder.”  You are there to protect your current client base from your competition, and you are there to plunder from your competitor.

But let’s dive into your costs of a DIY Setup:   For this example you only need 3 people for the set up & strike.   Let's say it's a Sunday Set, with some "clean up" Monday morning.   Then the show lasts 2 or 3 days.   Doesn't matter for this scenario.  

You will need to come in an extra day early and stay one extra day.   So three people for 2 nights = 6 extra hotel rooms.  Let’s say you are using your sales team and their salary is $50,000.00 or $25 per hour.  We will not consider overtime on Sunday.   3x8 on Sunday, your 2 hours on Monday morning then 3 x 8 on closing night.  (Because the show closes at 3:30 and they want you out, booth and all, by midnight!)  24 + 2 + 24 equals 50 hours of work.  So that is $1,250.00    The 6 hotel rooms at $150 is $900.00.  So, we are up to $2,150.00 in direct costs.  Let us talk about indirect costs.

You will be too tired to acquire new business. 

Your team worked all day setting up the booth, then the 2nd day working all day "tidying up" the booth and then staffing the booth.  Ready for day 2 or 3 of the tradeshow?   The last day of the show, say 3:30PM the show is over.   Your sales staff is tired.   And now the real work begins!

The A/C turns off, the carpet in the aisle get pulled up and you wait for crates.

You get work.   Breaking down the booth so when the crates show up you put the tradeshow booth back into the crates.  You team is tired.  At midnight it is all done.    The next day they travel back to the office.  

You and Your Team.  Why are you there?  To get business.

• So did your team go to the networking on Sunday night - or where they recovering?
• How about the Keynote Speech?  Did you attend or were you finishing the booth up?  
• How about the events on Monday night?  Calling it early on any night will not allow you to “Protect & Plunder.”  
• But trust me - your competition is protecting and plundering.
• Who are you current clients going to speak to if not you?  
• Do you think your competition is got them in their sights?  Hell yes!   

 So besides the $2,150.00 in extra costs, how much opportunity costs did you pay?

(FYI:  To have a professional crew do this, the estimates are just a few hundred dollars more than the $2,150.00)

Show Services Wednesday!

 

Set Up Essentials

What you need on the Tradeshow Floor during the Set Up and the Strike.

This stuff counts if you are supervising a crew, you bring the crew from your sales team or you are the “crew.”   Tomorrow to consider if you are going to DIY the setup and strike.

Setting up a tradeshow booth takes some skill.  The skill is developed only through doing it.  Your 1^st 10x10 Tradeshow Booth set up and dismantled can be “uncomfortable” whereas your 2^nd 30x30 island makes sense.  For a standard show it could be 1 ½ days for the setup and ¾ of a day – actually long into the night for the strike.  More about timelines for DIY tomorrow.

There is a lot to do.  “A Long Way to Go and a Short Time to Get There” as the song says.  The checklists will be of huge help on Friday.   Just scan the QRC code on Friday’s blog.   And this will be on it.

What do you bring personally to the tradeshow floor during set up and the strike?  You need tools.  Yes, duct tape, a blade, allen wrenches, mallet, and your standard screwdrivers & wrenches. 

Ok – enough of the set up – here is the list: Water, Food, Power, Camera and Pen & Paper.

1)      Water bottle/Blender Bottle

a.       If you buy water out of the vending machines it will cost you 2x to 3x your normal cost of a water bottle.

                                                               i.      That’s if you can find the vending machine.

                                                             ii.      Water fountains are by every restroom.  You can refill at any time.

2)      Prepackaged food

a.       Granola bars, Protein bars, potato chips, and nuts.  Anything in a package you have to rip open that can survive a long trip without spoiling.

b.       DO NOT use Tupperware.   Little known secret is the tradeshow is not heated or cooled during the set up or strike.   Food will spoil.

                                                               i.      Let’s just say an egg salad sandwich will not last to 2 PM in the New Orleans Convention Center in early September. 

3)      Power cords for your phone, tablet and/or laptop.

a.       The last think you want is to run out of power.  Your phone is your lifeline.   Charge it early and often.   Because it is at the end of the day that you’ll need to send photos and get emails or facetime – and that is when you will be out of juice.

4)      Paper & Pen

a.       This is critical.

                                                               i.      When did you start?  Write it down.

                                                             ii.      When did you break for lunch? Write it down.

                                                           iii.      When did you finish? Write it down.

                                                           iv.      When did the condor crew show up? Write it down.

b.       What do you need from the Services Desk?

                                                               i.      The Services Desk seems to always be the farthest away from your booth.  If you need something from there by the time you get there you might forget it.  But “The faintest ink is stronger than the best memory.”

5)      Camera

a.       Now we all have it on our phone – but this is important.

                                                               i.      Pictures of the crates before you touch them.

                                                             ii.      Pictures of what is inside the crates before you touch them.

                                                           iii.      What does the booth look like after you are done? On the strike – what do the crates look like all buttoned up?

                                                           iv.      A picture of the paperwork you turn in, just before you turn it in, and then your copy that stamped.

1.       That can save you thousands of dollars!

6)      Paper & Pen

a.       This is critical.

                                                               i.      When did you start?  Write it down.

                                                             ii.      When did you break for lunch? Write it down.

                                                           iii.      When did you finish? Write it down.

                                                           iv.      When did the condor crew show up? Write it down.

b.       What do you need from the Services Desk?

                                                               i.      The Services Desk seems to always be the farthest away from your booth.  If you need something from there by the time you get there you might forget it.  But “The faintest ink is stronger than the best memory.”

And if you want to see how hard you worked wear a pedometer.  Day 1 of the set up on my last show was 14,000+ steps.

Water, Food, Power, Camera, and Paper & Pen – it seems simple enough.  And this is if you oversee a crew you hire, or it’s you and company team that sets it all up.

 

#DesignCounts

On July 31, 2020 the Exhibit Associates Social Media Channels were flooded with #DesignCounts posting.  Everything has to work right, but it all starts with Design.  

The Design Team at Exhibit Associates has worked on tradeshow booths, corporate displays and museum exhibits so far this year.   

Yes: This Year!   This crazy, upside down, topsy-turvy year.  

Design is so important to the process.  It is the start of the process but it is not the entire process.   We at Exhibit Associates call the process "The Project Journey."  

All projects have a beginning and an end.  The beginning is the meeting with the client.  The end is usually the tradeshow, or the Opening Night of the Museum Exhibit or the unveiling of the Corporate Display.  Service continues long after that event - but what is really awesome about our business is our work is associated with an Event!   And we usually get invited to the event.

So check our our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram channels on July 31st, 2020.    And stay tuned for other "projects" on our channels! 

Your Lobby

How is Your Brand Represented in Your Own Building?

This is nothing special unless we get it wrong.  

It is a simple sign.  Wood and metal hanging on a red wall with some back lighting for the wall.   Was it the only thing we did for Virgin Mobile?  No.

While this is something that is easy, and our team here at Exhibit Associates does it all the time - if we got it wrong it may have been the last thing we did for them.

Yes we did it awhile ago - but it still is a nice simple example of our work.

So how is your brand represented in your own lobby?

Exhibit Associates provides incredible design, build and installation services related to interior branding projects and awesome lobby experiences.   sales@exhibitassociates.com to find out more! 

Rule #3: Follow Up!

If you do not do this - Don't Go.   Don't exhibit, don't attend, don't even get out of bed in the morning.

Follow Up!  Follow Up!  Follow Up!

The key to success on this Rule is to hold one person accountable.   One client of ours had over 700 leads after their 3 day tradeshow.  They made one person responsible to report to the senior executive team about the follow up success.  The weekly report went something like this: "900 touches, 30 appointments, $220K in new business after 30 days"  "After 45 Days...." "After 60 Days...."   And you can believe that individual was on the regional directors about tradeshow contact follow ups. 

So we know you need to collect the leads and make One person responsible, but how do you follow up?

Email:  You have collected business cards.  Put them in a spreadsheet and upload them to your email marketing system and send a thank you email from the company to them at the end of the tradeshow.  The very next day!  (Touch #1)

Phone: From that very same spreadsheet who is the rep assigned to call the prospect?  Actually even your existing clients need a call.  They stopped by the tradeshow booth for a reason.

Direct Mail: A postcard that ties in the marketing that was used for you tradeshow.  (New Product?  New Service?) 

Phone:  (Yeah I know it's a repeat.) Yes - Get that appointment.  After the 3 touches above, the sales team member has got to do the work to get the appointment to get the sale.  Again:  They stopped by the tradeshow booth for a reason.

There is no Secret Sauce on this one:  Just get to work as a company, as a sales team.  Follow Up!

Contact Exhibit Associates to find out more!

#tradeshow #booth #exhibit #display #kansascity #service #awesome