Tradeshow Success Tip: Build A Dramatic Display by: Dick Wheeler

You are about to mount a major product introduction at the industry’s premiere trade show. The company wants to make a dramatic statement, and you want to own the exhibit hall floor with a creative, custom-built exhibit.

Truly the status trade show exhibit, the custom booth can be virtually anything you want it to be. As the term implies, the exhibit is custom-built to the trade show exhibitor’s exact specifications. You have a clean slate to capture the drama of your firm’s breakthrough product offering and you get to dazzle the visitor and out-perform the competition. With a custom-built trade show booth, there are virtually no limits to design, graphics, materials, size, elevation or AV components. The traditional custom trade show exhibit is the “piece de resistance” of the trade show display product field, where an exhibitor is willing to create high drama and powerful imagery for the sake of a truly powerful impact. Allow enough time to start from scratch to deliver the exhibit that will have award-winning potential. Understand the trade show schedule and allow four to six months for a large custom build and six weeks to 12 weeks for a mid-size island or smaller. One thing you will have to prepare for with the custom display is the cost. It is the most expensive to produce and has the highest operating costs due to size and number of packing crates.

If cost is the dominate concern, consider a custom modular exhibit that offers high quality exhibit imaging without the higher operating costs of custom displays. Modular construction takes advantage of a large inventory of interchangeable pre-designed and engineered components such as back walls, counters, display pedestals and exterior panels. Lightweight structural materials such as aluminum, Plexiglas and high-grade tension fabrics provide simplified assembly, space-saving packing and often 400% lower shipment and handling costs. The flexible design trend display components allow you to reconfigure the design or size of your trade show booth from tradeshow to tradeshow. Custom modular tradeshow exhibits offer design and image quality with substantial savings in operating costs due to less weight and size and number of shipping containers.

Another option is the portable system that offers trade show display versatility. Lightweight portable exhibits are ideal for trade show exhibitors who require ease of use and a variety of display configurations while presenting a distinctive creative image. Easily set-up, the portable system has a skeletal frame with attachable laminate panels, which simply clip together in virtually unlimited structural styles. Accessories such as bridges, counters, alcoves and backlighting enhance versatility of the interchangeable portable systems. The trade show portable systems can convert from tabletop to island exhibits in minutes and adapt to almost any trade show display situation with minimal effort. Usually your own booth staffers can transport and assemble the exhibit themselves saving time and the added costs of drayage and contract workers. Portable displays are an especially suitable option for the first-time trade show exhibitor and for appearances at smaller, regional trade shows.

Dick Wheeler is President of Professional Exhibits & Graphics, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The firm is a full-service premiere trade show exhibit, graphics and management services company. For addtional information, go to www.proexhibits.com.

© Copyright 1996-2006, Professional Exhibits & Graphics. All Rights Reserved



Thanks to Dick Wheeler for contributing this article to our Trade Shows blog:

Trade Show Display Lighting

There are lots of ways to improve your team’s performance at tradeshows. From snazzy new displays to intensive training to rewards and incentives for top producers, it’s difficult to even count the myriad ways What’s not difficult is to realize that some of these improvement methods come with hefty price tags.

Don’t despair. There are many ways to pump up performance without breaking the bank. In fact, I’ve collected 27 low or no cost ways to improve your next tradeshow:

1. Research the show BEFORE you commit: Does it attract a large number of people from your target audience?

2. Give yourself enough time: Planning and preparation for a major show can take 12-18 months.

3. Involve top management in the planning process. You’ll get better results from your team if they know upper management is supporting their efforts.

4. Send e-mail reminders to loyal customers and strong prospects before the show, urging them to stop by your booth.

5. Define goals and objectives for show participation.

6. Share these goals and objectives with your booth staff. They can’t achieve your goals and objectives if they don’t know what they are.

7. Plan for security as needed: you don’t want expensive prototypes or demo models ‘walking away’.

8. Brief your team on common tradeshow espionage practices and how to defend against them.

9. Send enough people to ensure adequate booth coverage throughout the show.

10. Give each booth staffer a specific role, with job expectations clearly spelled out.

11. Stress the value of friendly greetings, polite manners, and appropriate body language.

12. Take the time to familiarize your team with the lead collection technology you’ll be using before the show.

13. Make sure at least some of the people going to the show are prepared to answer technical questions.

14. Send friendly, personable people with a genuine enthusiasm for your company, its products and services. These may not be your most senior people: make your choices based on effectiveness, not seniority.

15. Check in with your team throughout the show to assess performance, reward positive behaviors, and stop negative trends before they get out of hand.

16. Establish a dress code for your staffers: They’ll look more professional and act as better ambassadors for your company.

17. Don’t forget the shoes, hair, and accessories: people notice the details. Manicures are crucial, as your team will be shaking hands hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times during the show.

18. Two words: Breath Mints.

19. Practice asking qualifying questions with your booth staffers.

20. Product demonstrations are a great way to draw a crowd: Make sure your team knows how to give an effective, engaging presentation by having them practice before the show.

21. If you are sponsoring entertainment, a speaker, or other event, make sure your team knows what to do during this time. From working the crowd to collecting leads, there’s plenty they should be doing to promote your company’s name and image.

22. Designate a ‘go-to’ person to act as a liason with show management. The better your relationship with management is, the better your show experience will be.

23. That exhibitor’s service manual the show organizers sent you when you registered? Read it: it’s chock full of valuable information to help ensure a stress-free show.

24. Copy appropriate pages from the exhibitor service manual and pass them along to the relevant staffers: It doesn’t help you to know when everything has to be broken down and off the show floor if you’re not the person doing that work.

25. Order services ahead of time. Making deadlines = big savings.

26. Establish a follow up protocol for hot leads, promising prospects, and likely customers. Use this protocol to turn leads into sales.

27. Say “Thank You” to attendees for stopping by, to anyone who fills out survey information or participates in a demonstration, during your follow up calls.



Thanks to Susan Friedman for contributing this article to our Trade Shows blog:

Pop Up Display Systems

Remote trade fair visiting: visit an international trade fair without leaving your office!

Your company develops rapidly and you enjoy the wild rhythm of the modern life? You try to keep up with the latest innovations in your business area and plan to enter the international marketplace? Then there is no doubt that visiting international trade fairs is an important part of your marketing strategy, since it is here that industry leaders and prospective customers are present. But what to do if several significant trade fairs take place at the same time, or you and your employees are busy with urgent tasks, which does not allow you to visit the fair yourself?

Just for such a situation the company Serve Businesses Worldwide has created a service called ‘remote trade fair visiting’. All you have to do is make an application and define the scope of tasks for SBW representative to fulfil. You can choose any of the following goals:

- collection of trade fair participants promotional materials (catalogues, price lists, samples);

- distribution of your contact information, business cards, brochures;

- purchasing a trade fair catalogue with the full data about all the exhibitors;

- trade fair follow-up (help with business correspondence and tracking important contacts).

The advantage of this service is that comparing to the cost of a business trip it is a really a money-saving variant. Provided that you book air tickets and hotel rooms in advance the cost of visiting a trade fair abroad amounts to at least 1 500 euro. And taking in account that as a rule two or three employees leave for a fair, it is evident that visiting a trade fair is a costly thing. Serve Businesses Worldwide offers you remote trade fair visiting for only 350 euro, which means that instead of sending one person to a trade fair you can order remote visiting of five fairs! SBW representatives work all over the world – thanks to it you can avoid paying for their staying at a hotel, meals and travel. Entrust trade fair visiting to Serve Businesses Worldwide!

For more detailed information about Serve Businesses Worldwide visit www.sbwcorp.ru and www.expomap.ru



Thanks to Tatyana Sviridova for contributing this article to our Trade Shows blog:

Fabric Banner Stands

Your trade show costs can dramatically escalate if you just happen to hire an inexperienced shipping company to transport your trade show booth to the conference site. You may suddenly be faced with broken or missing parts, late delivery and a budget that could put your company’s trade show display in total disarray and your job in jeopardy.

Although unforeseen events such as a major winter blizzard can cause havoc with your trade show delivery schedule and budgeting, it is always best to minimize your chances for error by picking the right professional transportation company. If you want your trade show booth to arrive in good condition, on time and within your budgeted allowance, you need to be informed on how to pick the right freight handler and transportation company.

You can take control of your trade show booth’s destiny by becoming fully informed.

Bad weather, causing flight delays at certain times of the year, is a concern beyond your control. But just like you can reclaim lost luggage from an airliner if you have your name tag on it, you have a better chance of finding a lost or misplaced trade show booth element if, for example, you labeled every part of your trade show display in advance.

Although GPS technology has been a boon to tracking trade show booths, it can’t find what is not labeled. And, since there are so many different people handing the shipment of a trade show booth, there is no guarantee that your trade show exhibit will arrive safely on the other end. You can, however, improve your odds of success by taking steps to insure your trade show display‘s safe journey. Thus, the first step is to find an experienced trade show specific carrier.

George Poppe of National Transportation in El Segundo, California, offers the following tips on what to look for in a trade show freight carrier. They are:



Make sure your transportation company records all of your trade show exhibit information, such as destination, schedule, weight, number of pieces, and exact dimensions of your pieces. This detailed information not only determines the cost of transporting your trade show booth to the exhibit site but also drayage costs (what the unions charge to deliver your booth from the loading dock onto and off the trade show floor)



Look for a freight carrier that has a good rapport with the unions so

your trade show exhibit will be in reliable hands. You are better able to avoid unnecessary charges if your transportation carrier deals regularly with the trade show conference hall unions. Your carrier benefits from knowing the industry venues well–whether they be the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago, the Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland, the Moscone Center in San Francisco, the Santa Clara Convention Center or the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.



Look for a transportation company that handles a large volume of trade show business. You can get price breaks if your cargo company has multiple or less than truck load shipments to a convention site. An example of what can happen is the recent Semicon West 2006 Convention at Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco July 11 -13th.



Poppe reported that, due to the popularity of this show, his National Transportation Company had to wait in the marshalling yard for 11 hours before delivery at the unloading dock. Because he had 3 trucks and multiple shipments, he was able to waive the waiting charge fees which would normally be charged. A less experienced trucker most likely would pass along these charges to the trade show exhibitor. Marshal yard fees range anywhere from $45 - $85 hour.

Select a trade show freight company that has first class communication capability. Check to see if they offer 24/7 contact with a live person, since trade shows are not a 9 to 5 business. Also make sure you give them contact names and cell phone numbers of your exhibitor reps on the trade show floor. Check to see if the freight company has the capability of sending Internet air bills and bill of ladings in case an air bill is lost and you need a duplicate copy immediately.

Poppe suggests that once you select your freight company, you should ship 7 - 10 days ahead of your targeted move in date in order to avoid late penalties. And be sure to also communicate your trade show exhibit details with the company you select to do your trade show installation and dismantling. It’s really all about communicating.

Remember, do your homework in advance and know what you can do to avoid major mishaps of shipping your trade show booth. By picking an experienced freight company, you can minimize your exposure to mislaid or damaged trade show booth components and budget cost overruns.



Thanks to Dick Wheeler for contributing this article to our Trade Shows blog:

Used Trade Show Booth

Indian arts and crafts are the priceless endowments of the rich culture and heritage of India. Arts and crafts are the outcome of the artistic skills and innovative talents of the artists and craftsmen down the ages. Exotic specimens of artistry, aesthetics and creativity, arts and crafts are revered treasures that need to be preserved and popularized. Arts and crafts also serve as the main source of vocation of the rural folks in the country.

With residential and commercial interior decoration being in vogue the breathtaking creations of India are exercising great demand in the domestic and international market. Objects of timeless beauty and elegance arts and crafts elevate the modern decors with their high values and tradition.

They serve as a potential outlet to amass plenteous currencies for the country through proper marketing and trade practices. Arts and crafts trade fairs are held to promote and sustain market for the arts and crafts of India.

Arts and crafts trade fairs, trade events, conferences, exhibitions and e-commerce are the newly evolved ways of reviving the arts and crafts sector and creating a stable market for the industry. With these associations the arts and crafts products of India are being familiarized to every nooks and crannies of the globe.

A rendezvous of manufactures, marketing agents, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, exporters, importers and customers the trade fairs on arts and crafts to clinch lucrative business on arts and crafts.

Organized in the metropolitan cities arts the arts and crafts trade shows are the unique initiatives to boost and propagate distinct arts and crafts of the various Indian states. The artifacts showcase the exclusive arts of diverse regions of India through extravagant exhibitions.

Several stalls are set up, each displaying a particular theme characterized by unique arts and crafts. Various cultural programs, workshops and seminars are also held to entertain the visitors and inform them of the vast repertoire of the Indian arts and crafts.

Trade fairs of international level are also held every year. One of the largest trade fair in Asia, India International Trade Fair is organized in the time of November in the ‘Pragati Madian’ of the capital city of Delhi. An enterprise of India Trade Promotion Organization, India International Trade Fair is a mega affair with several thousand participants from India as well as from other countries of the world.

The fair serves as a good platform for international business in arts and crafts. The pavilions of the arts and crafts sector attract a large number of people with their incredibly diverse collection of arts and handicrafts from far-flung corners of India.

Indian Handicrafts and Gifts Fair initiated by Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts is held in the India Expo Center, Greater Noida Expressway in New Delhi.

The chief purpose is to inspire foreigners to purchase Indian arts and crafts and strike impressive business deals between the manufactures and exporters of Indian handicrafts and foreign vendors.

Find authentic information on Arts & Crafts Trade Shows from the pages of India-crafts.com.



Thanks to Priyanshu Shrivastava for contributing this article to our Trade Shows blog:

Pop Up Trade Show Display