How to organise a successful trade show?

Regard­less of the sec­tor, com­pa­nies par­tic­i­pat­ing in a trade show take advan­tage of this moment to cre­ate con­tacts, adver­tise, sell their prod­ucts and pro­mote their brand. There are trade shows for every­thing: cars, wed­dings, food, books, ani­mals, tech­nol­o­gy, and much more. When organ­is­ing a trade show, there are sev­er­al fac­tors to con­sid­er, includ­ing the choice of loca­tion, date, theme, and spon­sors among oth­ers.

Here are some tips for organ­is­ing a suc­cess­ful trade show:

1. Choosing the ideal location

The loca­tion where you want your trade show to take place is one of the most impor­tant fac­tors to con­sid­er when plan­ning it. It is essen­tial for its suc­cess. The cho­sen loca­tion reflects your company’s per­son­al­i­ty and can play an impor­tant role in the atten­dance of vis­i­tors and exhibitors to your trade show.

It must be a func­tion­al, eas­i­ly acces­si­ble and well-com­mu­ni­cat­ed place. It should also have appro­pri­ate infra­struc­ture for your trade show. Some aspects to con­sid­er:

• Capac­i­ty: This is a cru­cial ele­ment, but you won’t know the exact num­ber of vis­i­tors and exhibitors from the begin­ning. Analyse the mar­ket and inter­est in your trade show and launch the sale of spaces for exhibitors first. The num­ber of vis­i­tors will also have to be esti­mat­ed based on your mar­ket analy­sis. From the sec­ond year of your trade show, your esti­mates will be more accu­rate and you will be able to move to a big­ger or small­er venue if nec­es­sary.
• Loca­tion: It is also an impor­tant ele­ment as it should have ser­vices near­by, such as restau­rants, accom­mo­da­tion, etc. and be eas­i­ly acces­si­ble.
• Avail­able ser­vices: Final­ly, ask your­self if the venue offers the nec­es­sary infra­struc­ture and logis­tics, such as fur­nished meet­ing rooms and suf­fi­cient inter­net con­nec­tion.

2. Create a marketing strategy

You must choose the appro­pri­ate mar­ket­ing and organ­i­sa­tion strate­gies to pro­mote your trade show. Estab­lish your tar­get audi­ence by exam­in­ing the pro­files of the exhibitor com­pa­nies and the pub­lic, the goods and ser­vices exhib­it­ed at the trade show, etc. You must also spec­i­fy the com­mer­cial and mar­ket­ing goals you want to achieve and the gains you expect, the mea­sures you will take to achieve these goals and any­thing that could pre­vent you from reach­ing them.

Regard­ing your mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy, you also need to make deci­sions regard­ing the acces­si­bil­i­ty of atten­dees and exhibitors to your trade show. Your pro­mo­tions have to encour­age future atten­dees to reg­is­ter for your event sim­ply and intu­itive­ly, being able to access their tick­ets eas­i­ly. To do this, use var­i­ous strate­gies and chan­nels, such as tele­phone prospect­ing for poten­tial exhibitors, email com­mu­ni­ca­tion, adver­tise­ments and social media, always keep­ing in mind your tar­get audi­ence.

3. Identifying potential sponsors

The spon­sor­ing sub­ject goes hand in hand with estab­lish­ing a rig­or­ous and detailed bud­get. Pro­fes­sion­al events such as trade shows depend on spon­sors for pro­mo­tion and suc­cess. There­fore, it is cru­cial to find sev­er­al spon­sors for their cor­rect devel­op­ment. The spon­sor must know the sec­tor well and be con­sid­ered a ref­er­ence by the atten­dees and exhibitors of the trade show.

It can be inter­est­ing to cre­ate a com­mer­cial con­tract in which your spon­sor agrees to pro­vide you with a data­base of poten­tial cus­tomers, vis­i­bil­i­ty on their social media pro­files, etc., in exchange for expo­sure since the spon­sor will also have a pres­ence in your trade show, dur­ing the whole event, in the form of stands, adver­tis­ing, drinks, stick­ers, live videos, etc.

4. Preparing the decoration

Trade show atten­dees will pay atten­tion, after the loca­tion, to the dec­o­ra­tion and fur­ni­ture cho­sen.

This applies to the trade show in gen­er­al and the stands of each exhibitor. There­fore, they must reflect the per­son­al­i­ty of your trade show, the com­pa­ny of each exhibitor (they will have to per­son­alise the dec­o­ra­tion of their stand) and the theme of the trade show. This includes pleas­ant fur­ni­ture, good light­ing, clean­li­ness, state-of-the-art tech­nol­o­gy, inter­net con­nec­tion, and your com­pa­ny’s logo being vis­i­ble. Any­thing that can increase the attrac­tive­ness of your stands for the five sens­es will help!

5. Thinking about food, drinks and complementary services

Who would­n’t want to eat and drink well at a trade show? It is nec­es­sary to plan and include good food at the trade show. It will give an addi­tion­al good impres­sion, add a touch of pro­fes­sion­al­ism, and allow you to achieve your goals for the trade show even more effec­tive­ly.

Although choos­ing to include cater­ing ser­vices can gen­er­ate addi­tion­al expens­es, it is still a good idea. You must take into account the fol­low­ing ele­ments:

• The type of cui­sine offered at the trade show will part­ly depend on the tar­get audi­ence, their goals and the venue. Make sure there are options for all tastes: it’s the best, as every­one will be sat­is­fied.
• The set­ting: A buf­fet, whether seat­ed or organ­ised like a cock­tail, can be the ide­al option as it gives par­tic­i­pants more free­dom to move around the space, talk to oth­er guests, etc.

6. Analysing the results after the trade show

Did you think every­thing’s fin­ished once the trade show’s doors close? Not yet! One of the most impor­tant steps in organ­is­ing a trade show is still left: eval­u­at­ing the results. It allows for under­stand­ing the impact (pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive) that the trade show had and tak­ing it into account for future edi­tions; main­tain­ing or mod­i­fy­ing some char­ac­ter­is­tics.

Once the trade show is over, it is nec­es­sary to car­ry out two dif­fer­ent types of analy­sis. If you attend­ed the trade show as an exhibitor, the quan­ti­ta­tive analy­sis should be based on the total num­ber of con­tacts made, orders received, etc. If you are the organ­is­er of the trade show, you must focus on the num­ber of exhibitors and vis­i­tors that have attend­ed. On the oth­er hand, the qual­i­ta­tive analy­sis includes the improve­ments, strengths and com­ments of the vis­i­tors and exhibitors.

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