Pavilions Archives

Exhibitor Tips, Market-Entry, Participant Tips, Pavilions, Return on Investment

Evaluating Trade Show Relevance

Bill Kenney / July 24, 2024

In the bustling world of commerce, trade shows stand as beacons of opportunity, offering businesses a platform to showcase their offerings, forge connections, and stay abreast of industry trends. However, not all trade shows are created equal, and determining their relevance to your business is paramount to making informed decisions about participation. So, how do you evaluate trade show relevance effectively? Let’s embark on this journey together and navigate the maze of evaluating trade show relevance. 1. Define Your Objectives Before delving into the evaluation process, it’s essential to define your objectives clearly. What are you hoping to achieve by participating in a trade show? Are you looking to generate leads, increase brand awareness, launch a new product, or network with industry professionals? Understanding your goals will serve as a compass in guiding your evaluation criteria and ensuring that the trade show aligns with your business objectives. 2. Research the Industry Focus The first step in evaluating trade show relevance is to assess the industry focus of the event. Consider whether the trade show caters to your specific industry, niche, or target market. Look for trade shows that attract attendees, exhibitors, and speakers who are relevant to your business. Evaluate the exhibitor list, seminar topics, and keynote speakers to gauge the alignment with your industry and identify potential networking opportunities. 3. Assess Attendee Profile Examine the profile of past and expected attendees to determine whether they match your target customer demographic. Consider factors such as job titles, industries, company sizes, and geographic locations. Look for trade shows that attract a diverse yet relevant audience that is likely to be interested in your products or services. Participating in trade shows with a high concentration of your target audience increases the likelihood of generating quality leads and fostering meaningful connections. 4. Evaluate Exhibitor Opportunities Evaluate the opportunities available to exhibitors, including booth options, sponsorship packages, speaking opportunities, and networking events. Consider whether the trade show offers opportunities for visibility, engagement, and lead generation that align with your objectives and budget. Look for value-added features such as matchmaking services, lead retrieval tools, and promotional opportunities to maximize your return on investment (ROI). 5. Consider Geographic Reach Assess the geographic reach of the trade show and its relevance to your target market. Consider whether the trade show attracts attendees and exhibitors from local, regional, national, or international markets. If your business operates primarily within a specific geographic region, prioritize trade shows that cater to that market to maximize your exposure and opportunities for local business development. Conversely, if you’re looking to expand into new markets, consider participating in trade shows with a broader geographic reach to access new opportunities and audiences. 6. Review Past Performance One of the most reliable indicators of trade show relevance is its past performance. Research the history of the trade show, including attendance figures, exhibitor feedback, and post-event analysis. Evaluate factors such as foot traffic, lead generation opportunities, quality of networking, and overall attendee satisfaction. Positive testimonials and success stories from past exhibitors can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of the trade show in achieving business objectives. 7. Assess Cost vs. Benefits Evaluate the costs associated with participating in the trade show and weigh them against the potential benefits. Consider factors such as booth rental fees, travel expenses, promotional materials, staffing costs, and ancillary expenses. Calculate the potential return on investment (ROI) based on your objectives and projected outcomes. While larger trade shows may offer greater visibility and networking opportunities, they often come with higher costs. Consider your budget constraints and the expected benefits to ensure that the trade show offers a favorable cost-benefit ratio. 8. Seek Feedback and Recommendations Don’t hesitate to seek feedback and recommendations from industry peers, mentors, or professional associations. Reach out to past exhibitors and attendees to gather insights into their experiences and assess the relevance of the trade show to your business. Additionally, leverage online resources such as trade show directories, forums, and social media groups to gather insights and recommendations from fellow exhibitors and industry experts. Evaluating trade show relevance requires a comprehensive assessment of industry focus, attendee profile, exhibitor opportunities, geographic reach, past performance, cost vs. benefits, and feedback from peers and industry experts. By conducting thorough research and analysis, you can identify trade shows that offer the best opportunities for achieving your business objectives and maximizing your ROI. Remember, the key to success lies in choosing trade shows that align closely with your goals, target audience, and budget, ensuring that your participation yields tangible results and contributes to your overall business growth. Read about choosing the right trade show for your business. — About MEET MEET helps international B2B & B2G companies scale in the U.S. through trade shows, events, and strategic connections. Contact Bill Kenney to discuss your U.S. expansion goals bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Pavilions, Uncategorized

Factoring in Display Costs to your Trade Show Strategy Plan

Mollie Ring / December 12, 2018

Every trade show strategy plan starts with a careful calculation of ROI. A variety of cost considerations go into this calculation, from event fees and travel, to costs associated with time out of the office and away from existing customers. A significant portion of any trade show event budget is the cost of the physical booth display. How much you choose to invest in a display is based on a number of factors, including booth size, event frequency, storage, and shipping. We spoke with Joe Bottone, President of CDS Displays on the topic of booth display costs and the importance of modularity when aiming to maximize ROI in your trade show strategy plan Top 3 Display Costs When breaking down the basic costs associated with booth display, Joe identified the top three as shipping, storage, and drayage—a term used to the describe the material handling fee charged by the shows’ managers to offload, store and reload exhibit displays. Drayage is a critical service for exhibitors forced to ship their displays. Joe notes that with rates that can exceed $2 per pound, exhibitors may be forced to spend $12,000 (and in one notable case $1 million) just to move in and out of a venue. Cost Optimization We asked Joe whether his clients aim to optimize their booth design within their trade show strategy plan to minimize costs like drayage, storage or shipping. If they don’t, Joe does. Joe makes it a policy to account for drayage, storage and shipping when designing a booth. He finds that the best way to offer a cost competitive solution is to factor in weight and modularity as they affect shipping and handling fees as well as set-up time. “I’ve seen companies send ten crates that take three days to set up and at the end of the show, I don’t see much difference between their booth and a booth that I could have shipped in two crates and set up in one day. They just spend $100,000 more than they needed.” Based on the range of optimization options, we asked Joe to define the different types of booths that CDS Displays offers and how they differ in terms of portability, modularity and cost. 5 Types of Booth Display Ultra-portable Displays Light-weight, easy to set up, move and store, these displays typically include a lot of fabric and pop-up banner stands that can be used for table tops as well as floor displays. Typically do not accrue shipping or drayage costs. Portable Displays Slightly more assembly than ultra-portable displays, easy to set up, move and store. May accrue shipping costs depending on the size of the booth. Modular Display Modular displays are portable and can be broken down into components, repurposed and resized for different shows and booth sizes. Do require shipping, however, are a lower risk in terms of replacement cost because each piece is easily substitutable. Custom Modular Displays Modular displays with handcrafted elements—archways, doorways, countertops that are customized for each client. Shipping, drayage and storage costs, as well as repair costs, start to increase. True Custom Displays Fully customized exhibits that accrue maximum storage, drayage, and repair costs. These exhibits also take the longest to set up, which impacts staffing time and overall trade show ROI. When factoring in display costs to your trade show strategy plan, Joe recommends the modular or custom modular approach. While impressive in the booth, they are easy to use and re-use at multiple events, ship and pack easily, and have lower repair costs. Ensuring the lifetime of their displays is one of the many services CDS Displays offers its customers. Following each event, CDS also offers to have every exhibit shipped back to them to ensure that displays are in good working condition for their next use. Feel free to check out our full interview with Joe Bottone, President of CDS Displays on the topic: Making a Kick-Ass Exhibit: Everything You Need to Know About Developing an Effective Booth. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps B2B growth companies and pavilion hosts effectively leverage at trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward. Contact Bill Kenney at MEET today for a free trade show participation assessment bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Exhibitor Tips, Pavilions, Return on Investment, Uncategorized

Selling at Trade Shows as Part of a Larger Plan

Mollie Ring / September 22, 2018

When done well, selling at trade show can easily be your best opportunity to get face to face with your ideal and potential customers. Selling at Trade a Show is not an activity to take lightly. It is a marketing and sales opportunity that requires extensive planning and preparation. When done well, selling at trade shows can easily be your best opportunity to get face to face with your ideal customers. Maybe hundreds of them. In our recent post: Personalizing Your Trade Show Business Strategy, we talked about buyer personas and how to assemble them using customer interviews. The purpose of developing a buyer persona, or semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer, is to drill down on the precise goals and challenges of the individuals in your target market. While target customers will inevitably shift over time as both your company matures and the market changes, maintaining a well-informed trade show business strategy requires that you hone in on precisely who it is that you are aiming to meet prior to each and every event you participate in. In this post, we’d like to focus on how to apply your hard work in developing buyer personas to annual and individual event plans. Using Buyer Personas to Guide Your Annual Trade Show and Event Plan Rather than employing a “Lazy Susan” approach to selling at trade show, i.e. taking advantage of whichever opportunity is offered in front of you, we recommend devising a data-driven annual plan. Referencing your buyer personas should inform you of which type of events your prospects are most likely to attend, and whether they are focused locally, regionally, nationally or internationally. Data from your buyer persona should also inform your participation strategy based on how your ideal customer typically engages with fellow participants. Do they generally spend time listening to speakers and opinion leaders or do they spend most of their time on the floor with exhibitors and sponsors? Finally, buyer persona data may inform your decision of whether to join industry groups or associations. Particularly for young companies in growth mode, participation in local or regional associations can help to develop strong customer density within a region, industry, or customer type that will help your company grow faster and more efficiently. Using Buyer Personas to Guide Your Individual Trade Show Plan Selling at trade shows that you’ve hand selected based on buyer persona data offers an array of opportunities for customization. You may use buyer personas to determine how you will participate in the event—as a speaker, exhibitor, or sponsor, as well as where is the optimal place for your booth on the show floor. Buyer personas are also critical to informing your offer strategy. Your booth offer must speak directly to the prospects you are aiming to attract. For example, at an event of 10,000 people, your buyer persona data may project that 200 prospects will be in attendance. Your goal in designing your offer should be for 9,800 people to walk by without stopping. Only your prospects should be attracted with the right offer. Design your offer to speak directly to your ideal customers and only your ideal customers. The more shiny objects, be they candy, pens or iPad offers, that you have in your booth that attracts the general attendee, the less of your prospects will see you. The 200 that stop to engage with your team—they are high-quality prospects. Selling at trade shows requires exhibitors to make a number of decisions prior to hitting the floor. Using buyer personas to develop annual and individual event plans are an excellent way to ensure that each of these decisions will get you one step closer to your ideal customer. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps B2B growth companies and pavilion hosts effectively leverage at trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward. Contact Bill Kenney at MEET today for a free trade show participation assessment bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Pavilions, Uncategorized

Trade Show Pavilion Strategy that Attracts Economic Growth

Mollie Ring / July 31, 2018

We provide trade show success strategy with proper guidance and direction which include assessment, planning, etc. to make your trade show success. If you’re an economic development professional, then your primary goal is either to recruit companies to your region or to help your existing companies grow. Trade show pavilions can be an excellent mechanism for attracting new companies and growing existing ones in your region. Whether you decide to host a pavilion or represent your state or country at a national or global trade show, your pavilion strategy must be designed to specifically attract new or expanding companies. But with so many potential pitfalls, it’s no wonder that pavilion hosts are hesitant to over-invest time and resources in these opportunities. Here’s a quick look at some common challenges to activating a pavilion strategy and how to avoid them. Trade show pavilions take many forms, but at their most basic level they represent a specific region or specific type of company. Pavilions typically contain 6-30 exhibitors plus the host exhibitor, and their primary purpose is to identify quality prospects. Identifying quality prospects as opposed to converting new customers on the show floor is, in a B2B world, the most important distinction a pavilion host or exhibitor can make. Setting the right expectations for your pavilion strategy will lead to greater efficiency, better results and a happier team at the end of the day. In general, professionals in the economic development field struggle to effectively identify and enroll quality companies to move to or open offices in their region. This may be due to selecting the wrong trade shows, not having the right offer, or even poorly prepared personnel. The first step in addressing these challenges is to establish a concrete, narrow definition of a current prospect. Current prospects must have a need, money—resources to fulfill that need, and urgency. Without all three qualities, they are not a current prospect. Exhibitors tend to stretch this definition of a prospect thinking that it will increase their yield. In fact, maintaining a narrow definition of a prospect based on these three characteristics alone will improve your success rate significantly. For more on how to select the right trade shows to attend, and determining the right offer to drive current prospects to your booth, check out our post A Lesson in Trade Show Strategy: Use the Right Bait. Another challenge faced by economic development pavilion hosts is ensuring that their exhibiting companies are fully leveraged within the trade show opportunity. Pavilion hosts may work hard to ensure they have the right offer, that they have a well-prepared team, and that their space looks attractive and inviting, but it is important not to forget about the 20-30 exhibitors also within the pavilion representing their state or region. They are in fact your best brochure for attracting investment. Making sure exhibitors are prepared, engaged, and complement one another is just as important to a pavilion strategy as making sure that you as a pavilion host are looking good. Particularly when it comes to regional pavilions, recruiting companies gravitate toward regions that are vibrant, attentive and radiate economic health. Pavilions where partner companies are not engaged and not prepared send a blatant message: “Your Business Will Not Prosper Here!”. Recently our team at MEET had the opportunity to participate in SelectUSA, a gathering of 3,000 international business investors, U.S. economic developers, CEOs, and government officials to facilitate job-creating business investment into the United States. Again we noticed the value of a fully leveraged opportunity as state representatives brought their best game in seeking to attract foreign businesses to their region. With so much competition and risk of wasted resources, it is critical that economic development professionals avoid common pavilion strategy pitfalls and deliver on their full potential. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps B2B growth companies and pavilion hosts effectively leverage at trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward. Contact Bill Kenney at MEET today for a free trade show participation assessment bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Exhibitor Tips, Pavilions, Return on Investment, Workshops and Webinars

2018 MEET Webinar Schedule

Bill Kenney / February 19, 2018

note: hyperlink takes you to the registration or recording January 24 TIRED OF WASTING TIME AND MONEY ON TRADE SHOWS? How to Accelerate Sales February 15 February 20 PAVILION PITFALLS: Move from Greek Tragedy to Business Recruiting HERO! EVERYONE IS NOT A PROSPECT: How to Focus & Win at Trade Shows March 26 FIND AND SELECT THE BEST TRADE SHOWS FOR PARTICIPATION AND EXHIBITING April 27 BOOTH BAIT: Are You Attracting Flies or Prospects? May 15 May 30 Scale Now: Entering the U.S. Market through Trade Shows and In-Person Events 5 Reasons Why Your Salespeople Should Never Be in Your Booth and What to Do About It June 26 Localizing Communication: Connect with and Enroll Trade Show Participants July 26 Preparing Your Team: Setting Everyone Up for Success at Trade Shows and In-Person Events August 22 Leveraging the Entire Trade Show: Uncovering and Exploiting All Components and Added Value September 19 Nail the Follow-Up: Close More Sales October 23 Walking the Trade Show Floor: How to Get Value When You Can’t Exhibit November 19 Making a Kick-Ass Exhibit: Everything You Need to Know About Developing a Great Booth December 18 Benchmarks, Goals, Metrics, and ROI: Everything You Need to Know About Measuring Trade Show Results MEET helps growth companies effectively exhibit at trade shows. Contact Bill Kenney for a complimentary consultation at bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Pavilions, Workshops and Webinars

Pavilion Pitfalls: Watch the Video

Bill Kenney / October 6, 2017

Pavilions, Workshops and Webinars

Pavilion Pitfalls: Webinar Sign-up

Bill Kenney / September 24, 2017

Pavilion Pitfalls Move from Greek Tragedy to Business Recruiting HERO! The intent of this workshop is to help economic development executives and business recruiting professionals to develop much better production from their trade show participation and pavilions. When it comes to effectively hosting trade show pavilions we hear many challenges from economic development and business recruiting executives, including finding and selecting the best events, attracting and enrolling a steady stream of the best prospective ventures to recruit to their marketplace, and activating and optimizing how their client companies leverage the pavilion exhibiting opportunity. Workshop Outline Purpose and goals Common challenges Solutions for your success Measuring results and adjusting Your questions Feel free to share this invitation with others. Space is limited. Sign up today!! About MEET Most marketing dollars are spent with the hope of someday getting face-to-face with the target prospect. Trade shows deliver the most efficient way to this objective yet pavilion hosts squander this opportunity. MEET helps economic development agencies that host trade show pavilions improve business recruiting, drive return on investment, and activate pavilion client business exhibitors. MEET changes outcomes by engaging and enrolling quality prospects cost effectively. We develop and execute trade show strategy, provide staffing, secure speaking opportunities, support sales and measure results. Our only goals are to maximize your event participation return on investment and positively impact job creation in your region.

Pavilions

Evaluating Trade Show Relevance

Factoring in Display Costs to your Trade Show Strategy Plan

Selling at Trade Shows as Part of a Larger Plan

Trade Show Pavilion Strategy that Attracts Economic Growth

2018 MEET Webinar Schedule

Pavilion Pitfalls: Watch the Video

Pavilion Pitfalls: Webinar Sign-up

bill@meetroi.com

+1 (860) 573-4821

+1 (860) 573-4821

bill@meetroi.com

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