How to get the most benefit
of your participation in the exhibition
IEC has been a well‑known, recognized and effective venue for organizing exhibitions for a long time. Our tasks for our partner‑participants are to organize high‑quality placement of the exposition, to provide wide coverage of events through all possible channels, to attract the maximum number of visitors and to supplement all this with useful and exciting events in the form of conferences, seminars, panel discussions, round tables and others.
But the effectiveness of participation in the exhibition directly for your company depends not only on us. To get the maximum result, it is worth adhering to certain rules regarding the preparation process for the exhibition and the very process of its holding. They are often trivial, but our experience shows that many companies sometimes do not give due importance to simple but important things, which affects overall efficiency.
DURING THE PREPARING FOR THE EXHIBITION AND DURING
THE WORKING TIME IN IT, IT IS IMPORTANT TO CONSIDER
THE FOLLOWING STEPS:
1. TO DETERMINE THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF PARTICIPATION IN THE EXHIBITION
Traditionally, this can be - a presentation of a company and/or its products; formation and maintenance of the company's image; confirmation of the company's presence in the market; search for new partner contacts; search and/or development of sales channels; study of demand; studying the competitors, etc.
2. SELECT AND RESERVE AN EXHIBITION PLACEMENT
The obvious truth is that the earlier you do this, the more optimal your booth placement will be.
3. DETERMINE THE STAND CONCEPT
An exhibition stand is an off‑site version of your company's showroom. Accordingly, it should best reflect its style, values and goals. In this matter, it is also important to determine and agree in advance such parameters of the stand, such as the type, size, the required degree of mobility, the need for infrastructure, and so on. This will give you more freedom to choose, since the later you decide on all these parameters, the more constrained you are in comparison to more agile competitors.
4. DETERMINE WITH THE ACTIVITIES THAT WILL BE AIMED TO INCREASE ATTENDANCE OF YOUR STAND
There is quite a wide scope for creative ideas.
For its part, the IEC offers traditional methods - posting information about your participation in a future exhibition on the resources of the IEC and in special catalogs, scrolling commercials about your company on internal radio, demonstrating videos on exhibition plasmas, etc.
But for maximum efficiency, it is worth organizing various events at the stand itself - this attracts visitors to a greater extent. Proven ideas include contests and sweepstakes, photo shoots, product testing, equipment demonstrations, bright shows (light, play, music, acrobatic, etc.). By the way, in our experience, a demonstration of working equipment is the most powerful resource for attracting the attention of visitors.
The work of promoters is also effective, they can distribute your advertising materials in the hall, inform visitors about your events and invite them to your stand.
5. PREPARE ADVERTISING MATERIALS, PRINTING AND SOUVENIR PRODUCTS
There is also a large selection of options for achieving your goals, but there is a standard "in‑demand" set of advertising materials that are needed at the exhibition.
This is an obligatory carrier of information about your company and its products in any form suitable for you - a catalog, a leaflet, business cards of the company and its key representatives, souvenirs for different categories of visitors - from pens, notebooks, calendars and bags for mass visitors - to exclusive presentations for VIPs.
6. PREPARE MANAGERS - STAND OPERATORS FOR EFFECTIVE CONTACTS WITH VISITORS
The degree of ultimate interest in your company and its products on the part of consumers and partners attending the exhibition depends on their professionalism.
The manager must be interested in communicating with the visitors. To be representative, communicative, competent to the required degree, clearly understand the goals of the company's participation in the exhibition. Fully possess information about the company, products, system of work, etc. Easily navigate presentations, events, contacts you need. To have constant communication for consultations with the company's specialists in order to cover additional questions that have arisen from interested visitors, and, most likely, promptly process incoming applications.
Well-coordinated work of all stand managers is important, especially if they represent different departments of the company (production, marketing, sales, etc.).
As an element of enhancing the company's image, you can use a single corporate style for managers, at least with regard to accessories - ties, scarves, etc. Managers should be different from visitors, otherwise a situation may arise when your potential client does not know who to contact at the stand, and you miss a useful contact.
Do not underestimate the fact that the exhibition is mostly a business event, and the appearance of the participants should be appropriate, conducive to business communication.
7. THINK ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION OF EVENTS FOR THE INVITATION OF BUSINESS PARTNERS
Business partners should be informed in advance about the upcoming event and your participation in it so that they can take this into account in their schedule.
IEC covers your participation in exhibitions on all of its resources and in most specialized media, but on your part it is worth announcing the company's participation on the corporate website and in the media, with which, perhaps, only you are in exclusive contact. As practice has shown, one of the most effective resources is sending individual invitations to your contact databases.
8. ORGANIZE THE ALGORITHM FOR PROCESSING CONTACTS AND SUMMING UP THE EXHIBITION
It should be consider that during the exhibition you will have a large flow of visitors, a huge number of contacts, and all these are your potential prospects for the development of the company and the promotion of its products.
In order not to miss potentially useful contacts, you should first take care of the mechanisms for collecting and processing them.
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS:
- During the exhibition, form a list of stand visitors, noting their importance or priority; be sure to remind yourself after the exhibition (immediately and later) by making calls, mailings, etc.; offer the most promising visitors any enticing mechanisms (individual presentations, discounts, gifts, bonuses, etc.).
- After the end of the exhibition, summarize the main results. Evaluate the degree of achievement of the set goals, the quality of work of your staff at the stand, the level of the stand itself, the qualitative composition of visitors, etc.
- The most important parameter in assessing the results of the exhibition is the achievement of the main target indicators (the number of contracts concluded, transactions made or sales made, the number of contacts established, the resonance caused in the media, etc.).
- Summing up is not as trivial process as it might seem at first mind. A qualitative assessment of the results of the event is important for the future prospects. Attention to organizational details is equally important.
If you do not analyze your own mistakes, then there is a high probability that they will be repeated at all other exhibitions in which you want to take part. If, in the course of summing up the results of the work, you note the positive and negative points, evaluate the shortcomings in your work or point out the shortcomings on the part of the organizers, then we can work together productively to improve the efficiency of your participation in the following exhibitions.