Start shopping around and reap the benefits of planning ahead. 3 to 6 months out is ideal for choosing how you’ll promote your upcoming appearance, what products to give away and which hotel to book. Our trade show manager Jen brings you her insights for these critical expo components and more. Apply Jen’s tips to reduce any last-minute trade show stress.
Transcript
One of the important things to do when you’re traveling for a trade show is to make sure that your accommodations are booked way ahead of time. You want to book a hotel that’s affiliated with the convention or event, because they are sponsoring the event so you want to support their business as well. They also will have rooms set aside that are usually at a discount rate so you can save a little bit of money that way too.
Ordering your promotional products is an important element. I like to look far enough ahead where I have some ideas on what I want to do. That way when you start searching and you start looking at things you have time to order some samples, take a look at them, make sure it’s something you like. If it’s something you like somebody else is going to love it too. If you give yourself enough time, you can take a look for sales that are going on. Maybe you can get two things to give away rather than one just because you did it a few months versus the week before and you had to pay expedited shipping fees or rush fees. Let’s get it done early and it’s one thing you can check off your list.
Promoting your booth ahead of time is pretty important. And there’s so many different ways that you can do it nowadays. There’s so many different social media outlets that you can touch on. We also do a lot of mailers and that way you can mail things to the attendees so they know you’re there. “Where are you? Bring this card back and you get a special gift.” Entering contests, sending out a mailer card that has your booth number and contest on it. Something to encourage them to stop by, meet you and get information about your company.