Planning and Logistics

"You are serving a customer, not a life sentence. Learn how to enjoy your work."

~ Laurie McIntosh

And you can only enjoy your work, if you know what your your customers want from you. In other words, KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS.

As Steve Jobs said, "Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves."

Most of your customers are expecting higher standards from the brands because, they have been 'spoiled' by best-in-class user experiences —  both on- and off-line with companies such as Amazon and Apple, empowered by the profusion of data points – "customers increasingly expect companies to respond swiftly to inquiries, to customize products and services seamlessly, and to provide easy access to the information customers need, when they need it."

"The customer experience is the next competitive battleground."

~ Jerry Gregoire

HENCE, THE NEED FOR A CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP AND WE KNOW attendee activities during a conference or a trade show can yield generous amounts of data points about individual interests — the sessions attended, the exhibit booths visited, social media postings and likes/dislikes, information requests/downloads and mobile polling/survey responses — all can be clever indicators to start tracking your customer journey and reap glorious ROI benefits.

If you are an exhibitor, big or small, avail the technology to personalize the journey of your customers as they frantically move amongst various screen channels and devices.

HERE IS THE SHORT ANSWER:

YOU ARE A DUTIFUL SOLDIER OF TASK.

NOT, A BOUNTIFUL STATESMAN OF ASTOUNDING STRATEGY.

The agony of DISAPPOINTMENT

If you are a seasoned exhibitor, you have been there. You are familiar with the pain — all that work, all the time that you spent to contemplate the concept and fabricate the outcome... Yet, it went wrong.

Trade shows are tricky that way. A lot can go wrong and it does — not matter how astute you are in your planning or, how vigilant you are in your execution. Trade show business is a business where things go wrong frequently and glaringly.

We do not have all the solutions. However, we do have some solutions that are tangible; it will help you take control and make amendments in your trade show program. Because, that is what we do. We are continuously learning, inventing and walking along side with our clients to ease their journey and maximize their business impact. Here are few preventive ideas.

An Interesting Resemblance:

[Did you know that the length of hummingbird is about 3.5" which happens to be the same the same length of standard business card.

Did you know that the hummingbirds are full grown when they leave the nest. Did you also know that 81% of the trade show attendees have purchasing power.]

Problems at trade shows? You aren’t alone!

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PROJECT MANAGER

Every time I try to explain what I do as a Project Manager in the trade show industry I explain my job like this:

“It’s like planning a wedding…for a different bride, in a different city, at a different venue, every day.”

— Clarissa Piquero Kierner

It is no small wonder why when the busy fall and spring show seasons hit I spend countless hours poring over emails or restless evenings worrying about things like:

STRATEGY FORMULATION IS AN ONGOING process that perceives NEW posITION TO WOO "customers from established positions or draw new customers into the market."

— Harvard Business Review

If you are marketing your small business, you are perhaps overwhelmed by the methods of delivering your marketing message.

The vehicle for delivering the messages have certainly evolved to include social media, video, virtual reality, highly interactive demonstrations, and more.

Exhibiting at trade shows are one of the many ways of delivering such message. If this is the route you choose to go, take your time formulating a trade show strategy before your exhibition. Then follow up with a plan to execute it effortlessly.

In our Event Tech Survey, our exhibitors had a lot of advice and questions on the topic of trade show technology.

The key question of interest – do you buy or do you rent technology?

We’ve spotted some troubling trends in the trade show industry. 

While the two giants among trade show General Contractors (Freeman and GES) have made great improvements in recent years in terms of customer service and online access to forms and information, smaller contractors seem to be going the other direction.

Here are just a few of the recent questionable practices that we’ve come across: