Planning for an exhibition is so important for the success of your day, it can really benefit your experience. However, a lot of people don’t know where to start when it comes to planning for an exhibition. This is why we have compiled a few of the things you need to be thinking about before your next show.
Stand Location
As soon as you know which exhibitions you will be attending it is a good idea to try and book your stand space. This can be the make or break for any exhibition stand. It doesn’t matter if you have the best exhibition stand in the world – if nobody is walking past you will not be attracting the attention that you want.
Most exhibition venues will allow you to reserve your space as soon as you book as an exhibitor, but this will need to be done well in advance in order to reserve the best spot. You will need to reserve your spot at least six months in advance to get one of the prime, high traffic spots.
Being in the middle of the room is not always a good thing, people tend to congregate here meaning there will be a lot of distraction which will impact your stand. Try picking the spots near coffee and food places or toilets, people will always be heading to these places throughout the day, and you will have a chance to catch them on their way in or out.
WiFi
It is a good idea to check whether your venue has wifi before you go even if you weren’t planning on using it. If there is wifi you may want to take advantage of this feature by using online videos or features, however, you do need to be prepared in case the connection is extremely slow due to everyone using it.
One of the main reasons you will need wifi is for social media updates throughout the day – many people forget about this. You will want to be posting on all social channels throughout the day, so if the venue has no wifi, you will need to ensure that you have some sort of data connection on a phone or similar device.
If there is no obvious sign as to whether there is wifi, get in touch with the event organiser on social media or email. They will be able to tell you.
On Your Stand
You need to know exactly what will be on your stand at the event. Will you be running competitions, have branded goods, need a computer for a presentation? Knowing all of this well in advance will keep the stress levels low closer to the time.
If you are running a competition, you will need to plan the prizes and how it will work before you get to the venue. Similarly, you will need to order any branded goods that you do not already have, for example, another batch of business cards or branded pens.
A presentation or a slideshow of images is sometimes a nice idea to catch people’s attention or for you to use in your conversation for examples. This will mean creating a presentation and ensuring that you have a working laptop for your stand on the day.
Transport and Accommodation
This is the first step of attending an exhibition but is usually the last thing that you think about. If you are taking a team with you, you need to ensure that everyone can get to the venue whether that is all together or separately. Next, you need to ensure that you can get your stand there, this may mean renting a larger car to fit your team and stand in.
Some of the larger exhibitions run over multiple days – if this is the case you will probably need to book accommodation for you and your team. Be quick when booking your accommodation because all the other exhibitors will have the same idea.
These are just a few things to think about before you attend your next show. Planning should start months in advance for each show in order to be completely prepared. If you want some help with planning your next exhibition, get in touch to talk about our exhibition management services.
