Tradeshow Exhibiting for Dummies

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Tradeshow Exhibiting for Dummies

By Jonathan Goodyear

I hope that this column finds you in the midst of enjoyinganother great Dev Connections conference. I ve attended (and spoken at) manyconferences over the past decade or so, but recently I was presented with thechallenge of exhibiting at one. Had I known what I was getting into, I mightnot have made the decision so easily. What I d like to do here is take youthrough the process of exhibiting at a tradeshow, so that maybe it won t be sochallenging when the time comes for you to do the same.

To get you up to speed, about a year ago I decided thatrunning a consulting company wasn t enough punishment for me. So I decided Iwanted to launch a product. One thing I knew for sure was that I didn t want itto have anything to do with supporting the software development process. Whatwe came up with was a product that allows restaurants and other merchants tosend coupons and promotions to their customers as text messages on their mobilephones. Our unique spin is that we install a device at the merchant s storethat allows customers to sign up right at the register, as well as validatecoupon codes (vs. the dumb concept of just showing your mobile phone screen tothe cashier). We named it PlumReward (http://www.plumreward.com).

We spent the next eight months building the applicationinfrastructure using C#, SQL Server, and the .NET Compact Framework (the devicein the store is an HP iPAQ PDA). Once we were happy with the product, it wastime to promote it to the world. What better way than at a tradeshow? As ithappened, the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show was coming up in a coupleof months, so that seemed like a good place to start. I ve broken down myexperience and advice into several categories below.

Booth Reservation

As the event approaches, the price of a booth increases ...a lot (think airline tickets). What started out as a $2,500 booth quicklyjumped to $4,500 before I committed to doing the show and reserving my spot.Don t take everything you are told at face value. Double confirm EVERYTHING. Iwould also avoid getting a spot near a peninsula booth (unless you are thepeninsula), as they generally do not have any height restrictions, meaning youcould get swallowed up by your neighbor. Corner booths are nice, and are worththe extra few hundred dollars to get them.

Amenities

I found out that your spot is exactly that ... a 10 x 10square of cement flooring surrounded by black drapes. If you want, say, carpet,you have to pay extra for it. I suggest also paying to have a carpet pad, sothat it s easier on your feet as you stand at the booth all day. Electricityand Internet are also an extra charge. While you really can t do much about theprice of the electricity, I wouldn t pay the exorbitant price for Internetaccess. Instead, use a wireless Internet card hooked into a router that isfitted for it you ll save hundreds of dollars.

Booth Display

If you re spending all this money, you d better look gooddoing it. There are literally hundreds of Web sites that sell tradeshowsupplies and in my opinion, they are all horrifically overpriced. Some things(like signage) you really can t live without. Instead of getting a huge backdisplay, though, I purchased two 24 x 90 banner stands to sit next to the 6 table the conference provides. I got a 7 banner to hang on the drapes behindthe table. On the table, I put a 35 LCD monitor (TIP: you can use one fromyour house and save the rental fee).

I suggest buying a podium to hold the product you aredemonstrating. One thing I will admit is great about tradeshow furniture andother supplies is that it is very lightweight and suitable for travel (becausethat s what it spends most of its time doing). Most podiums fold right up, andthe banners collapse into their stands. Again, order early. Tradeshow supplycompanies tell you that an item takes 5 to 10 business days to produce. Theycan make it quicker for you, but you ll have to pay big rush fees .

Don t feel compelled to buy all your tradeshow suppliesfrom one place. It pays to shop around. To keep costs down, you can skip the tradeshowsupply Web sites for many booth essentials. I bought two really nice guestchairs at SAMS Club and got a round table from IKEA that actually got quite afew compliments from neighboring exhibitors.

Swag

Everybody knows you can t have a tradeshow booth withoutsome swag to give away. Ideally, you want it to be compelling and cheap. Eventhough I was dealing with a different crowd than the typical tech geek thatattends programming conferences, I still went with a toy. I chose purple (ourcompany color) yo-yos. Again, order early, because while the online stores listhundreds of thousands of items, they often don t have everything in stock atall times. I wouldn t pay more than $1 per unit, so you ll probably have to buy500 or more units to get that price. You also may want to consider giving awayone big item to get some attention. A candy dish is also a cheap way to befriendly to passers-by.

Collateral

You need materials to pass out to interested people whovisit your booth at the show, so definitely hire someone to put togethersomething nice for you. Don t try to pretend that you re good at marketing orgraphic design. I suggest you have the same graphic designer do all yourcreative (from logos to banners, swag, and collateral) that way you convey aconsistent message.

Booth Setup

Save yourself the union labor fees by making sure all thepieces of your booth can be carried by a single person. Near the end of set-upday, look around for abandoned booths. If you act quickly, you can switch to abetter location at no additional cost. Don t pay for housekeeping servicesfor your booth it s a waste of money.

Press

A couple of weeks before the show you should put out apress release to tell the media that you ll be there, as well as what snew/great about your company and its products/services. I was able to get acomplete press release written for me and released to the media by Send2Press (http://www.send2press.com)for well under $1,000 a steal in my book, given that it led to many otherpress opportunities. Also, drop off some brochures in the press office at theevent.

Post Mortem

The show went very well for us, and we got a lot of goodleads. But there are some things I will do differently next time:

There you have it. I could go on and on, but I ve got alimited amount of space here. Feel free to drop me an e-mail if you haveadditional questions. Thanks, and enjoy the show!

Jonathan Goodyearis president of ASPSOFT (http://www.aspsoft.com),an Internet consulting firm based in Orlando, FL. Jonathan is MicrosoftRegional Director for Florida, an ASP.NET MVP, a Microsoft Certified SolutionDeveloper (MCSD), and co-author of ASP.NET 2.0MVP Hacks (Wrox). Jonathan also is a contributing editor for asp.netPRO. E-mail him at mailto:[email protected] or throughhis angryCoder eZine at http://www.angryCoder.com.