Exhibition Girls Ltd Exhibition Tradeshow Tips
Exhibition Girls 2016 Exhibition Tradeshow Tips from the show floor!
Exhibition Girls Ltd are a UK staffing agency providing businesses with experienced, professional freelance promotion, hostess and exhibition staff. We are passionate about the exhibition industry – it’s exciting and evolving rapidly and our staff love supporting our clients in this fast paced event industry. Executed well a tradeshow is a fantastic, dynamic showcase for a business – it’s a highly targeted face to face platform to your reach out directly to your industry. New customers can see, engage, feel and interact with your company and it’s products – there is a whole new audience passing your stand or booth every second. However having worked on the show floors for huge international corporations to small start ups there have also been a few occasions where our experience could have helped with show planning. Our insight is unique and we want to help you get the most from your show. We really hope our exhibition tradeshow tips will make your next show seamless, successful, enjoyable and as amazing as it deserves to be!
Exhibition Tradeshow Tips
- Stay in a hotel close to the venue and check travel times Exhibition centres tend to be on the outskirts of town. It might be a little more expensive but booking a hotel close to the venue saves crossing London in rush hour after working a long show day. Also be prepared for tube strikes – if you are in walking distance to the venue – this will avoid any disruption which seems to coincide with big shows.
- Register & print badges before the show Registration and pass entry queues are very long first morning of any show – save time by printing these for your colleagues and exhibition staff.
- Order catering supplies before the show Catering needs to be pre ordered. We have worked with countless exhibitors who arrive without paper coffee cups, milk or tea bags. Time and money is then wasted with the hostesses having to source these on-site. Washing up gloves and washing up liquid are often overlooked if exhibitors have glasses and need to reuse them.
- Plenty of space to store bags, laptops We have worked on large stands but with a tiny cupboard to store bags. Often colleagues are also travelling with luggage. Cupboards overflowing with laptops, coats where items go missing is a stress that’s easily avoidable if you factor this is in with your design team.
- Get wifi on the stand Show wifi is notoriously bad – especially if you are streaming live content / need to be checking email – having poor wifi is frustrating for visitors and exhibitors. It’s worth investing in a wireless hub where your colleagues and customers can get online. This also makes the stand an attractive destination if you tweet that you have free fast wifi.
- Charging points for mobile phones – these are notoriously scarce at trade-show venues and are always appreciated by other show visitors / potential customers.
- Comfy shoes We always recommend flat shoes for our sales staff, show floors are hard!
- Water A water cooler is always appreciated by staff and show visitors – tradeshows are hot and water is expensive.
- Engage but in the right way We know that every client has different aims for a tradeshow. Some companies are just looking for brand exposure – they are established and are there to have meetings with existing customers – that’s where reception and hospitality hostesses are perfect to create a great atmosphere. However, most our clients are looking to grow their businesses at exhibitions. Having a busy stand is great and competitions and giveaways are fantastic at getting interaction but it’s essential that you are attracting the right people – otherwise you might just leave with a very expensive email database list or bill for stress balls. Many tradeshows are free – there will be students and people that aren’t necessarily your customers visiting the stand – it’s great to interact but you need to make sure you gain what you need from the show. To connect with the right people and grow your business you need to think the best way of informing visitors how your service is going to improve their life or business and actually engage with them. This probably isn’t via a pen, a free bottle of champagne or a draw to win an ipad. Exhibitions can be busy, hot and overwhelming for visitors and often the people you really want to engage with are in a rush – you’ll literally have a few seconds to capture attention. Using promotion or sales staff trained on your company (even if just asking visitors an open question) to stop passers by and ask why they are there will instigate a conversation which could lead to a huge opportunity. We’ve spoken to CEO’s of huge companies making a coffee and multi-national sales directors – just stopping them to say hi and asking them if they are they having a good day. You know every person visiting the show has an interest in your business or field and people love to talk about themselves, their company and why they are there – utilise people to people skills!
- Use event technology There is some fantastic tech available at exhibitions and leaflets and business cards are becoming redundant. It’s eco friendly and cost efficient to scan badges as qr codes on i-phones, broadcast content on LED interactive screens and encourage show visitors to use iPads and tablets to view your new products and company info rather than hand out bulky marketing material. There are some fantastic companies that are revolutionising interaction at exhibitions – take a look at Poken and ibeacon for inspiration.
- Get on Social Media If your company isn’t on the big social media platforms yet – Facebook / Twitter / Instagram – then exhibiting at a show is a great place to set this up and start. Using the event hashtag is a simple way of gaining a ready made online audience, broadcast pictures from your booth and also encourages visitors to interact with you.
- Make use of seminars Tradeshows often have seminars running and are great for reaching a large number of show visitors who are interested in your company or products. They are also a great to publish on social media and to invite your existing customers.
- Hire Exhibition Girls! Exhibitions take your sales team and key figures away from your office and also often involve travelling internationally. We provide local, experienced freelance staff who will extend your sales team and represent you professionally meaning your exhibition is covered. Our staff work at hundreds of exhibitions, they are used to the fast paced nature and can interact and ice break with large numbers of visitors effectively. Our staff are also tech savvy and can use i-pads, scan qr codes and work with any technology you might be using on the stand. We also provides hostesses who will look after hospitality on the stand and translation staff should you be exhibiting in another country and need language support. Using Exhibition Girls staff is a cost effective and proven successful way of making sure you gain the most from your exhibition or tradeshows.
About – Exhibition Girls Ltd Staffing Agency are a UK and Europe based exhibition and event staffing agency providing exhibitors with experienced professional staff as hostesses, exhibition and sales staff. We cover the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark and are expanding internationally.
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