A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO TRADE FAIRS: Sorting out Travel Arrangements
Last week, Go Fair broached the subject of deciding how to attend an industry event - either as a visitor or an exhibitor, which brings you one step closer to attending. Strategies are the best way to guarantee your attendance will be worth your time, effort and finances. Now that we’ve mentioned finances, it’s time to broach another subject that’s on the minds of all business travellers: costs, deals and discounts! Welcome to another riveting addition to Go Fair's comprehensive Beginner’s Guide to Trade Fairs!
Right! Since you’ve already decided on the industry event best suited for your business and have also decided to be either a visitor or an exhibitor, it’s time to plan the whole shebang in great detail and save as much as possible in the process. A common question businesses ask themselves is
How soon should I start planning my business trip?
Usually, as so they’d know how far they can push this back. No one really wants to plan a business trip, but in general, the answer to this question is – As soon as possible!
Go Fair follows the philosophy of the early bird gets the worm, especially if you’re in the capacity of an exhibitor and will invest money in transporting promotional materials, your product sample kits or equipment for demonstration. Starting early is the surefire way to get a good discount and keep costs significantly low.
How Early Is Early Enough?
In general, we advise you to begin preparations as soon as you buy tickets for the exhibition or fair and have made your participation a fact. Especially when the event is scheduled for the next calendar year and there are a good six months between your confirmation and the dates. At this stage, other exhibitors and goers will not be thinking actively about the event. As a result, you have better chances to score lower hotel rates in the areas you want, since hotels tend to increase their rates when availability becomes limited and the event’s dates are approaching.
The Early Bird Has a Richer Choice
No competition means a larger assortment of hotels, which is a great advantage to utilize if you’re a company with a smaller travel budget. Practice shows budget hotels are the first to go when it comes to booking, so beating the rush guarantees that your business trip stays within your budget, becomes financially feasible and is, as a result, easier to return in terms of your financial investment.
Go Fair is equipped to provide you hotel accommodation designed to meet your full needs whatever your budget, but the task becomes infinitely easier when you consult with us early on your plans.
Catch Airline Promotions
Organizing your flight is also stressful, but Go Fair keeps your peace of mind intact with our services. Once you start on your hotel accommodation, we advise you to keep an eye out for flight discounts and promotions. Tickets are cheapest months ahead of your flight and as such you might want to book them as soon as you see flights for the period you want to fly advertised. Or better yet delegate the task to Go Fair. Our team tracks all the routes from your location to the city host for your trade fair and presents you the options that best fit your budget restrictions.
Another reason why we advocate for organizing your business trip well in advance is that it allows you to focus on planning your goals for the event and creating metrics that will show you how to measure success at the event.
As always, we want to hear from you. Have you found this advice helpful? Is there something else you’d like to suggest on this topic? If you have comments, share! We’d love first-hand experiences to make it into these articles. Email ideas at [email protected] and maybe you’ll be featured in our next article.
