A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO TRADE FAIRS: STAND MANAGEMENT
In the following months and weeks to your trade fair or exhibition, you’ve done all you could to prepare and organize your trip so it can be successful. The time for preparations is over and right now our Beginner’s Guide to Trade Fairs will focus on your experience at the event. The first article today will focus on the moments right after landing and leading up to opening the gates to visitors and concerns exhibitors.
There’s a very short checklist you have to abide by if you want your stand to… well, stand out!
Know Your Schedule & Task List
I recommend you create a folder where you print out the program for the event with markings as to what you’ll be doing every day there. Do the same for your staff, so you don’t lose time wondering where you have to be at any given moment. The folder’s physical presence will make leading your team a lot easier. There are very real benefits to this strategy – improved focus, efficient time management, increased numbers of achieved goals and tasks during your time there.
Instruct Your Staff
One meeting with your team right before you head on your first day is a must. Discuss your plan once more over coffee, brief everyone on their tasks to ensure they’re prepared to do their best and give them a pep talk. Once your staff is motivated and informed, you won’t spend so much time monitoring their movements and they won’t take up your time with basic questions. You don’t want to end up stressed from having to stretch yourself thin between client, the program and your team.
Monitor Stand Staffing
Yes, you’ve trusted in your team to remain professional and alert at all times, but you should still steer the ship and make regular checks to see how well your staff is performing. We recommend making sure you visit every 1-2 hours to see how your stand is staffed if you have to spend a larger portion of the day in meetings yourself. You should also find the time to relieve people to have breaks and recharge themselves. Lunchtime should be spent together as a group to reconvene and further motivate each other to do good.
Know Your Customers
This extends more to the potential customers you want to attract and sell to – these are the ideal subject. These customers need your product and service. All there is to do is convince them of it. Learn how to best identify them and develop a strategy to catch their interest the minute they approach your stand. What we recommend is to look at what’s that you’re selling and prepare a buzzing sales pitch that’s a single sentence. Sometimes, it’s all you need to hook a customer and gain their attention.
Follow these directives and your stand will perform to its fullest potential and will maximize your benefits. Not to mention the smooth operation of your stand – a vital necessity to keep your energy levels sufficiently high to last the entire trade fair or exhibition. This counts even more for those events that run for longer than two days. Next week, we’ll further detail the best etiquette to maintain with professionals and higher-ups.
Are you in the midst of preparing for a trade fair or exhibition? Do you have a hotel reserved, yet? Go Fair ltd has a large database of hotels and guesthouses all over the world and we’re flexible when it comes to your budget, so hit us up for a bespoke service! If this article has been useful to you, leave a comment and tell us how! We want to know how you do things, so feel free to write to us at any moment at [email protected]!
