Tradetec Skyline

As reported by Stephanie Corbin - 7/7/08 - Trade Show Week

Keeping Them Coming Back Is the Name of the Attendee Game

Show managers are trying new tricks to keep attendees coming to their shows.

As part of the Society of Independent Show Organizers’ Travel Costs Survey, show managers listed different steps they are taking to combat the high cost of travel, including increased marketing to international attendees, discounts to exhibitors to continue their participation, emphasizing the value of regional shows and some travel incentives for early registration.

With the price of a tank of gas rising year over year for most of the past decade, Jo Ann Macek said she recognized two years ago that her show, the Specialty Advertising Assn. of California Show, which will be held Aug. 6-7 at the Long Beach (Calif.) Convention Center, needed to offer an incentive to out-of-state attendees who might be scared off by California’s notoriously high gas prices.

“It was all preemptive,” she added. “We were just being proactive.”

It was such a good idea, she even added a few twists.

Those attendees whose zip codes indicate they live somewhere besides Southern California receive an e-mail telling them a $50 gas gift card is waiting for them when they get to the show, Macek said. All attendees have to do is take a printout of the e-mail to the event and show their driver’s license.

“We don’t do anything more than that,” she added.

However, she also was worried that those who live closer, in the Los Angeles or San Diego areas, might decide to attend the show just one day instead of two to conserve gas. Those attendees are asked to fill out a card on the first day with their name, company and e-mail address.

“You bring that card back on day two, and you get your $50 gift card,” Macek said. The local attendees also receive free parking the second day.

While Macek admitted, “A $50 gas card is not the tank of gas it was last year,” she said she’s hopeful that it will keep the show’s attendance numbers steady.

So far, according to the pre-registration rate for this year’s show, it’s working.

“Our registration numbers so far are corresponding to the same period last year,” Macek said.

Macek isn’t the only show manager with the idea of giving away gift cards for gasoline.

The Columbus Jewelry Show, scheduled Aug. 23-24 at the Greater Columbus (Ohio) Convention Center, gives away a $25 gift card to every retail store attending the show, said Adriana Sfalcin, executive director of the Ohio Jewelers Assn., which owns the show.

She said the show draws retail attendees from as far away as Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky and upstate New York, which means a lot of them are traveling quite a few miles to get there.

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Exhibiting Strategies For Leaner Times

Trade shows have shown strong growth since 2002. The trade show and event industry has enjoyed positive growth, driven by strong corporate profits, convention center expansion, low airfares, healthy corporate travel budgets, the need for training and education, historically low interest rates, and the continued embrace of event marketing to reach buyers (Tradeshow Week Executive Outlook 2007).

However, 2007 ended with relatively flat growth (+1.6%), and 2008 has become a year of uncertainty and questioning of what will happen next.

Exhibiting Facing Current Uncertainty

Many of us in the exhibiting industry are faced with no growth budgets, but, even worse, marketing & Tradeshow Budgets have been either cut or reduced in order to protect the corporate bottom line or for other seemingly more effective marketing communications. marketing managers and owners are concerned with the economic impact of the fall presidential election: Will a change in administration mean a change in the business climate? But, the biggest issue for us as exhibit professionals is what to say or do when your management says, Lets get out of trade shows or Lets reduce our budgets or Lets reduce our participation in trade events.

The Enduring Value of Trade Shows

Your reply is and should be that trade shows are alive and well and we need to continue our participation. Although the growth statistics are falling off, trade shows and events still fill a need. Exhibitors want the medium, and quality attendees are coming to the shows. The total number of attendees may be declining, but high quality audiences are still available to exhibitors. Trade shows and events are the only way you can get face-to-face with prospects and customers other than a direct sales call. You can accomplish more in a day visiting with show attendees than you can in a month of calls in the field.

Exhibiting Works!

It works because of the value of being able to meet face-to-face. It provides us an opportunity to accelerate the selling cycle by matching attendee needs with your ability to fill their needs. It works because adults are visual learners and exhibiting is a visual medium. The exhibit, your products, the graphics, collateral materials and promotional products are visual. Lastly, buyers are experiential. You can provide them an experience through the dynamics of the exhibiting process interactive visual aids, challenges, and hands-on demonstrations.

Below are 16 tactics that will drive a successful exhibiting strategy. Each tactical element is discussed in detail in the Successful Exhibiting Strategies in Uncertain Times White Paper along with suggestions on how to make it work in your world.

• Don’t Stop Going to Shows, Go Smarter
• Make Trade Shows a Part of Your Integrated Marketing Communications Plan
• Exhibit for the Right Reasons
• Proactively Evaluate the Shows in Which You Participate
• Evaluate the Space You Occupy Versus Your Objectives
• Focus on the Objective: Reducing Your Cost of Ownership
• Invest in Graphics
• Its the Quality of the Audience, Not the Quantity
• Focus on Your Targeted Audience
• Don’t Rely on Traditional Selling Techniques
• Invest in a Motivated Staff
• Recruit Management as Part of Your Exhibiting Team
• Exhibiting is Not Just Collecting Names or Swiping Badges
• Create a Follow-up TEAM
• What is Your Measure of Success? Measure the Results
• Plan to Work the Show Every Moment the Show is Open
• Think Bigger Think Beyond the Trade Show Floor

How to survive this cyclical downturn is not to avoid exhibiting altogether, but instead to exhibit smarter. Smarter exhibiting includes using integrated marketing communications, choosing to exhibit at shows that meet important, measurable objectives and picking exhibits and spaces that are sized right for your opportunities. You will see greater results when you target high-quality audiences, bring a motivated staff, gain top-level involvement, follow up on your leads, measure your results, and work the trade show beyond the trade show floor.

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Giving you a high level of flexibility, the Fabric Exhibit Structure II is reusable, lightweight and versatile for many exhibit sizes. Working seamlessly with other Skyline Exhibit Systems this can add a nice accent to your exhibit or be a the focal point of your exhibit space.

Renting a variety of the Fabric Exhibit Structures II gives you several options for each and every part of your exhibit package, conference rooms, walls or hanging structures.

These structures pack flat and in sections saving you money on your shipping and drayage costs, yet giving you exposure from one end of the exhibit hall to the other.

With a line up of exhibit accessories, you can enhance and integrate with other Skyline Systems.

• Universal Connection System
• Cable Mounted Graphics
• Stylish Product Shelving
• Literature Racks & Holders
• Stabilizing Feet
• Protective Nylon Case

Stand apart from the rest of the exhibitors and draw attention to your booth with a Fabric Structure II

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Trade Show Venue’s in Las Vegas banned halogen lights for a reason, a great solution for all your lighting fixtures for trade show exhibits and venue’s would be a product that can save you electrical costs up to 80% while exhibiting.

The Ceramic Metal Halide - CMH lighting fixture designed exclusively for Skyline the CMH 70w light is almost twice as bright as your standard halogen 200w bulbs.

Requiring only 1/5 of the power that a halogen bulb does and containing no mercury as the compact fluorescent bulbs, these fixtures and bulbs are environmentally friendly.

Fully approved in all of Las Vegas trade show venue’s, unlike the halogen bulb. Why risk using halogens bulbs at other venue’s such as McCormick Place in Chicago when you can use a single CMH Skyline fixture that will light a 10 foot display, giving you a great cost savings and ease of use.

• Easily attached to the Skyline Slotted Tube & Tube Ultra Modular Systems
• Save Hundreds on Show Electric
• Touch-Safe Bulb Installation

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7 Time-Saving Ideas

We get started with two contributions that revolve around the notion of reducing the time and confusion around setting up the exhibit. The first one deals with communication between setup groups.

Many times one person or group packs for the show, while another person or group is on-site. Prepare a content listing for each crate/case. Give one copy to those on-site, and tuck another copy just inside the crate/case. This helps if the on-site staff is searching for one particular item.

– Christine Stamm, Wisconsin Department of Commerce

The second idea concerns those times when you are doing most of the work by yourself. Continue Reading »

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