A Guide for Planning a Successful Exhibition

Exhibitions allow your organization to network, increase brand awareness, and generate valuable leads. Whether you are exhibiting at a small or big exhibition, organizing an exhibition is a unique and rewarding experience. It is important to consider your inventory before, during, and after the show to maximize your investment. However, combining so many elements in a coherent and meaningful way can be a real challenge. Therefore, when organizing your exhibition, a plan is essential.

To-do list for an exhibition

Planning

Before we jump straight into booking your exhibition space, there are a few ideas to think about carefully. This way, you know exactly what you want to achieve with your first exhibition stand.

First, you need to define your goals and ensure they are SMART. That means they should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-limited.

• Specific – Having a clear vision of one’s goals and objectives provides a tool to focus on, provides motivation for success, and ensures everyone knows what the goal is.

• Measurable – It is very important that all goals are measurable. It keeps the team motivated and focused as they work through the exhibition.

• Achievable – Don’t set yourself or your team on failure. Be realistic and set achievable goals. While it’s important to push the envelope and expand everyone’s abilities, it should be achievable no matter the goal.

• Adequate- It means ensuring that what you try to achieve aligns with your business goals.

• Time Bound: When you think of an exhibition, you have a specific date for everything that needs to be done, with a target date and milestone dates to ensure everything goes smoothly.

Following these steps will ensure successful goal setting.

Budget

You must identify the team you need and set a realistic budget. Without a realistic budget, dilemmas will only arise if you don’t have the space to host an exhibition. Also, team selection at the planning stage prevents employees from not knowing their roles. You should determine why you want to participate in the exhibition. Ask about generating sales, connecting with other companies, or attracting new customers.

Select the desired Show

When choosing an exhibition space, choose a suitable space at the display ground. If you are lucky enough to book a space at the entrance or near the cafeteria area, all the better. 

• Area and square meters.
• Emergency exits.
• Disabled access.
• Free Wi-Fi to improve customer experience.
• Decoration.
• location.

For companies offering space within a particular exhibition, several aspects must be considered. The first is the amount of space you have allocated for your ads. It will directly determine the floor plan and size of any stands, platforms, floors, light boxes, or other exhibit-related exhibits. Don’t hesitate to contact the exhibition organizer directly. 

Ask about your assigned space or if you can request a specific space. It’s also worth asking if you can send us photos of your exhibition stand to reference when designing your floor plan and presentation. To exhibit at an exhibition, you typically must register approximately six months before the exhibition. Signing up as early as possible is the best way to ensure the right amount of traffic. At this point, you can set an appropriate exhibition budget for print and other materials.

 Logistics and preparation

First, you have to reserve the pitch and get the ball rolling. Where you display your products within your space is key in determining the rest of the planning process and overall strategy. 

• Write down the size of the exhibition stand and the corresponding number and store it in the cloud so that everyone involved has access to this information.
• Allocate a budget for building the actual stand 
• Set marketing goals for your stand
• Choose from a wide range of exhibition stand builders

Research competitors

Are there other organizations that offer similar products or services? By doing this research, you can plan and anticipate making sure your presentation will grab the attention of your attendees. Consider the following questions:

• What products and services are your competitors showing off? 
• How have you exhibited your work in the past? 
• Did they use specific marketing techniques to attract crowds? 
• Have they used interactive technology such as tablets or projection mapping? 

It will allow you to refine your strategy and make a difference. It is also a good opportunity to network with other companies. Communication before and during the exhibition is a great way to draw people from one exhibition to the next.

Design and planning

It involves considering your ideas and exhibition stand design concepts. In this case, it is essential to allow sufficient time for any necessary corrections. It must also be determined how the exhibition stand will be transported to the venue and who will be involved in setting it up. Ensure to be in constant touch with your exhibition stand builder or exhibition stand design company.

Tell people why they should visit

Exhibit halls can get very crowded, so it is important to fully brand your logo on the stand so that it can be seen from a distance.

At first glance, people should know:

• About me – with logo
• What to do – with a short slogan or keyword
• How can I help them – add user-centric instructions tailored to your target audience
• Why should they come to you today – give them a sense of urgency and get a special offer today.

Keep your vocabulary to a minimum because your exhibition stand design should entice people to get your sales team talking. With a simple message, you can be sure you’re attracting the right visitors to your exhibition stand.

Warmly welcome visitors to the exhibition

What kind of first impression do you want to make to attract visitors to your exhibition stand in a busy shopping district?

• Attractive, spacious, and welcoming reception
• Function counter
• Which features would you introduce first?
• Perhaps you can contact a furniture rental company to free up existing resources?

Tell them about you

If you have engaged social media followers, use them. You will attend this exhibition and invite people who like your Facebook page. Tweet, Instagram, and retweet exhibition posts and communicate with relevant accounts. The more views your social media gets, the better.

The company’s website and email address should also be used to promote the exhibition. Create a dedicated page on your website about the presence, what visitors can expect, and what benefits they can get from the visit.

Participating in a conversation in a variety of ways helps keep everyone interested.

Transform your workspace into an inviting workspace

If everything goes according to plan, your stand will be well attended. Therefore, it should be assumed that this is an improvised workplace for potential beneficiaries.

Remember that exhibitions can become networking opportunities; you should take advantage of them and everything that goes with them.

These are the imposters we are dealing with in the modern age. Allow them to be themselves and build their pro muscles with the following:

• Personalized meeting space
• A formal meeting mechanism where passers-by can discuss business in a convenient environment
• Casual places to relax and unwind
• Fast internet is essential

Create useful promotional materials

Promotional materials include everything from flyers, signage, murals, and point-of-sale (POS) displays. 

Promotional material can also be of practical use to participants. Why not create pens, USB sticks, or shoppers with your branding? They are useful and serve as long-term advertising, making them very profitable. As most exhibitors distribute promotional material, the more creative you are, the better.

Conduct an assessment

If you want your exhibition to succeed, don’t forget to rate it after the exhibition. What did you like? What didn’t you like? By conducting an evaluation, you can organize a more successful exhibition and ensure that you generate more revenue. Because if you don’t learn from the past, you will live again!

Look at the goals you had for the exhibition. Why couldn’t we meet? Did you stick to your budget? Identify what is holding you back from achieving your goals so you can improve your next goal. You should also make sure you have a way to collect customer feedback from both exhibitors and attendees. A contest is a great way to get candid customer feedback. 

To Sum Up:

Combine each of these elements to create a master plan for your exhibition. Work on these to create a strong, actionable plan for your exhibition. When planning an exhibition, planning should start as early as possible. With many moving parts, reeds mean a smooth finish.