Trade Show Planning:  Plan B

It’s likely that we all agree that trade shows are extremely visual events. They are unique events, where hundreds—even thousands—of brand representatives cram into a convention center, hotel lobby, or expo hall to compete for the attention of new potential buyers or clients. As we outlined in past posts, it’s essential that you differentiate yourself at these events and deliver a message that is persuasive, memorable, and consistent. But you already know this, you’re a polished professional, and you’ve meticulously prepared your material and created the perfect trade show display. That’s fantastic, and you’re an inspiration to us all—but what happens when something goes wrong?

When the unexpected occurs at your trade show, you need to implement “plan b.” Hopefully you’ve got one. It’s critical to have a contingency plan for any of the unexpected pitfalls that can occur at your event. Of course there are several things that can derail your plans, here are just a few:

• Your spiffy display wasn’t delivered to the venue or assembled
• Your technology isn’t working properly or you’re missing essential components
• You have less room than you expected
• Your partner unexpectedly ditches you
• You forgot to bring the sales guy basics

There’s no doubt that events like these things can make your life difficult. But don’t despair, because you’ve planned ahead.

Arriving to the venue and finding out that the crazy awesome display that you requested your team to send hasn’t shipped is disheartening to say the least. In fact, that situation might cause an emotional breakdown for lesser professionals, but not you. That’s right, you’re okay because you planned ahead and brought along your pop-up banner stand. Oh yeah, you also have the extra banners that you packed in your carry-on bag — just in case. What’s more, you have that spare table drape with your company logo printed on it packed in your bag at the hotel.

Getting midway through display set-up in Cleveland and realizing that the thumb-drive containing your amazing presentation is sitting on your desk back in St. Paul might cause an acute anxiety attack in many people. But again, you’re more prepared than most because you planned ahead and uploaded your game-changing presentation to the cloud. And for good measure, you also packed printed collateral and product catalogs (just in case Murphy and his dreaded law decided to make an appearance).

Here’s the point, it’s important to plan for worst-case scenarios. Bringing extra materials such as banners, display stands, and product literature is a great way to make certain that you can market yourself, maintain a professional appearance, and maintain a positive attitude.

A few weeks before the show, take some time and create a checklist. Analyze, identify, and develop a back-up plan for potential areas where things could go wrong. Then put together a resource kit and include things like pens, notebooks, table drapes, banners, cell phone chargers, USB cords, power strips, and printed collateral. Make sure to save copies of any presentations in multiple locations, or better yet make them accessible to people using mobile devices like cell phones and tablets. This ensures that even if your planned technology fails, you can share your message through different platforms.