Coway Road Show 2010
Coway Road Show 2010
If you are going to show off at a trade show you might as well go all out
If your company is going to bother putting in the time, effort and expense to present your company, idea or product at a trade show, you should be sure that you are doing it right and not throw a bunch of your valuable resources down the drain. It is important to be frugal when you need to be and to help your company keep a reasonable budget but there is a fine line to walk sometimes between making sure that your company is able to cut financial corners whenever possible and wasting a bunch of money because you are not doing something to the best of your ability.
Making a great and effective booth to present at a trade show is not easy or cheap but if you are able to grab the attention of the right people it can lead to an increase of customers, investors and good press for your company down the line which are all some of the first steps to becoming a truly successful company.
When presenting your company at a trade show you have a lot of factors already set against you. First of all, because trade shows are set within a certain industry there might be a number of other companies out there doing a similar thing as you are doing. If their booth garners more attention they are effectively able to steal the success right out from under you. Also since so many companies are fighting for attention from the audience there is a lot of competition and a fairly high bar.
Of course everyone always says to be creative when it comes to things like this but many of us do not know how exactly to be creative and take chances. We are punished most times we try to do something in an unprecedented way and people think that because that is not the way things are done that the idea will be an automatic flop. People who come in with ideas like that however are rarely the most popular booths at trade shows. Try to understand what kind of people your customers tend to be and see if you can find an angle to speak to those tendencies or desires in people.
Most importantly, do not be afraid to get a little weird with your trade show booth. Even if people walk by it and their eyebrows go up in a bit of shock, they still took four or five seconds to look at your booth and are quite possibly intrigued enough to take a further look or at least tell someone about the trade show exhibit after the show. Either way you have made an impression and gotten the attention of the people which is all you can ask to do in an arena as popular and crowded as trade shows. Go further than just a few signs and brochures, even if you do not have a huge financial backing for your idea, there are plenty of ways to make your experience at a trade show work for you and your company.