There’s nothing quite so exciting as making a list … at least, that’s my view!
It’s no doubt something to do with age, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a great way of not forgetting things and restoring a bit of order to an otherwise cluttered mind.
So, I can imagine if you’re planning to have a stand at a trade fair you’re not quite sure where to begin. Of course, if you’ve done it before it’s not quite so daunting, but even then you need to make a note of those areas for improvement for next time. However, if you’re presenting yourself for the first time at an exhibition, there’s a lot of work to be done. It shouldn’t be taken lightly. For that reason, we’ve put together a handy checklist to help you prepare properly in the run-up to the big day.
We should warn you however: the list is a long one, amounting to no fewer than 6 sheets of A4! For anyone about to embark on this journey for the first time, it comes as a shock to the system. With this in mind, we thought it would be a good idea to pick out the ten most important points you need to bear in mind when planning your exhibition.
Here we go:
(I’m assuming here that you’ve already decided on the exhibition and the goals you aim to reach with it.)
- Put together a project team
- Decide on who’s going to look after your stand, for example, a full-service stand builder.
- Book the exhibition space you need from the exhibition organisers.
- Project planning: brief the stand builder, complete with budget; they will need time to design, visualise and construct the stand.
- Build-up and break-down: often there will be a profusion of rules and regulations: a full-service stand builder take this off your hands.
- Put together your exhibition team: who will man the stand?
- Organise a kick-off meeting with your exhibition team a week or two beforehand.
- As well as its design, think about the stand’s layout; make sure all you product literature, samples and promotional gifts are ordered in good time.
- Communicate: make sure your target group knows beforehand that you will be at the exhibition.
- After the show, organise a debriefing with all those involved
This short list is, of course, far from complete. There might be other things that require a different approach for example. Can you come up with any useful tips yourself? Is there anything that could be done more easily? Has anything been forgotten? If so, just drop me a line.
After all, at the end of the day we’re all after the same thing: a satisfied customer!
