Event Management Tips: Planning for and Managing an Incident or Emergency On-Site During an Event

In my last tip I outlined the importance of having a back-up plan when organising an event. In that post I reviewed the natural occurrences that can disrupt an event, such as adverse weather, and man-made concerns like bomb threats or terrorist activity.

In this blog I am going to discuss why it is important for Event Managers to plan for a major incident or emergency, especially in these days of terrorist attacks. It is the event manager’s responsibility to make sure all visitors and workers are not exposed to health and safety risks. This includes during the event and during the setup and takedown of the event for those who have access at those times.

The level of planning for an emergency will be dependent on the size and scale of the event as well as other factors including the degree of risk, the audience, the location of the event and its duration. A safety plan should be created that references all these aspects.

It is important to communicate all your plans with your employees and the events team during the planning. The plan should designate who is responsible for the various aspects of safety if an incident arises, as well as the communication paths and decision-making structure.

Good communication and liaison is important in order to share how risks will be controlled with the venue, management, emergency services and suppliers. It is also needed to communicate your prepared safety plan effectively.
This link gives an example of a guidance note for event organisers when producing an event emergency plan.

Planning for incidents and emergencies at an event

Planning for Event Staff:

• Create an event handbook
• Know your location – understand the threats
• Check venue security provisions are in place
• Instigate a direct line of reporting in an emergency
• Make sure all staff have emergency phone numbers for both event staff, venue and emergency services stored in their mobile phone contacts
• Make sure staff know the emergency exits and first aid points
• Confirm staff next of kin and passport details are up to date
• Carry some cash at all times as this may be needed in an emergency
• Download CitizenAid app on mobile phone
• Risk Assessment: Consider the key risks, both for staff and delegates, include contingency plans to deal with situations of limited impact as well as responses to more serious emergencies
• Produce and share emergency procedures with your staff, as well as incorporating the venue’s emergency procedures. Ensure that all relevant staff members understand what they should do in the event of an emergency, no matter what their normal working role is, including raising the alarm. Identify to them the location of exits and emergency equipment. They should know from whom they should receive instructions etc.
• Have a pre-event briefing with all staff, show the National Counter-terrorism office video Run Hide and Tell
• Pre-event make sure you charge phones and battery packs
• Have radios on back-up in case the network goes down
• Be mindful of local staff who may be affected as the incident is occurring in their local area or city

The Emergency Plan

 

This should cover the following depending on the size and location of the event:

• Mobilising onsite resources to attend and tackle the incident
• Removing people from immediate danger
• The management of any casualties including providing medical assistance
• Raising the alarm and informing the public and telling staff what they need to do. It is worth having a code that you only use to tell staff there is an incident
• Alerting and assisting emergency services
• Incident control
• Traffic management, including emergency vehicles
• Controlling crowds and attendees including evacuation if safe to do so. If the incident is terrorist related you may need to instigate lock-down – follow instructions from the emergency services
• Evacuation of disabled people and other vulnerable classes of people including children who may become separated from their parents. Plan for additional assistance requirements
• Handing over to the emergency services where applicable
  Dealing with displaced and non-injured attendees; if in lock-down provide refreshments
• Protecting property
• Ensure that the plan is flexible to cope with changes in events
• The plan for emergency situations should set out the overall framework for the initiation, management, co-ordination and control of personnel and assets in an emergency onsite

Emergency Procedures

• Check all escape routes are available, well lit, unlocked and unobstructed
• Appoint people to be responsible for implementing the emergency procedures in the event of an incident or emergency
• Ensure that a clear management structure is place, identifying the key decision makers
• Discuss plans with the police, fire and rescue service, the ambulance service, emergency planning and, for fixed premises such as stadiums and arenas, the venue management
• Agree with the emergency services on issues such as access routes to the site, the use of any grid-referenced maps, rendezvous points, and transfer of authority for a major incident from the event organiser to the emergency services
• Stopping the show/conference: Identify key people and initiate a show-stop procedure, communicate with presenters and attendees; have an agreed public announcement for this.
• Evacuation – Remain calm and encourage attendees to keep calm. Work as a team. If evacuation is required direct people towards emergency exits
• Lock-down: After stopping the conference or show direct people to a safe area within the building; explain to attendees why it is not safe to leave. Provide refreshments if required. Keep in contact with the police and emergency services regarding the situation
• Review after the incident. If incident impact has been limited you may be able to start the show or event again. Only restart after consultation with emergency services. Make sure staff and services are ready and in position for the restart
  After an Incident
• If evacuation proves necessary, make sure delegates are assembled in the correct holding area, check everyone is alright. Listen to emergency services for information about when to release attendees
• If in lock down make sure attendees have refreshments, if in a hotel check whether bedrooms are available, work with the venue or hotel operations management
• Only allow people to leave when instructed to do so by the emergency services
• Assist delegates if they require accommodation, transportation, flights etc…
• Have a debrief afterwards with events staff as well as venue see what went well and what can be improved upon.
• Review incident and emergency plans for future events

Find out more
B2B Event Management Logistics Tips – Risk Assessment, Health and Safety, insurance and contingency planning

Health and Safety Executive and Excellent Government website on event safety and emergency procedures

Managing an event

Incidents and Emergencies

Why it is so important to have a back-up plan when organising events, and how to deal with problems

Now that winter is here it has reminded me how important it is to have a back-up plan. Unforeseen circumstances can affect your event causing them not to run to order.

Along with risk assessment and health and safety is always advisable to have a plan B.  So many outside circumstances can affect your event.  It is also very important to make sure whatever event you are holding that you have the right kind of insurance cover which includes cancellation.  You should also have all the details of attendee emergency contact details and a detailed process for a disaster with line of management contacts and a plan for implementation.

• Natural Problems -Weather is a factor outside of our control, especially if organising an outdoor event, you should always have an alternative plan in case the event cannot go ahead outside.
  • Snow can affect not just transportation of delegates getting to an event; it can delay speakers or key attendees attending.  Remember to consider the date and time of year you are holding your event. How probable is weather going to affect your event by blocked roads due to snow or heavy rain causing flooding.
  • Winter time can also be a time when people tend to get colds or flu.  Have a back-up if your key speaker is unable to attend.  You may have to change to another speaker or the order of the programme.
  • Heatwave – It is lovey to have sunshine for your event but too much heat can also be dangerous.  Make sure you have plenty of cover and shade, fans or air conditioning, plenty of water for people to drink.
  • Fire can also affect a venue or area, be aware of previous history of any of these events to the venue/location.
  • Drought can cause water shortages and some areas have to reduce the availability of water.  You may need to use bottled water instead of jugs of tap water for drinking.
  • Strong winds can affect power as well as transportation to an event and if you are holding an event outside you need to make sure all power cables and marquees and free-standing temporary buildings, posts, signage, fencing etc… are anchored.

 

• Man Made Problems – A Strike this can affect the venue, staffing, and public transportation to an event.
• Terrorism – if travelling abroad check with government websites regarding travelling to certain countries.
• Politics – streets being closed due to protestors, check with local authorities and police as to what is being affected.
• Power outage – hopefully this can be temporary but always check with venue what they do in the event of this happening do they have back-up generators?
• Fire – At venue make sure that you are aware of all emergency exits and also the drill in where to meet should this occur.
• Health – If required have a medical team and ambulance on site.  Ill health or food poisoning, check all food standards and certification, know where the nearest Dr Surgery, hospital etc…
• Security – make sure that you have the right level of security in place whether it is security on access or if an exhibition make sure expensive equipment is secured.

On the whole most of the time the event will run according to plan, but the better prepared you are the better the outcome should the unexpected happen.

 

Exhibition and Tradeshow Review of ROI

Following on from the last blog on Exhibition and and Tradeshow review and follow-up where we reviewed the logistics, sales lead follow-up plus feedback and analysis.  We will now look at reviewing the original objectives to see if the ROI was achieved.

ROI (Return on Investment)

• Review your ROI by looking at your original objectives for attending the trade show and see if they were met. If this included a sales target it may take some time before you can determine how successful the show was at generating revenue.
• The two primary reasons for exhibition performance measurement are
• To justify the investment.
• To gather information to make your investment more profitable.
• A good measurement system can help you determine whether you should continue exhibiting at a specific show, and if so to what extent. It can help you identify your exhibit program’s strengths and weaknesses. It can also provide benchmarks for comparing different shows you that have exhibited at, and measure what your exhibition return was for the current year when compared to last year’s show. You can even look at how your marketing budget spent on trade-shows compare to other sales and marketing media. If you’re going to win the game of exhibiting you must have a score keeping process.

There is a very good article by Jefferson Davis of Competitive Edge which is available on the Internet in a number of places including:

http://www.ewea.org/offshore2011/fileadmin/eow2011_documents/exhibition/9_Exhibit_Measurement_Made_Easy_How_to_Measure_Exhibiting_Results_and_Return_on_Investment.pdf

The article outlines six basic measurements that almost every company should be measuring:

1. Return on Objectives: What specific goals were you pursuing and what progress did you make toward those goals?
2. Exhibit Budget versus Actual: What was your total exhibiting budget and what did you actually spend?
3. Post-show Sales Written: How many orders and what was the total value of orders written after the event? Ideally, you should measure post-show sales at the 90 and 180 day points, unless you have a very long sales cycle. Also take into consideration the frequency of the show.
4. Quantity and Quality of Leads: How many leads did you capture? How many were A – B – C leads? What is the estimated total sales potential of the leads?
5. Cost per Lead: What was your cost per lead? Divide total number of leads captured by total show investment to determine this number.
6. Cost per Interaction: What did it cost you to generate a face-to face contact? To determine this number simply multiply your total lead count by 2.4. This will give you a pretty accurate method way of determining your total booth traffic. Then divide total show investment by estimated total booth traffic.

These six basic metrics are by no means all that could and should be measured, but they are a very solid starting point. They will give you a very good picture of whether you are winning the game of exhibiting.

There is one final metric that all exhibitors should attempt to measure – the elusive exhibiting Return on Investment. To determine ROI accurately you must first be able to track at-show and post-sale revenue. Once you have that, simply follow the formula below.

Here is a Return on Investment example:

Total post-show sales from exhibit leads:                250,000€

Less cost of sales or gross margin:                             -190,000€

Equals Gross Exhibit Profit                                         60,000€

Less Exhibiting Costs:                                                    20,000€

Equals Net Exhibit Profit:                                           40,000€

Net Exhibit Profit 40,000€/Exhibit Costs 20,000€ = 200% ROI

Track the trade show organisers analysis of the show number and type of attendees to check whether this might be a show you would like to continue to attend.

You now have the basis for having the analysis and justification for exhibiting and also for participating in future exhibitions.

 

Exhibition Review and Follow up part 1

Completion of an Exhibition

Your exhibition at a trade show has now finished and there are certain steps you should complete before the whole project is wrapped up.

Logistics

Hopefully the stand or pop-up, all the equipment, literature and give-aways have been carefully packed and returned to office or place of storage.

• Check that all items have been returned.
• Unpack boxes where literature needs to go back on the rack or in the literature cupboard.
• Assess how many give-aways you have left and, if they will be required for your next exhibition, keep record of the number. Order replacement stocks as required.
• Check that the pop-up has been correctly stored in its box or container and note any breakages or things that need to be fixed before next show.

Sales Lead Follow-Up

The same process should be used for both paper lead forms and leads collected from a scanner in the form of data files.

• Review leads and grade each according to their urgency, for example as hot prospects or as courtesy follow-ups.
• Arrange a meeting with all sales personnel and sales management regarding the leads and allocate the leads to appropriate representative or product team.
• Follow up leads with the required action, for example send out an email or letter thanking attendees for visiting the stand or showing interest in your company, send out literature as requested, or follow up by phone to arrange a meeting etc.
• Track results.
• Remind all stand personnel to make sure that any business cards collected are input into the sales database or CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system so that they are updated with relevant information.

Feedback Follow-Up and Analysis

• Send out a feedback form asking stand personnel for their feedback on specific aspects to do with the trade show that you are interested in and also ask them how they felt it went overall. Ask for any suggestions for improvement etc. Once you have the feedback forms returned analyse them for any learning points or actions required.
• Follow up with a debriefing meeting for all stand staff and sales and marketing personnel, so that they can share findings and discuss how to improve exhibit performance for the next show.
• Track the trade show organiser’s analysis of the show attendees by number and type to check whether this is a show you would like to attend again.
• Review lead contact details and analyse their job titles and profiles to check whether this is a show where the people with the appropriate job roles you want to reach are attending.

The next blog will include reviewing the original planned objects and follow up ROI

Exhibition on-site logistics tips

On-Site Logistics

Build-up – Arrive during the build of the stand. Prepare the stand for display with any graphics, audio visual equipment, furniture in position, hardware, brochures, give-aways, catering etc.

• Store any additional travel boxes with stand builder or in exhibition storage area.
• Check all boxes and items have been delivered to the stand or collect them as required.
• Prepare and give to company representatives and exhibitors their stand roster schedule. Make sure that you have the right combination of expertise on the stand at all times and that you have scheduled meal and coffee breaks.
• Let all staff know who is the official company spokesperson should you have press coming to the stand.
• Inform staff of any competitions and how they work, and how the lead forms are filled in and processed.
• Perform a practice run with all equipment to check it is working. Rehearse any presentation.
• Inform staff who is in charge of the stand and what each person’s role and responsibilities are.
• If press packs are required deliver them to the press centre.
• Re-confirm any booked meeting rooms.
• Re-confirm times, places and staff attending any hospitality events such as parties, drinks receptions and dinners.

Logistics during Show

• Before the show opens make sure that you arrive first before the opening of exhibition hall so that you can unlock the office and storage areas and make sure that everything is ready and working before the tradeshow opens.
• During the show check the stock levels of give-aways, display literature and catering.
• Make sure that staff do not put all their coats and bags in the back office rather than in the cloakroom where they should be.
• Make sure that you or another designated person is allocated the responsibility for turning equipment off or locking up at the end of the day.
• At the end of the day run through any logistics for the next day and identify any problems experienced and communicate what can be done better. Then unwind with staff informally.
• Take plenty of photos of stand during the show.
• Collect leads and, if appropriate, make sure that those back at the office prepare any follow up that is required.

Close of Show logistics

• Allocate duties and responsibilities to staff regarding the close of show and tear down. Debrief staff.
• Collect any storage boxes.
• Clearly label any boxes that are returning to the home office.
• Make sure items from the stand are packed securely and put away. Use your inventory check list for this.
• Arrange for the transportation of any boxes. If items are being collected by the stand builder make sure that they know which these are and confirm when you expect them back in the office.

In the final tip we will be outlining follow up process from the exhibition and feedback.

Tips – Final Preparation Before Going On-site at an Exhibition

Preparation Just Before Going On-Site

You have done your check list and double checked that everything has been ordered and re-confirmed this with your suppliers. You have gone through the timeline and made sure that you are up to date and have everything ready to go. Now use this list to remind yourself of other things you need to have achieved:

• Check all monies and invoices have been paid.
• Check you have ordered any necessary:
  • Power
  • Telecommunications facilities
  • Equipment
  • Stand cleaning
  • Insurance
  • Furniture
  • Floral displays
  • Catering
• Check and inform the appropriate people of any travel arrangements, hotel accommodation and meeting rooms that you have booked.
• If you are having any speakers represent your company at any of the sessions make sure that they have travel and hotel bookings and that these have been confirmed. Check that they have been sent their seminar session information including session times, plans of the conference rooms and exhibition layout.
• Make sure that any staff who are due to attend and help have been sent details of the exhibition, including your stand number and hall. They will need to know what days and times they are attending and when to meet, and they will need a show plan.
• Have a conference call or meeting with everyone attending to run through the schedule of the show and what is expected from their participation.
• Make sure all staff to understand the objectives and goals you want to achieve at this exhibition.
• Prepare staff – make sure they have a complete knowledge of your company and its products and services, both current and new, and also that they know the relevant market trends and competition so that they are able to talk effectively with prospective customers.
• Run though pre-training required by staff and make sure they are familiar with any equipment, demonstrations or presentations that they will need to use or refer to.
• Run through the process of lead collection and allocate staff in the home office to follow up these appropriately as soon as possible after they have been generated.
• Make an inventory and pack items to be taken to the show, such as literature, give-aways and lead forms as well as equipment, software and stock. These can often be delivered to the show by the stand builders or by using the services of a transportation freighting company. Make sure that if you are exhibiting in a non-EU country that you have filled out the correct customs forms for clearance and re-entry back to your home country.
• Confirm that freight has arrived and all contractors are on schedule.
• Check that you have sent out badges or passes as required.
• Prepare an exhibition handbook with all information about the exhibition and your company’s participation, as well as supplier contact and names.
• Plan to travel out during the build-up of the stand to make sure all is running to schedule and that you are there to supervise the stand build. Take photo of stand before show opening.

The next blog tip will be live on-site logistics

Final Check for Exhibitor to review before going to a Tradeshow

Preparation Just Before Going On-Site

You have done your check list and double checked that everything has been ordered and re-confirmed this with your suppliers. You have gone through the timeline and made sure that you are up to date and have everything ready to go. Now use this list to remind yourself of other things you need to have achieved:

• Check all monies and invoices have been paid.
• Check you have ordered any necessary:
  • Power
  • Telecommunications facilities
  • Equipment
  • Stand cleaning
  • Insurance
  • Furniture
  • Floral displays
  • Catering
• Check and inform the appropriate people of any travel arrangements, hotel accommodation and meeting rooms that you have booked.
• If you are having any speakers represent your company at any of the sessions make sure that they have travel and hotel bookings and that these have been confirmed. Check that they have been sent their seminar session information including session times, plans of the conference rooms and exhibition layout.
• Make sure that any staff who are due to attend and help have been sent details of the exhibition, including your stand number and hall. They will need to know what days and times they are attending and when to meet, and they will need a show plan.
• Have a conference call or meeting with everyone attending to run through the schedule of the show and what is expected from their participation.
• Make sure all staff to understand the objectives and goals you want to achieve at this exhibition.
• Prepare staff – make sure they have a complete knowledge of your company and its products and services, both current and new, and also that they know the relevant market trends and competition so that they are able to talk effectively with prospective customers.
• Run though pre-training required by staff and make sure they are familiar with any equipment, demonstrations or presentations that they will need to use or refer to.
• Run through the process of lead collection and allocate staff in the home office to follow up these appropriately as soon as possible after they have been generated.
• Make an inventory and pack items to be taken to the show, such as literature, give-aways and lead forms as well as equipment, software and stock. These can often be delivered to the show by the stand builders or by using the services of a transportation freighting company. Make sure that if you are exhibiting in a non-EU country that you have filled out the correct customs forms for clearance and re-entry back to your home country.
• Confirm that freight has arrived and all contractors are on schedule.
• Check that you have sent out badges or passes as required.
• Prepare an exhibition handbook with all information about the exhibition and your company’s participation, as well as supplier contact and names.
• Plan to travel out during the build-up of the stand to make sure all is running to schedule and that you are there to supervise the stand build. Take photo of stand before show opening.
• Final check all travel/accommodation arrangements and information to arrive exhibition in time for the build up.

Tips on Marketing and Publicity for Exhibitors – Marketing your Trade Show Attendance

For every exhibition there will be a variety of marketing strategies that you can use to
promote your stand, brand, business, services, products and expertise. The key to successful promotion is to use the right combination of strategies.

First you will need to know what your objectives are for exhibiting at the trade show in order to determine which forms of marketing suit your promotion. To get any attendee to your stand they need to perceive value, have an experience, or learn in some way. You will need to make sure you have a targeted and up‐to‐date database of contacts.

Traditional Marketing Media

Traditional marketing can include:

 Press releases and invitations of journalists to a press conference or briefing at the
show.

 Personal invitations to hospitality events or face‐to‐face meetings offered in
advance. You will need to offer them something of value like access to decision
makers and your top management.Invitations including hardcopies of the trade show registration giving an indication
of why they should visit your stand.

 Database mailshots with phone follow‐up.

 Promotion of a contest or prize draw they can enter or giveaways they can collect
on the stand.

 Newsletter to current clients and prospects telling them what you will be doing at
the show and what you will be demonstrating. This can promote any speaking
opportunities you have as well as use competitions and giveaways, and it can
describe the hospitality you’ll offer on the stand.

 Business introducers, using face‐to‐face communication to promote your attendance
at a trade show. Make sure all employees are promoting the exhibition at every
opportunity when talking to clients, prospects and third parties.

 General correspondence – make sure your exhibition at the trade show is mentioned
in some shape or form on all correspondence that leaves the office, such as fax
headers, note pads, and compliment slips. Create leaflets to include in any
correspondence you send out. You can also use giveaways to promote the event.

 SMS messaging. Short texts are great way of reminding attendees of the event, and
sending updates to them about what is happening.
On‐line and Social Media
Many of the above‐mentioned traditional forms of marketing can be done using email
marketing.

 Email campaign. This is an excellent way to market your event if you already have
permission to contact the customer or prospect. Often the collection of contact
details through the website for newsletters can be excellent for sending electronic
invitations. The exhibition can be promoted on every email sent from the office with
an additional line on the signature, specifying the stand location and number.

 The company website. This can be used to promote all your events on your
corporate website under a specific tab heading of events.

 LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs and YouTube. All of the social media platforms your
company use should promote your exhibition details in advance, especially if you can
engage with potential prospects before the event.

Twitter used in combination with links to your website can be powerful in making
information about your show available to real and potential attendees in an easy‐to read
steady stream. This method is a great vehicle for generating buzz about your
conference.You will need to choose a great hashtag. A hashtag can be included in the
body of each tweet and is a short phrase preceded by a hash (#) symbol. By making a hashtag that is short and easy, other tweets can reference your conference using the tag.

• Mention your hashtag far in advance of the conference and include in all
  your related publicity – don’t wait until the day the event starts!
• Tweet white papers, videos, and presentations, as attachments. These can
  be teasers for your trade show appearance or even a reminder of your
  offerings.
• A great time to send tweets promoting your appearance is a few weeks
  before the trade show. You can offer teaser photos of a new product
  appearing at the trade show or announce the details of an executive who
  will be a keynote speaker.
• Include hashtag in all print and digital material.
• Make sure your Twitter profile has the full name, date, location of your
  conference and a pitch about the conference.
• Encourage your sponsors, exhibitors and speakers to include your hashtag in
  all their conference‐related postings.

 Mobile Apps ‐The need for mobile trade show apps is greater than ever. Trade shows
are all about showcasing products or services in a short amount of time. You need to
let attendees know about a special discount, or send out a push notification within
seconds. There are a variety of developers of mobile apps such as CrowdCompass.

• A mobile trade show app means faster and more efficient marketing. It
  means measurable results for your exhibitors and sponsors.
• Mobile trade show apps also give exhibitors and sponsors more
  opportunities to make stronger connections with existing customers and
  reach out to new ones. It is one way to drive interaction and engagement
  between the company and attendees.
• A mobile trade show app helps you think outside the booth to improve the
  overall event experience and stay ahead of the competition. These apps can
  be created for most smart devices such as Android, iPhone, and iPad.

As mentioned before you need to use the best method of promoting your trade show
attendance to your market and potential customers. The main point is to make your
attendance known so that those coming to the show know of your presence and want to visit your stand. It does not matter how good your stand and products are if you don’t get footfall and generate leads to your products.

Tips on Marketing and Publicity for Exhibitors – Promoting your Exhibition

Your marketing and publicity should be part of your whole marketing plan for exhibiting. Trade shows are a powerful element of the marketing mix in that they enable you to have face to face conversations with your customers and prospects, and to gather sales leads.

Your business and brand needs to be known to potential customers who are attending the trade show. The attendees will gravitate towards the brands that are familiar, visible and readily available to them. You want as many of the right kind of attendees to come to your stand.

You need to ensure that you meet the right people, set up productive meetings and drive traffic to your stand. To do this you need to make sure that your marketing is targeted to the right attendees: those who will be interested in your products and who could potentially lead to a sale.

Depending on your budget there are different types of marketing and ways of promoting your exhibit at a trade show. Some are free and others are chargeable. There are also different ways of marketing and promoting your presence at a trade show.

We will look at the various ways of promoting your event in this tip blog  and then in the next blog tip we will look at the different types of traditional and on-line marketing that you should consider using.

When you start the planning process you need to finalise the theme of the exhibition. All the marketing and communications of the company exhibition and promotion should have the same branding and look-and-feel. All communication about the exhibition should make consistent use of the appearance and branding. If you are highlighting new products then the communications and graphics should reflect the same graphical design.

The Promotion of the Event

• The marketing of your exhibition is not just about the promotion of the stand and brand but it is also integral to promoting your business, services, and expertise.
• Whatever marketing methods you adopt make sure you measure the results. This is so that you can determine the most effective method of getting people to your stand and so that you can analyse your Return on Investment (ROI).
• Make sure that all your promotion is highly focused and correctly targeted.
• Consider all possible methods of communication because different people like to receive communication in different ways. Use the full range of traditional offline promotion as well as online promotion and social media.

We will outline the marketing and promotion of exhibitions in three sections:

• Promotion through the Trade Show organisation. (This blog)
• Traditional Marketing Media promotion. (next blog tip)
• On-line, Social Media. (next blog tip)

Promotion through a Trade Show Organisation

If you are exhibiting at a trade show then you should not just rely on the organising company to promote the event because you want to stand out from the other competitors and companies who will be promoted at the same time. Do, however, take advantage of their promotional publication to advertise your company stand and products because they will use their large database of previous and new attendees who are already targeted into your market. Promotional opportunities provided by the organisers will vary from trade show to trade show but usually consist of:

• Promotion of your company in their catalogue of exhibitors. This usually requires a short abstract about your company, what it is that you are promoting, a list of products, photos of the products, and stand location and contact details.
• An entry onto their website again listing your company products and contact information. Remember products can be searched and products cross-linked.
• PR article for their newsletter promotion.
• Advertising on website or pre-event magazine.
• Sponsorship opportunities. These will be chargeable, but your brand or company name will be promoted on banners, on part of the website, on promotion media and at the exhibition.
• Taking advantage of speaker opportunities that may arise if the trade show is running an educational seminar or is associated with a specific conference connected to the market segment into which you are marketing.
• Use the trade show logo on your in-house marketing material and emails to advertise that your company will be exhibiting.

In summary you need to use the best method of promoting your trade show attendance to your market and potential customers. The main point is to make your attendance at the show known so that those coming are aware of your presence and want to visit your stand. It does not matter how good your stand and products are if you don’t get footfall and generate leads to your products.

Tips on Sending out a brief to Exhibition Stand designers for Space Only Booth/Stands and Graphics

Once you have prepared your strategy and objectives for attending an exhibition, completed the trade show Marketing Plan and prepared the budget you will know how much money you have to spend on the exhibition stand and the graphics.

Following on from the last blog we will concentrate on Space only bespoke booths/stands and the related graphics for stands.

Space only hire of floor space is best for making a bigger impression by allowing a bespoke stand to be designed and built to your own specifications. It is very important for your exhibition stand to give the right impression in order to showcase your brand, company and products. Confirm with the stand designer and builder that they will give you full management control from concept to completion. The stand building company can also transport and erect the stand before the exhibition, and then afterwards de-rig and transport the stand back to your company or keep it in storage.

Tips when sending out a brief to a stand designer:

• Decide if you want to hire the stand for a one-off exhibition or if you have quite a few exhibitions you are attending. You may want to purchase your own stand and reuse it. Make sure that the company can store the stand and refurbish it as required. There will be an additional cost for this with each exhibition but the overall cost should be less than if you were starting from scratch each time.
• Know your budget for each component of your exhibition project. It is important that the stand designer also keeps within budget that there are no hidden costs.
• The stand designer needs to understand your company ethos.
• The designer needs to know what it is you will be exhibiting whether hardware or software, retail items etc.
• The designer needs to know what you would like included in the available floor area, like a small meeting room, storage, presentation area, demonstration area, reception information desk etc.
• The designer needs to know your marketing theme, what look and feel you would like at the exhibition, and whether it needs to follow your brand marketing or promotion.
• The designer needs to have an idea of the graphics you would like and how these will fit onto the stand walls etc.
• Research the stand designers and decide what designs in the past they have done that you like and whether they have used the materials you are thinking of using for your stand.
• Get examples of previous successful stands that they have created so you can refer to them in your brief.
• Make you brief as full as possible including what you want to achieve so that the stand designer and builder can respond as closely to your requirements.
• Send out briefs to no more than three designers; any more becomes overkill.

 Graphic Tips

• Get a design agency or marketing department to design what you want to say about the brand and incorporate into the graphics.
• Keep to corporate colours, logo and trademark for your brands.
• Promote the key brand that you are there to exhibit.
• Keep graphics simple and visual; too much information looks messy.
• Remember the audience are walking past and they need to know what your company does or products you sell, as easily as possible.