I recently had a chance to attend the worlds largest hospitality technology show, I had this opportunity thanks to two of Echelon’s newest clients Cetis, Inc. and Intelity who were exhibiting.  Cetis, Inc. is a leader in hospitality and enterprise phones, you can trace their roots back to 1983 (who doesnt love the 80′s).  Intelity is a fairly new technology company that gives guests of the hotel the capability to order any and all services offered by the property through the use of your iPad, iPhone and other devices.  Simply put, you can order room service, valet service, etc all with one touch on your favorite device.

The Cetis exhibit was a custom rental that we designed to be warm and inviting, a place that you might want to sit down and hang out in.  We accomplished this by including a raised conference/meeting area, using rich colors, large fabric identity sails, an architectural wall and a large product display area.

Intelity is also a custom rental, our goal was to attract attendees to the exhibit with the use large story board graphics and highly visible demo areas.  We provided a overhead hanging sign, a conference space on the interior, and six custom kiosks that were used for product demonstrations and provided excellent space for large graphic murals.

I enjoyed working with both teams and was pleased to hear great feedback about the show in general as attendance was up from the 2009 show.

It is pretty easy to walk the show floor and spot the exhibitors that “just show up” and it is more common than you may think.  I was in Orlando for the HDI show last month and had a chance to catch lunch just before my departing flight.  The guy sitting next to me was obviously a sales guy, you know the look, that had been a staffer for an exhibitor at another show that was in town.  Mistakenly, I struck a conversation with him, I asked “how was the show for you guys”, “I hate trade shows” he responded, “really, why?”, “I think they are pointless and I dont like begging people to buy my product” he says.  Luckily it was time to catch my flight right after that comment.  Do you think this guy should have been representing his company at the show?

Exhibiting at a trade show can be an invaluable experience.  However, if you and your team are not prepared, your ROI will reflect that.  To get the most from exhibiting, you should have a realistic budget, goals, prepared staff, collateral in place, and set appointments.

Review and Implement a Realistic Budget
Setting a realistic budget is vital to the success of your show.  Common things to take into consideration are exhibit space, exhibit materials, show services, pre-show promotion and staff expense/time.  It’s almost impossible to realize positive ROI when you don’t know how much you’re spending – and what you’re spending it on!  I will be using a $70,000 overall budget for illustrative purposes below.

Set Goals

One of the best place to begin planning for the show is by identifying your trade show goals and strategies. Simply put, this is the way that you will position your company, products, and or services at the actual tradeshow. What are you trying to accomplish? What specific outcomes are you trying to achieve? What resources are you willing to commit to the actual event?  Your goals might look like this:

Goals:
- 500 Qualification Conversations
- 25 Commercial Leads
- 25 Enterprise Leads
- Cost Per Lead= $1,400 ($70,000 ÷ 50)

Staff Preparation

First step ~ be sure you are sending the correct staff members, dont send “that guy” I met in the airport.  Preparing your staff for the show can involve creating scripts for them, role-playing, and answering any questions they might have. Your trade show checklist should establish certain expectations regarding their collection of sales or leads. It should also remind you to assign specific responsibilities to your employees as early as 4 months before the event. Then, schedule weekly or biweekly training sessions to help them develop skills to engage visitors and qualify leads at the show.  Put together a presentation to bring the staffers up to speed with your goals and strategies, a good exercise is to show them exactly what it will cost for your company to simply have a presence at the show.  That might look something like this:

Overall budget= $70K
12 hours of show time
$5,833 per hour
$97.22 per minute
$1.62 per second

Collateral

This includes brochures, fact sheets, stands and posters for your booth. For trade shows, it’s a good idea to have these on a CD or USB drive and also include images or videos so you can give them to travel sellers to take away. You will need enough collateral for the show as well as for follow-up meetings and mailings.
Appointments

Be well prepared by taking the time to pre-schedule appointments, this will truly help you maximize your efforts.  Take it a step further and try to set these appointments with decision makers!

With these objectives in mind, you should feel good about what is to come from the show.  “But you dont have to take my word for it” – Burton ~ Reading Rainbow

I would love to hear your thoughts on this, what would you add?

As marketers, we all know the potential for utilizing the social networking site Twitter; still, many of us are uncertain about how to get started.  If you fall under this category then you’ll appreciate reading a great article in WSJ.com’s small business section about how to channel your Twitter voice in five steps:

1. Set company goals – what do you hope to achieve, brand recognition, PR, etc.?
2. Listen to customers – they’re already talking about you, better know what they’re saying.
3. Make contact – a conversation is two-way, you have to get involved.
4. Produce content – at least three tweets a day.
5. Voice sincerity – leave press releases where they belong, in the newsroom.

Follow Echelon on Twitter @EchelonExhibits.