Greg Rowell, director of The Woo (Growdon Group), project event manager of the National Small Business Summit:
“Firstly and importantly you need to have the best people in the stand to achieve your objectives.
“You need people that can easily communicate with delegates, who can quickly assess if the delegate is a hot, warm or cold lead, and decide whether they have the power to make a decision to purchase your product or service.
“Have a system that can record this: use the back of their business cards, or have some exhibitors take a business card, use the email address and send an email to the delegate from the booth immediately after they leave the booth.
“Train your staff on how to connect with people, ask the right questions and then quickly disconnect with the delegate and move on if that person will waste their time.”
Travis Stanton, editor at EXHIBITOR & Corporate EVENT magazines:
“This could encompass any combination of the following in-booth activities: live presentations, video presentations, hands-on demonstrations, games and activities, informational touchscreens, contests or drawings, etc.
“The idea here is threefold: First, it gives attendees something to do when they visit your booth.
“This encourages them to stay longer in your space (as opposed to skipping off to your competitor’s booth) and hopefully have more meaningful conversations with your staffers.
“Second, it provides an experience they can’t get at a retail store. For example, if you sell computers, your booth should offer an experience beyond what they could get standing in front of a Best Buy display.
“Finally, people tend to remember experiences much longer than they remember casual conversations or static product displays.
“And that memorability is gold if attendees can recall your company and its offering long after the show is over.”
Helen Mantellato, director of sales – exhibitions, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre:
“Having talked to many people throughout the day, you and your team will probably have picked up a good number of business leads – make sure you have a meeting with your team at the end of the day to gather this information.
“Follow up with your delegates by arranging a meeting at their convenience; send your information to them by way of an ‘icebreaker’ email and follow this up with a phone call.
“Social media is playing an increasingly bigger role in exhibitions and trade shows.
“Think about sharing some thoughts both before and after the event. It’s also a great way to learn from others, and to build new contacts.
“Blogs and sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are important event marketing and communications tools, so why not create your own blog and company or personal profile in these social networks to communicate with potential clients and new contacts before, during and after an event?”
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
