To Exhibit...Or Not to Exhibit? An Answer to the Trade Show Dilemma

Part 1 of 6
Business trade shows and expos provide wonderful exposure for you to promote your service or product. Almost all Chamber of Commerce and other networking organizations sponsor these marketing opportunities to their members. There is always a cost to exhibit at these events, and sometimes it can be a hefty fee.

Frequently at an event I notice that over a third of the exhibitors don’t capitalize on the opportunity and frankly, I wonder why they spent the money to even be there.

The most memorable space I saw was at a two-day Chamber of Commerce event this past August, held in conjunction with an outdoor summer festival, which guaranteed high traffic for the exhibitors. I wandered up to a table that had a fish bowl to drop cards in to win a door prize, and the really nice item, an oversized space heater, sitting on the table. That was it. The gentleman behind the table encouraged me to fill out a little pre-printed form for the drawing. It simply asked for my name and phone number.

I asked him the name of his company, as there were no brochures, flyers or even business cards to identify the company or their product or service. He told me it was on the sign. The sign he was referring to was hanging in front of the table and was on an erasable message board that was smudged beyond recognition, as everyone who came up to the table leaned against it and blocked it from the view of people passing by.

He animatedly started to go through his schpeil. I stopped him mid-sentence and told him that I was visiting all the other booths too and at his table, there was nothing to help me to remember the product he was so excited about. I explained that without something to take away from his exhibit, he missed the whole point of being there. But most obviously, the company didn’t put much thought into the display at all. . . . . or being remembered.

Next post: Why are you going to be an exhibitor at a business expo in the first place?