What Not to Do at Your Next Conference
We spend a lot of time talking about best practices at conferences, how to create the best booth space, how to draw in customers and make a good impression. However, when you think about it, it’s equally important to avoid pitfalls and critical errors. What you don’t do is just as important as what you do.
Trade show season is coming up fast, and taking the right approach to your trade show presence is critical to your business operations and strategies. Discover some major conference mistakes to avoid and pitfalls that can cause harm to your efforts, so you can maximize your return on investment.
Conference Mistakes to Avoid
There are tons of conference mistakes to avoid, and any of them could be a critical error that hurts the time and money you’ve invested in your presence there. A few of the biggest, however, are getting too complicated, not training your staff, failing to consider your booth design up front, being late, and breaking down too soon.
Getting too Complicated
Keep your presence inviting, but simple. Don’t overload your booth with a thousand things that draw attention in twenty different directions all at once. Have a unified message and deliver a gorgeous and eye-catching, but straightforward experience for visitors. Avoid cluttered backdrops-keep them bright, colorful and unified.
Ultimately, it is undeniable that conferences are an excellent marketing opportunity for your products and services. However, if you intend on leading or speaking at any seminars or sessions throughout a conference, then be sure to know your topic inside out and keep your points clear.
This is particularly important if you work in the finance sector. Financial jargon can often seem overwhelming, so remember to break down your key facts into easily digestible chunks. Heading to a financial conference any time soon? Head to the LeadJig website for more marketing tips on leading a memorable financial seminar.
Failing to Train Staff
Booth training is key to your success. Just because someone knows the business, doesn’t mean they know how to talk to customers at a trade show. Make sure they know the right language and tactics to use, that they have 3-second elevator pitches proven to work, that they know how to perform whatever duties need to be undertaken for a successful show.
Make sure your staff knows how to appear open and inviting, and a means to get people curious that’s not directly related to your business. Have them offer giveaways that will draw people in, and make these giveaways unique – not just another pencil with your name on it!
Failure to Plan in Advance
Failure to plan in advance is the most critical error you can make. You need to take some time to think about your plan of action. Know before you ever get to the show how you’re going to set up your booth. Know how the backdrop and graphics are going to play together, what the layout of your tables will be, the viewing angles and how all the technology will integrate.
Planning in advance will help you avoid overcomplicated, confusing presentations and to address potential problems before the pop up. It’ll also make your setup that much quicker when you arrive!
Arrival and Breakdown Errors
Being late on the first day of the convention – indeed, being late on any day of the convention – is a critical error. It sends a message that you’re not all that invested in being there, and you stand to lose out on some early passers-by who could otherwise become new customers. Leaving too early sends the same message. Set up early, arrive early, and wait till the end of the con to break down.
If you’d like help making your next trade show appearance a success and more information about conference mistakes to avoid, call Xibit Trade Show Services for help today!
