I’ve just returned from SuiteWorld 2015, and it reminded me about how much effort goes into making a successful trade-show exhibition.  This user conference was a four day learning event with a lineup of decadent keynotes and savory user sessions, and I was extremely impressed with the smorgasbord of talented speakers.  It was also a 4 day exhibit hall event in Silicon Valley, and for everyone who’s set up and exhibited, you know that 4 days is a massive effort for your planners and staffers. With this in mind, I thought I’d opine on the recipe for success at trade-shows in this post.

1. Engage Your Audience:  SuiteWorld launched the engagement mechanism by creating a weeklong charity challenge for every attendee (over 7,500). The NetSuite organization did this by partnering with Fitbit to create a weeklong wellness challenge. Every attendee was given a Fitbit Flex and a choice to participate on behalf of two well know charities: MANNA or Water for Life.  Each step helped to support your team’s effort at winning. The dashboards were accessible on the Fitbit.com site, and you could see who was winning. This was a spirited way to engage the participants, including the NetSuite employees, and their CEO, Zach Nelson.  Everywhere you turned you overheard discussions about challenge and how many steps people were taking. The conference team started the engagement, and got foot traffic into the exhibit hall where the vendors took over.

2. The “Three-Foot” Rule: My reps know this mandate, and yours should as well. If an attendee comes within 3 feet of you as an exhibitor, please reach out, say hello and invite them into your booth.  Your company has  made a significant investment in time and money to exhibit with the expectation that the staffers will bring back a treasure trove of qualified leads. In fact, we all use the metric “cost per lead” to measure the success of tradeshows among and against various other lead generation efforts. If you are not doing your part then chances are you won’t be back to exhibit in future years. The conference planners generally do their best to get the foot traffic into the exhibit hall, but it’s on you to execute after that. Don’t be shy and don’t be over aggressive, but engage and ask great questions.  Have 5-7 impactful questions at the ready for your team.

Here are some of the better openers that I experienced at SuiteWorld:

• Which team are you on for the Fitbit challenge and how many steps have you taken today?
• How did you enjoy the keynote this morning?
• What technology are you most interested in learning about while you are here?
• When was the last time you had a Rice Krispy Treat for breakfast (no joke, and thanks Dell Boomi for my morning fix).
• Would you like to win a GoPro HERO4 (this can be substituted for any premium give away)

You can substitute your own questions above, and I’d love to hear comments on some of your best openers below. 

3. Make the Booth Experience Memorable and Valuable:  Booth traffic is great, but you have to stand out from the other exhibitors and make great use of time.  Is it your product, your booth, your pitch or your  promos or tchotchkes that supports the traffic in the booth?  Whatever the driver, you need to determine what will make you memorable after the event so that when you reach out to the lead they remember you.  We all know that the exhibit hall is for exhibiting products, and attendees come to learn about your business, but are you a fit for the buyers priorities. Make the story more about solving problems rather than feature function to build enthusiasm and emotional connection.

Also remember that with a large conference you have to move through a lot of people in a narrow window of time.  Once you’ve gotten a visitor you need to do 3 things quickly:  assess the lead quality, get your message across, and schedule the follow up.    Have you ever driven deeply into a lengthy discussion only to find out the person was well outside of your product need or buying persona?  Is that a good use of your time?  Most exhibitors staff shows with a small handful of reps, therefore, you have to remember to qualify early so that you don’t over commit to the wrong conversation.  At a conference of 7,500+ attendees you need to manage the effort well and maximize the output. With the best leads, get a follow up on the calendar. Everyone carries their schedule on their smartphone, so take advantage of the present to get the next meeting scheduled.

4. Yummy Candy and Bright, Shiny Tchotchkes – Over the years I have learned that great candy and great promotional items support booth traffic.  Make sure they are out and obvious so that visitors see what is available as it increases your chance of creating the interaction.  There are always new items coming to market so make sure you keep up with the times, and don’t over invest for the year as items and their perceived value constantly change.  For instance, the power bricks are a hot item right now just as LED flashlights were in 2014.  Don’t overspend on the general items, in fact, I recommend staying under $2 for the general, and perhaps no more than $10 for your select premiums. Let the casual visitors have a general item, but entice the right visitors to work a little harder for the premium items. It’s your decision on how to design the call to action, but ensure the alignment.  And…. don’t let your premiums fall prey to the exhibit hall Tchotchke hunters.

Candy is critical, and don’t forget it.

My recipe for the perfect candy bowl includes massive amounts of good chocolate.  I am from the Philadelphia area, so my preference is Hershey’s, but other regions have high quality chocolate, so find your mix.  I believe a combination of Krackel, Peanut Butter Cups, and Kisses makes for a great candy bowl. Please also remember that unwrapped candy is not an option.

Don’t shortchange your staff or your visitors with bad candy.

What’s your candy bowl favorite?

Bonus Tip:   You don’t have to spend the money on the $900 trade show scanner if you are on a tight budget.  There’s an app for that, in fact, I have been scanning business cards easily with the ScanBizCards App for IOS and Android. It takes a picture, does the OCR conversion, and even allows you to connect it to LinkedIn all in a matter of seconds.

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to comment.