Elements to Consider When Organizing a Trade Show

Creating a trade show is exciting and challenging both. Trade shows are wonderful opportunities for big or small companies to market their brand, showcase products, network with fellow industry partners, and interact with customers or prospective clients directly. However, it is not an easy task to organize a trade show. You will face many challenges and overcome different issues. Creating an expo involves many tasks and required many different skills. From strategic planning to marketing execution and event planning. Here are some factors you should consider before running a successful trade show campaign.

7 Steps to Make Your Trade Show Organization Easier

1. Plan Your Show

   First thing first, you should plan your event. Creating a plan of actions in advance will increase your chance of success. Establish your event goals and objectives, so that it will become easy to determine exactly. During your planning stage you should focus on these main elements:
   • First, Develop Event Goal and Objectives
   • Set a Date and venue place
   • Make a venue shortlist
   • Draft a show specification
   • Draft a marketing plan
   • Develop your budget

2. Build a Team

   Managing a trade show by yourself is going to be very hard. You have to handle a lot of different and non-related tasks. So, you need to hire a team or outsource the agency that will execute your event. It will save your time and lower your burden. We recommend to hire at least one person for the following roles:
   • Project Manager
   • Event Planner
   • Marketing Manager
   • Sales
   • UI/UX Designer

3. Find a Main Partner / Sponsor

   Promoting your expo can be hard. One tactic that can help you is to tie up with partner/sponsor companies that has a lot of expertise in the industry you are targeting or/and that is view as an expert by your target audience. It will help your partner to get involve with you.

4. Find the Perfect Location

   Once you have your plan, your team, and your main partner / sponsor, you will have to start searching the location for your event. The venue location must be close to your target market. You should also consider the different services provided by the venue.

5. Execute Your Marketing Plan

   Once you have set the date and the place for your event, you should start promoting it. Use all marketing channels social media, Radio, TV, Online Marketing, SMS, Email Marketing, Banner advertising etc. You should track every single marketing action you've taken and adjust them depending on their performance.

6. Create On-Site Marketing Materials

   The big day is coming soon. You want to make sure that your attendees, exhibitors, speakers and sponsors will have the best experience during your event. Banners or standing banner, Leaflets, Business cards are absolute necessities when organizing the trade show or conference. Use eye-catching, recognisable display banners directional signs, flyers / Prospectus to make your exhibit easy for customers and prospects to notice.

This checklist will guide you execute your tasks, and save your extra time. If you're sick of processing event registrations and payments by hand, there's a software that can completely automate the process for you online. Converz is an online event management tool for Trade Exhibition Organizers who are looking to take their trade events to the next level. From delegate ticketing to supporting b2b trade meetings to providing exhibitors with the latest technology to smoothen the experience, Converz can help.