The (Trade) Show Must Go On! Overcoming The Unexpected.
There’s no such thing as smooth sailing when you’re manning trade show booths/displays during a busy convention. The only thing you can be certain of is that something is going to go wrong that requires immediate attention. The better you plan ahead and think up contingency plans for your exposition days, the more chance you have of rescuing an unexpected situation.
Just as in theater – at a trade show, The Show Must Go On. After all, allowing an unexpected event to derail your expo booths can mean a large financial loss, plus loss of the planned new sales, and might mean becoming a social media spectacle. If you can adapt and turn a bad situation to your advantage, you can limit the loss and sometimes can even find a way to benefit from it.
Sometimes, turning an accident to your favor garners extra good press for your trade show booths. One consequence of the real-time world we live in is that those who are able to meet a sudden challenge with grace and aplomb will get noticed for it. Just look at how much attention Oreo got simply for Tweeting during the Superbowl blackout.
Now obviously, there would be no way for us to cover every contingency that might arise, but at least think about the ones that have already happened to someone. Here are some common problems and solutions that have happened to far too many trade show exhibits over the years. Make sure you’ve got these covered, then think about any special cases that might come up from your latest expo displays plans.
Grace Under Pressure: Giving Your Trade Show Booths Nimble Feet
I. Have an emergency repair kit:
Before the show, you should assemble a large container with every minor patching or fix-it tool you even might need. Duct tape, staplers, large rolls of paper, writing implements, backup cell batteries, a tool kit or multitool – anything that might get you an on the spot repair, coverup, or other creative fix.
Don’t forget about patching up your people too: Throw some bandaids in there and a few different kinds of painkillers (there will be headaches and you never know when you’ll get someone with an allergy or intolerance. A small first aid kit can be incredibly handy, if you can get it cheap.
The best part is: this is an investment. Don’t have to pull out The Box all show? Say thanks for small favors and throw it into storage. Or, once begun, it can be easily restocked or re-purposed as your needs change. In business terms, it’s a small investment to begin with and it can save you when a freak accident blindsides you.
II. Over-plan as much as is feasible:
Sometimes demos go awry. Equipment that they swore would be there and installed by 10 AM has gone AWOL instead. The freight carrier got into an accident, the FedEx shipment missed the flight, your keynote speaker gets sick and cancels at the last moment. A mistake at the printers causes 10,000 pamphlets on etymology to refer to entomology instead. Or sometimes, unexpected popularity causes an embarrassing run on your expo booth’s free swag.
Turning away conventioneers who arrived too late for a really awesome promotion is like shooing kids away from the Santa display at night. If you have a super promotion planned, plan for success! Bring enough of the promotional item, but you will want to have at least a couple Plan Bs lined up: Have funny games or projects or speakers or demonstrations or hand-out materials in reserve that get rolled out when you need to improvise quickly.
III. Have someone in direct control of social media:
The more socially-integrated your expo displays are, the more danger there is of something going awry with your social media campaign. If a Tweet starts making the rounds that needs to be dealt with, or someone posted a picture of someone tagged in an unflattering pose, there should be someone assigned to watch the social media and that is empowered to deal with any problems immediately, on the spot.
Social media separates out the companies who can get onboard the now-centric Internet. Being able to respond to online challenges within minutes is a capability that many companies need, and few have. Start cultivating it within your own group. Overseeing the social media for an exposition booth is a great way for a budding Social Media Director to get experience, as well.
IV. Get to know people at the show:
Don’t be a stranger! Take some time out to meet the people at your neighboring booths, and potentially even say ‘hi’ to the competition if your industry is on friendly terms. You never know when a chance connection made at the trade show will pay off later on when the unexpected occurs.
By the same token, if you’re ever called on to help another booth in need – do so! You get to look good in the process, and you’re potentially making a new friend. You simply cannot buy the sort of exposure companies get when a cobbled-together collaboration pays off.
Plan Ahead
One of the indicators of your success when you put up trade show displays is how well you can keep them running smoothly throughout the length of a show. Take some real time out and ensure that you have contingency plans in place to cover you in case you suddenly lose access to a planned activity.
The more you do beforehand to ensure that you’ve got plans in place when the unexpected occurs, the better it will look for you and your trade show booths when everything is live.
To avoid mistakes, see our articles on how to not shoot your displays in the foot and our easy ways to avoid sabotaging your own trade show.