There are many reasons to exhibit at trade shows (here are 22), and many reasons not to.  While there are some valid reasons not to exhibit at shows, you may mistakenly be relying on reasons to avoid shows that don’t hold water.  Here are 8:

1.  Everyone already knows who we are.

It may seem that way sometimes, that you’re so well known you don’t need to build awareness anymore.  But that high awareness level has to be invested in to be maintained – there are always new people just moving or hired into your market that have never heard of you before.  However, if you truly are universally known, then leverage that high awareness level and shift your exhibiting goals to generating leads and holding face-to-face meetings with clients.  Those are even better reasons to exhibit!

2.  Our clients love us.

Guess what – clients who love you will tell you that, but clients who don’t will tell someone else.  Maybe even your competitors who are at the show.  When your clients have problems with you, you can head off problems by meeting them face-to-face at your industry trade show and asking them, “How are we doing?  What can we do to improve?”  If you listen, and then act on what they tell you, then they really will love you.  And what better opportunity to cross-sell and upsell clients who do love you then at that rare time you can meet them face to face – at a trade show!

3.  We already have enough customers.

For the few that can honestly claim to have enough customers already, you have my admiration.  Just remember that nothing lasts forever.  There will always be turnover at your clients or among your salesforce, turning your loyal customer into a contested account.  Add to that the never-ending efforts by your competitors to dislodge you from your customers, and you have even more reason to keep seeking new clients.

4.  We know where the industry is going.

With the more competitive global economy, the speed of new product innovation has increased over that last two decades.  There is no better place to feel the seismic shifts in your industry than at a trade show – and especially in your own booth, where a parade of attendees asks you how you compare to the latest developments they are seeing down the aisles.  Keep your finger on the pulse by putting your feet inside your trade show booth.

5.  Our competitors can’t compare to us.

If your competitors can’t compare to you, then you should be at the show letting prospects know that.  Make your case with a trade show exhibit that clearly reveals your competitive advantages.   If you really are the best, but you are not there, remember that shopping attendees will compare the remaining vendors they do can see on the show floor.

6.  No one is shopping for our products right now.

There have been some drastic downturns in selected industries over the last few years.  But while that has reduced their flow of buyers, it hasn’t stopped the remaining buyers from attending – and shopping — at trade shows.  There are always buyers – so if you are the one who exhibits, you’ll be the one they meet when they go to the show.  Plus, when the industry rebounds, you’ll already be there, ready to welcome them – and their checkbook – into your trade show displays.

7.  We don’t have any new products.

When product life cycles were longer, companies timed their new product launches for their major industry trade shows.  Now, with shorter product life cycles and the rapid availability of product info via the internet, marketers don’t want to wait to launch their new products.  However, exhibitors still get tremendous value at trade shows from lead generation, increasing brand awareness, and building relationships.  And for most exhibitors, their year or two old products will likely be brand-spanking new to the vast majority of attendees they see in their booth.

8. We get enough leads already.

This is similar to #1, that everyone already knows who you are.  If you are getting enough leads already, you can shift your goals at the shows to go farther than just taking leads.  Take advantage of how the show acts as a central meeting place for your market.  So instead of flying all over the country or the world, you can set up meetings with clients, key prospects, and industry partners you want to build stronger alliances with.  You save time by meeting all these valuable people in one place.

If any of these 8 reasons have kept you from exhibiting at trade shows, perhaps now’s the time to reconsider.  Dust off that old exhibit, or perhaps even get a new trade show display, and get back into the show.

Still on the fence?  There are many more important reasons to exhibit at trade shows revealed in the 24-page white paper, The Value of Trade Shows.  Click here to request your free copy.

When Scott Lerner set out to launch an innovative line of all-natural sparkling botanical beverages, his team zeroed in on Natural Products Expo West, suspecting the world’s largest natural and organic products show would be a key component of their marketing mix.  They were right.

For Lerner, an experienced brand manager, the objective was clear: Attract distributors by making a big impression, while emphasizing the most salient aspects of the brand.

“Our packaging is a real differentiator, so it was important to present our brand in a way that reinforced the can as the hero,” says the Chicagoland entrepreneur.

Mission accomplished

Lerner admits that parting with precious start-up funds wasn’t easy, but once he decided to take the leap, he did it right.  “Initially, I had planned on a very minimal budget,” he explains.  “But I decided to invest in a trade show display that will last for years and deliver the punch I was looking for.  The result is a great trade show exhibit that makes a big impression.”

Lerner and his team were able to land The Vitiman Shoppe, a relationship that will prove to be quite valuable.  The leading nutritional products retailer has more than 400 stores in 37 states, and recently invited Lerner to exhibit at a private corporate event attended by store managers from across the nation.

Exhibit locally, distribute globally

Importers from around the world attend Natural Products Expo West in search of exciting innovations such as Solixir.  While international distribution deals may still be pending, Lerner acknowledges that exposure is key.  “We were able to get Solixir in front of several foreign importers at once – a feat that’s difficult and costly to accomplish other ways.”

The future is bright

With wins as noteable as Whole Foods and The Vitamin Shoppe, Lerner and his colleagues have a promising future ahead.  And, according to Lerner, trade shows will continue to help drive their success.  “We’ve done Natural Products Expo twice since launch,” he says, “and we plan to be there every year going forward!”

Find more reasons to exhibit at trade shows by reading The Value Of Trade Shows white paper.  This special report reveals how exhibitors and attendees find significant value in trade shows, and expect to for many years ahead!  Click here to request your free copy. 

Want to be a smarter exhibitor?  Not just above-average, slightly ahead of the pack, but a full-blown trade show marketing genius?  Then follow these 6 (not so easy, but worthwhile) steps:

• Be Genuine
• Be Experimental
• Be A Nerd
• Go International
• Be Useful
• Drive Sales

Be Genuine

Trade shows offer a huge opportunity to gain exposure for your company’s brand image.  So make your trade show exhibit true to the heart of your brand.  Trade shows let you go beyond just your brand colors and taglines.  You can create an entire experience that helps your visitors connect to what makes your company genuinely different — and better — than your competitors.  Get prospects involved and engaged with activities that embody the best of your brand.  And set the stage for a deeper personal relationship between your company and your clients and prospects.

Be Experimental

Don’t get stuck doing the same-old, same-old, just because you’ve always done it that way.  Great marketers are always testing new waters — without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  Experiment with new booth staffers, new training methods, new exhibit layouts, new promotional ideas, new booth sizes, new shows, and more.  Ask your peers what they’ve done to boost results, adapt their ideas for your situation, test, measure, and retain the best winning ideas.  Just be sure to set expectations with your bosses that you are not expecting to succeed on 100% of your tests, but need to keep experimenting or you risk being left behind.

Be A Nerd

I’m not asking you to start wearing pocket protectors or to fix your glasses with tape.  To be a trade show genius requires using more tools than paper and pencil.  It means going to school on new technology that is revolutionizing trade shows.  So go beyond knowing what Twitter is, to actually pre-scheduling a pre-show promotion campaign of tweets via a free account on www.hootsuite.com.  Learn how to take the Excel file loaded on the USB drive you get when you return the show’s rental lead retrieval machine, and import it into your company’s marketing database for quicker lead fulfillment.  Get the best content on your website adapted into an iPad app that lets your booth staffers better interact with attendees anywhere in your trade show displays.  Go ahead and get techy; it’s never been cooler.

Go International

There are 7 convention centers outside the U.S. that are larger than McCormick place, the biggest the U.S. has to offer.  What’s more, a new facility being built in Shanghai, China will be twice the size of the next largest existing show hall.  Moreover, 75% of the world’s economy lies outside our shores.  So pack your bags and go!  Just do your homework on the differences in exhibiting overseas, such as how attendees interact (more about relationship building), promotions (privacy laws make it harder to reach attendees directly pre-show), costs (show space may cost less, but travel and hotel costs cost more), and more.  We have done a lot of the homework for you – just click to request your international exhibiting white paper.

Be Useful

Increase your social intelligence by making yourself more useful to all the stakeholders of your trade show program.  Help your sales manager drive more sales from your trade show leads by finding out what questions booth staffers should ask to qualify attendees in your trade show booths.  Then your sales manager will be more willing to let you handpick your favorite booth staffers.  Provide answers quickly to your exhibit house account executive (such as approval on graphics files) and you’ll build up a reserve of goodwill you can call upon for help in an emergency.  And most of all ask your top management what are their main goals for exhibiting at trade shows – then measure and report how your program achieved those goals.

Drive Sales

Perhaps the smartest thing you can do for your trade show career is be known as a rainmaker that positively moves the dial generating revenue.  You drive sales by going to the shows where your buyers walk the aisles, pulling them into your trade show exhibits with enticing promotions, engaging staffers, and attention-getting exhibits, then giving the best leads to your sales force, and finally proving those leads generated sales through measurement.   Prove that you can profitably generate sales with your trade show program and you’ll soon be known as an exhibiting Einstein.

Stretch your exhibiting brainpower by pursuing some or all of these 6 ideas.  You’ll be seen as the genius within your company that knows how to get the most out of trade shows.

Find more smart ways to boost your trade show results in The Value of Trade Shows, a 24-page white paper that reveals why exhibitors and attendees value shows, and how exhibitors can get more out of them.  Click here to request your free copy. 

Think exhibiting is tough?  It sure beats the alternatives!  Here are 16 burdensome things you can avoid by exhibiting at a trade show!

I’d rather be exhibiting than:

1. Losing touch with what’s going on in my market
2. Not knowing what my competition is doing
3. Forgetting what my client looks like
4. Not keeping up with my industry network
5. Losing my clients to a competitor
6. Cold calling all day (can you say, “Voicemail Hell?”)
7. Being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the way to a prospect
8. Cleaning up my database
9. Deleting out-of-office emails
10. Sitting in my tiny cube
11. Not expanding my company network
12. Enduring another meeting
13. Miss meeting my industry press
14. Having people ask “who is your company?” when I call
15. Not learning about the newest products
16. Being stuck in the same old routine

There’s a lot of value to your company when you are in your trade show booth!  What things would you rather be exhibiting than doing?  Share your ideas in the comment box below.

If you’d rather be exhibiting better, then get the white paper What’s Working in Exhibiting. For your free copy, click here. 

Skyline hosted webinars called “The Value of Trade Shows” on August 10th and 11th, 2011.   Thank you so much for sharing your comments and your questions about how to get the most of of trade shows, be it lead management, trade show exhibit design, and more.

As promised, here is the pdf of the actual presentation content.  (If the pdf viewer is not loading on your browser, you can go to the actual pdf file by copying and pasting this URL into your browser window: http://bit.ly/qwqt9G

During the seminar we offered several items.  If you did not attend or did not ask during the webinar, just click to request your copies:

• The Value of Trade Shows White Paper
• What’s Working In Exhibiting White Paper
• Info on Skyline’s portable displays and modular inline exhibits
• Info on Skyline’s custom modular island exhibits

Thanks again for attending!

Why do exhibitors value trade shows?  What are their objectives for exhibiting?  What benefits do they get from exhibiting?

It turns out exhibitors have a lot of great reasons for exhibiting, many that can’t be easily duplicated anywhere else.

Let’s look at exhibitor’s top 8 reasons for exhibiting at trade shows, as reported in The Value of Trade Shows, a white paper published this year by Skyline and EXPO Magazine:

1)  88% of Exhibitors Exhibit for Awareness

The top reason exhibitors exhibit at trade shows is to raise the awareness of their company and brand.  Nearly 9 out of 10 exhibitors agreed this is a reason for their participation at events.  They build their brand, the awareness of their products, and improve the name recognition of their company.  Raising awareness is even more important for new companies, new exhibitors, or companies entering new geographical or vertical markets.

2)  72% of Exhibitors Exhibit for Leads

Fill my pipeline!  72% of exhibitors say they exhibit to get leads from new buyers and prospects.  Trade shows are a major method for lead generation for business-to-business companies.  Exhibitors bring back piles of leads to fill the pipeline of their sales force.  Exhibitors can qualify the leads right at the show and move them farther down the buying cycle.

3)  70% of Exhibitors Exhibit to Build Partnerships

Let’s make a deal!  70% of exhibitors say they exhibit to create and or strengthen industry relationships or partnerships.  This demonstrates that trade shows add significant value beyond their value in reaching clients and prospects.  Trade shows are where an industry gathers, and it’s often the best time to forge and renew alliances with partners, not just interact with buyers.

4)  65% of Exhibitors Exhibit to See Current Clients

Of course it is very valuable to see your buyers face-to-face.  65% of exhibitors agree they exhibit to see their current clients.  It’s harder every day to get face time with overworked clients while they are in their office, so trade shows give exhibitors that opportunity.  And in their trade show displays, exhibitors can reveal new products, cross-sell and up-sell clients on other products, and just make sure everything is okay and that their relationship is strong.

5)  58% of Exhibitors Exhibit to Network With Industry Colleagues and Vendors

Beyond partners and clients, exhibitors also like to see their industry colleagues and vendors.  That’s why 58% agree it’s one of the reasons they exhibit at trade shows.  It’s a great time to catch up and find out what’s the buzz and pulse of the industry – what are the major issues, what are the hot new products, what companies have been doing well or poorly.  Trade shows also offer a chance to build up and strengthen exhibitors’ network, whether it’s to start potential sales, keep tabs on competitors, or find future places to work.

6)  54% of Exhibitors Exhibit Because of Competition

More than half of exhibitors say they exhibit at trade shows because their competition is there.  These exhibitors want to protect their existing client relationships, and not be left out when attendees are looking for new solutions.  They figure that if their competition is at the show, then the clients must be there, too.  However, this is a defensive reason to exhibit.  Once exhibitors have better measurement of each shows results, and can compare each show’s attendee profile against their ideal client profile, they tend to care less about if their competition is at the show, and more about each show’s ROI and audience match.

7)  52% of Exhibitors Exhibit to Support Industry or Association

We’re in this together: 52% of exhibitors agree that they exhibit to support the industry or association.  About half of all trade shows are owned by an association, and the revenues from the show supply the majority of that association’s budget.  By exhibiting at the show they help their industry association facilitate education and networking of its members, and to fund advocacy and lobbying efforts on their behalf.

8)  52% of Exhibitors Exhibit to See Many Buyers At One Time

52% of exhibitors say they exhibit because it allows them to see many buyers at one time.  Think about it – thousands of trade show attendees actually pay to visit the show, walk down the aisles, and then walk by your tradeshow booth!  It would take many months of direct sales to equal the number of buyers you can meet with while exhibiting at a trade show.

That’s 8 reasons over 50% of exhibitors agree with!

Do you always feel like you could be doing more with your trade show program?  You’re not alone.  What may surprise you is how your exhibiting evolution may follow the exact same 3 steps as other exhibitors:

• First, exhibit to raise awareness of your company, brand, or products.
• Second, change your exhibiting goal to generating leads.
• And third, switch to focus on holding meetings in your booth, especially with clients.

This insight hit me while reviewing survey responses from exhibitors sharing what they are doing differently in their trade show programs.  Most exhibitors said they were focusing on one of these three objectives.  What struck me was how exhibitors repeatedly transitioned from one goal to the next, progressing more along this continuum of engagement.   I’ll share those quotes shortly.

Step 1: Exhibit to Increase Awareness

Here are quotes from some of the exhibitors who talked about how they exhibit at trade shows to increase awareness of their company brand:

• “We are looking at it as more of a marketing tool to make our presence known to the market.”
• “Using it more to get name recognition.”
• “Primary purpose is to gain name recognition.”

Understandably, some exhibitors that focus on branding do so because they are new companies, new to trade shows, or entering new markets:

• “Using them as a branding effort in new markets rather than sales tools.”
• “We’re just starting to use trade shows.  It is an opportunity for us to introduce our company to market sectors adjacent to our focal markets today.”
• “We did not do trade shows 2 years ago, we are looking for more exposure.”

Step 2: Exhibit to Generate Leads

After exhibiting to generate awareness for a while, trade show marketers get the itch to do … something more.  Here are three exhibitors who spoke of that transition from awareness to leads:

• “Primary focus is on generating sales leads whereas before it was more brand awareness.”
• “Using it as a true lead generator as opposed to just organizational branding.”
• “Looking for qualifying leads more than generating exposure.”

This transition only works in one direction — no one said they wanted to shift from generating leads back to raising awareness!  Other exhibitors also focused on lead generation:

• “Relying more and more on trade shows for lead source.”
• “Gathering more leads.”
• “Using to generate leads.”
• “Collecting and tracking leads.”

Step 3: Exhibit to Hold Meetings & Relationship Building

The next transition is from gathering leads, to holding meetings with key clients and prospects in their trade show booth:

• “More for maintaining relationships rather than bringing in new leads.”
• “We are using them more to set up meetings at the show.”
• “Trade shows/industry conferences have become greater opportunities to deepen existing client relationships and meet face-to-face for the first time in some cases, rather than primarily make new contacts.”

Many exhibitors even said they focus their trade show activity on meetings just with clients in their trade show displays (although over time, if you do not also gather new prospects, eventually you will run out of customers!).

• “Appearance at shows is more about reconfirming existing customers’ choice in our product, retention, meeting many customers in one setting and connecting with possible business partners, than they are about sales.”
• “We are more focused on our key customers.”
• “Account maintenance.”

Meetings in the booth seem to be a more effective use for trade shows.  We asked exhibitors to share how their organizations view the effectiveness of trade shows, and those who focus on meetings rated trade shows 13% higher than those who focus on awareness, and 32% higher than those who focus on lead generation.  Moreover, more exhibitors in our survey said they focus on meetings than either awareness or lead generation.

In this day and age when it’s so hard to get face-to-face with even our clients, it makes sense to focus on setting up meetings with your best clients and prospects.   You want to make sure you’ve got a strong relationship with your existing clients, keep them up to date on your latest offerings, and potentially cross-sell to them your other products.  And a longer meeting in the booth avoids the pitfalls of taking a quick lead on the show floor that fizzles into nothing when your sales force has a tough time getting a follow-up meeting after the show.

Not to say there weren’t other objectives that exhibitors focus on.  Some highlighted networking, some mentioned generating sales, others about a greater focus on R.O.I.  But these three – Awareness, Leads, Meetings – were by far the most common, and appear to be followed by exhibitors in order.

So where are you on this ladder of trade show objectives?  If you’ve been thinking you can do more at trade shows, maybe it’s time to stretch your program, and reach for the next rung.

For more information about how you can climb the ladder of trade show objectives, read The Value of Trade Shows. This white paper tells how exhibitors said they are increasing their trade show participation, why they value trade shows, and how they are exhibiting better at trade shows than before. Click here to request your free copy. 

When you ask the average booth staffer about trade shows, their first thing that comes to mind is long hours, sore feet, some fun, and work piling up back in the office.  This may be true, but needless to say we do shows for the benefits that we receive by way of lead counts and exposure in the market place.  Below are some of the “secrets” that can help unlock the potential of shows for you.

1.  Exhibiting without Borders: Staff in the aisle where the attendees are walking by.  It seems like where the booth carpet meets the aisle carpet, often becomes an impenetrable ”line in the sand” that staffers rarely venture past.  We all want to be “out of the box” in the way we think, so consider the exhibit space as “in the box,” and the aisle as “out of the box.”  This is where it gets a little uncomfortable, but if we can get out there and engage people as they come by, this will result in remarkably higher lead counts.  I staffed an exhibit yesterday where an attendee was going to walk by the exhibit without stopping and I engaged him, only to find out that he has operations on 3 continents and represents about a 5 million dollar sales opportunity for our client.  This guy was going to walk right by the tradeshow booth!  The only reason I pulled him in was because I was in the aisle.  The business is there and we need to be in the aisle to get it.  Sometimes the show may ask you don’t staff in the aisle, but go ahead and do it until they tell you otherwise.

2.  Watching gets you a Goose Egg: Engage attendees… period.  Recently I attended the nation’s largest trade show and did some stat counting on the trade show floor.  With one exhibit, I watched 74 attendees walk by a 60′ section of exhibit in 10 minutes, with only 2 of them being approached by the booth staffers.  The results speak for themselves: 2.7% of attendees were being reached by the staff during the time I kept track.  Why would the results be so low?  Simply put, it is because they did not engage attendees.  The opening line that works for anyone, in any show, is “What brings you to the show today?”  That question can’t be answered with one word (yes, no, or fine) and will require the attendee to stop and think about their response.  Now the door is open to qualify them and move onto the next step.

3.  Divide and Conquer: Surround staffers around in-booth attractions to get the maximum benefit from your investment. Having a game or some type of entertainment is a tremendous method for generating high traffic in your exhibit booth space and at your hospitality suite.  The key to any attraction is to engage and qualify the attendees while they are waiting for the attraction or when the attraction is completed.  Many organizations pay a tremendous amount of dollars for a great in-booth attraction, only to have attendees escape with no interaction with the booth staff.  We need to surround the attendees and make sure that we get an opportunity with them.  Another method to insure interaction is to tie the in-booth activity to the qualifying process.  We should work with the magician, trick shot pool guy, robot, or game organizer to make sure they can work into their script a qualifying question that we can see.  Not that this is any of us, but when it comes to in-booth activities, it seems that the norm in the trade show industry is to attract attendees, only to have the staff not participate in their role of interacting with the attendees.

4.  Play Zone, Not Man to Man: Create zones in your exhibit space that each staffer is responsible for.  Depending on the size of your space, you may have 5′x5′ (or 10′x10′) zones in an exhibit space that each staffer is responsible for.  Often, staffers will congregate at the main approach the exhibit and then leave a portion of the exhibit unstaffed.  Assign zone 1 to staffer “A” and let them know that this is their space and they are responsible for it during their time slot.  You are much less likely to have a staffer slip off with some prospect to chat and abandon their post.  This creates personal accountability as well, and does not allow leads to slip by the “back door,” never to be engaged by a staffer.  In addition, this technique naturally solves some of the problem of staffers congregating and talking to each other, rather than to attendees.  Creating zones can work in the largest and smallest of exhibit spaces.  It does, however, require a sufficient number of staffers in the space.

5.  Pre-Set Appointments at the Show: The primary reason we attend shows is to talk to people that can influence the sale of our products and services.  What better way to insure that we get the chance to talk to the right people than to set a specific time to talk to them at the show.  One of the keys to making this work is to do confirmation calls the morning of show to confirm the appointment and give landmarks that make it easy for them to find you.  You will need to get their cell phone number so you can catch them at the show.

6.  Make Your Giveaway Part of What You Do: Try to find a way to tie your giveaway into what you do.  This might be a direct tie-in; for instance if you are Apple, you would likely give away an iPad or a similar giveaway that is directly tied to what you do.  Many organizations are service-oriented, and in that case you might offer a percentage off their first purchase or a free on-site assessment.  If you want to give away something that is unrelated, that could work too, if the only people eligible are those who are qualified to make decisions about your products or services.  This means that attendees that are just “trick or treating” for all your free giveaways only get a Jolly Rancher and in order to register for the premium drawing, you have to be qualified.

7.  Trade Shows, Nightclubs and Mixers: Trade shows are strange.  What I mean by that is there are very few places where you stand around trying to talk to strangers and garner enough interest from them so you can tell them what you have to offer.  This process is uncomfortable and the only other places you may find yourself doing this is at a nightclub or an after-hours mixer put on by some association.  It is uncomfortable and one way to ease this angst is to find a couple of hand-picked people from your staff to be designated crowd gatherers.  They clearly need to be more out-going and gregarious than the rest of the staff to qualify.  Make it their job to be in the aisle staffing and to hand off the attendees to other people staffing the exhibit space (this does not exempt others from engaging or staffing in the aisle).  They are not responsible to do anything, but catch the attendee, qualify them, and hand them off to the staffer who can get into the details of the possible project.  After the hand off, they go back into the aisle to get some more attendees.

8.  Practice Catch and Release: Once we engage attendees, we find out that many are not qualified.  At this point we need to employ the practice used by many fishermen called “Catch and Release.”  We caught them, now we have to gracefully let them go.  The easiest way to do that is say “Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a great rest of the show.”  We are now able to gracefully let them move on and you are now free to engage other attendees.  In this process it is good to bear in mind that we don’t want to hand out our giveaways until we know they are qualified.

9.  Bring Only the Staffers that Want To Be There: The best person to staff exhibit displays is the person who wants to be there.  Picking staffers has to start with a basic criteria being met.  The staffer should want to be there.  If the staffer does not want to be there, they will not represent the organization well.  This becomes especially important, knowing that 85% the results that your organization receives is directly tied to the experience that the attendees have with your booth staffers.  Regardless of position, from CEO to the Janitor, we need to have someone who will represent the organization well – and that starts with the person who wants to be at the show.

10. Have a Huddle Every Morning: Each morning, of each day of the show, have a booth staff meeting.  Before the chaos of the show begins, gather your staff and have a pre-show meeting (roughly 1 hour prior to the start of each day).  At this meeting you can give an update on the quality of leads coming in, kudos to the best performers, announce any mid-stream adjustments, timing of activities, and update everyone on how well you are doing against the goals that have been set.  On an individual level, set specific target goals for each staffer so they have something to shoot for and compete against.  This can be given prior to the event or can be handed out at the event.  Also, this is a great opportunity to discuss the “best practices” in exhibit staffing, along with the 10 deadly sins of staffing (this may have some variation by company depending on your goals).

There is no better teacher than our experiences and observation.  These top 10 secrets are derived from both sources and if we are able to learn and use these top 10 behaviors and attitudes, we will surely double our lead count at our next event.

Learn more about how to staff your booth and increase your trade show lead count.   Click here to get your free copy of the 48-page Booth Staffing Guidebook, chock-full of helpful articles, worksheets and checklists to help your booth staffers thrive on the trade show floor.

Looking for proof that trade shows are still a powerful marketing medium?  You’ve got it!

Skyline and EXPO Magazine have combined resources to create a new white paper called The Value of Trade Shows.  Use this report to help justify and enhance your trade show program and get more people to your trade show booths!  Click here to request your copy of this report.

Based on extensive surveys with over 500 trade show exhibitors and attendees, this report reveals that even in the midst of recent technological changes, exhibitors and attendees still find significant value in trade shows, and expect to for many years ahead.

In this new, 24-page white paper:

• Exhibitors tell how they are increasing their trade show participation, why they value trade shows, and how they are exhibiting better at trade shows than before.
• Attendees share the high value they place on trade shows for sourcing products, comparing and meeting suppliers, and keeping up on industry trends.  Attendees also reveal what exhibitors can do most that will catch their attention.

Why Exhibitors Value of Trade Shows

Exhibitors value trade shows because they are effective in achieving a number of critical sales and marketing objectives.  The top reasons why exhibitors participate in conventions and trade shows are to raise awareness of company and brand, capture leads from new buyers and prospects, and create and/or strengthen industry relationships or partnerships.

Exhibitors also gave other reasons they value trade shows:

• Exhibitors that responded to the survey plan on average to increase their budgets by 9.6%, and increase the number of events they exhibit in or sponsor from 21 events in 2010 to 23 in 2011.
• 63% of exhibitors indicated their organizations’ rate conventions, trade shows and conferences as “extremely” or “very valuable.”
• An extremely high 91% of exhibitors say that conventions, trade shows and conferences will remain to be critical to marketing over the next five years.

Why Attendees Value Trade Shows

Without attendees, there would be no trade shows.  Fortunately for exhibitors, attendees find great value from going to conventions:

• A significant 88% of attendees say that conventions, trade shows and conferences are an important part of their product sourcing and buying process. An even higher percentage (91%) agrees that conventions, trade shows and conferences are essential for comparing products and meeting suppliers.
• 90% of attendees feel that business events will continue to be critical to their product sourcing and purchasing over the next five years.
• 73% of attendees say their organizations rate conventions, trade shows and conferences as “extremely” or “very valuable.”
• Travel and event attendance budgets are expected to increase by an average of 4.1% this year.
• 57% of attendees say they or their organization make a major purchase, or finalize an important deal, within three months of attending an event.

How to Exhibit Better

This white paper provides exhibit marketers with a blueprint for justifying — and enhancing — the value trade shows have in their company’s marketing plan.  Exhibitors also share in this report how they are marketing at and selecting trade shows differently, and what are the most common methods exhibitors have used to improve their trade show programs over the last two years.

Prove — and improve — the value of your trade show program.  Click here to get The Value of Trade Shows, the new 24-page report by Skyline Exhibits and Expo Magazine.

If you have been hesitating about buying your trade show exhibit, Uncle Sam is giving you a nudge to buy your display this year.

The U.S. Government recently passed new legislation that lets businesses fully expense in 2011 the cost of capital equipment – such as a trade show display.

So rather than depreciate the cost of the display over several years, you can expense it all in 2011.  That means no waiting for most of the tax benefits of investing in capital equipment.

Why is Uncle Sam being so generous?  To keep the economy energized. To incentivize businesses to invest in their own business.  To create demand for durable goods that require workers to build.  In a word: Jobs.

Some exhibitors rent their exhibits because it allows them to expense their costs in the same year as the trade show, and to avoid the need to amortize their display purchase over several years.  However, if you buy this year, you will get similar tax advantages as renting your exhibits.

Obviously, you don’t make a purchase based just on tax policy.  However, there are real marketing benefits to buying your exhibit now.  Purchase your exhibit now, and get:

• A stronger visual impact that attracts more leads that will grow your sales and profits
• An updated look that’s more aligned with your current branding
• Marketing messages more in tune with today’s buyers
• An exhibit shaped to better fit your functional trade show leads
• New, lighter weight exhibit structures that lowers your operating costs and increases flexibility
• A rejuvenated booth staff proud to stand in the new booth

These add up to powerful benefits for buying a new trade show booth this year.  It appears that Uncle Sam was on to something!

To learn more about the 2011 tax incentive program, click here or consult with your tax advisor.  Also, in case you or your colleagues need more help justifying a new display, here are 15 more reasons to buy a new trade show display.