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Tradeshow Booth Care and Maintenance
Article by Jonna Hayden of Polaris,
Inc.
It’s coming up on tradeshow time again, and it’s time
to take a good, long look at your booth to make sure everything is up
to snuff. After all, last season you worked hard to generate leads and
so did your booth, so it may be feeling a bit tired and run down.
Your tradeshow booth is a major investment for your company and should
be maintained just like your car. If you take care of it, it will provide
you with years of good service. Below is a checklist of things to evaluate
annually before the tradeshow season begins.
Size
Before you embark on another season, you should assess whether or not
the size of your booth worked for you in the previous year. You may
have found that it was too small for the amount of customers you were
trying to consult with, or that the layout and podium sizes were awkward.
If the physical space of the booth was limiting, you should rethink
what you need based on your previous experience—perhaps you can
eliminate a component to provide you more open space. Alternatively,
many booths are easily expandable and can have many different configurations
to maximize economy of space.
A good idea is to take the information you have about your booth, including
model, size, layout, and graphics available, and see your distributor
about the options available to you. Don’t spend another season
trying to write orders on the corner of the booth because you don’t
have enough writing area. It’s unprofessional and conveys a sense
of ill preparedness that isn’t good in any line of business.
Graphics
The graphics are undeniably the most important part of your booth. They
are what draws customers to you, and what communicates who you are.
How are yours holding up? Are they still fresh? Do they still communicate
your image? Is the theme still clear and unified, or have you added
things over last season (new products, new information) that have now
made the booth graphics obsolete? If so, you’ll need to go back
to design and create a new, up-to-date theme that communicates your
new information.
As we’ve stated before, every display graphic should be eye-catching,
informative, and professional. (Click here to read “The Art of
Trade Show Booth Design” by Angelita V. Menchaca.) Reassess your
booth graphics and evaluate whether or not they are still answering
the questions of who you are, what you’re selling, and why your
customers should buy it. If the graphics are dated, have old information,
or are damaged or dirty, replace them. You may think you can get through
another season with the old information, but you’ll be making
a mistake. Potential clients notice the state of your booth, can recognize
the omission of pertinent information, and draw their own unfavorable
conclusions.
Structure
The physical structure of your booth takes the most wear during the
season. It gets put up, taken down, put up, taken down, and shipped
all over the place. Very often, different people who are unfamiliar
with the structure are setting it up and can be rather rough on the
system. Your frame is vital to the success of your show. It holds the
message to your audience, and if the frame is bent or drifting to the
right, you don’t look polished and professional
Before your show season starts, pull out the structural components of
your booth and give them a thorough assessment. Are there any broken
parts? Are the connectors all in working order? Are you missing any
pieces that you temporarily replaced with duct tape last year? Is the
fabric or other facial surface looking worn or dirty? Now is the time
to contact your distributor and get those items repaired or replaced.
A trade show is an interview where the customer is allowed and entitled
to pass you up on account of your appearance. Presentation is half the
sale. Be prepared and understand that allocating money toward this presentation,
while it can be costly, has strong potential to yield high returns.
About the Author: Jonna Hayden was an event coordinator with a large,
non-profit organization before she joined Polaris as a Project Coordinator
in 2002. With a strong history of developing budgets, producing creative
solutions, meeting tight deadlines, and working with a variety of people,
she’s a great asset in our Polaris Oakridge office that brings
a lot to our clients and the company.
Copyright © 2004 by Polaris,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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