2023 Trade Shows, Planning, Process, Process, PROCESS

What a riveting blog post title right? I must not be feeling very creative right now. We have a number of best practices documents and recommendations we make to our clients regarding trade shows, and I thought I would share a bit of one of them right now.

Since trade shows have made a comeback, we continue to be plagued with shipping issues. Things are better, but we are not out of the woods yet. Two very specific issues include:

• Shipping Delays
• Increased Shipping Costs

FedEx & UPS will just plain deliver whenever they feel like it. They make very few guarantees anymore on deliveries. With FedEx the only service you can even dispute is overnight service and that is expensive.

But this isn't about shipping. Increased shipping costs COULD/SHOULD be a catalyst to your organization to do a better job in planning.

Here are our suggestions.

• Plan your ENTIRE year worth of trade shows NOW. If you are in growth mode that may not be possible, but at least plan a full quarter in advance.
• Work with your trade show exhibit provider to be sure you have a calendar of shows with at least dates and locations set. Many trade show exhibit companies have online portals that you can utilize to manage your trade show schedule. Total Displays offers one to their storage clients.
• Consider using a trade show exhibit company like Total Displays to manage and ship your trade show assets. That frees up your marketing team do work on actual marketing rather than packing and shipping your trade show assets.
• If you handle your own logistics, be sure to have a documented process for the people that are preparing your trade show assets to go to the show. The last thing you want is for something to arrive at your show broken, dirty or not functional.
• If you are going to handle your own logistics (see above) hire someone like Total Displays to help you create documented processes to ensure your success.
• PREPARE. Last minute show orders and requests are EXPENSIVE.   Again, be sure you have a written policy internally or with your exhibit company that indicates what you want to happen when an overnight or expedited show request is received. Don't get surprised with a shipping bill that is more than the cost of the concrete for the show. Last minute orders costs everyone a lot of money.
• Who makes decisions about what assets go to each show?  Is it your sales reps? Is it a marketing rep? Do you sales reps pick the best and most expensive give aways to go to an underperforming show?  Again, I can't stress this enough. PROCESS PROCESS PROCESS. Have documented procedures and make sure your staff or your trade show exhibit company follow them!

These thoughts are a drop in the bucket. Be sure you have good partners to help you navigate the brave new world of trade shows. If you want to chat more about any of these items or need help in creating documented or best practices procedures for your organization and trade show team, contact us at:  sales@totaldisplays.com