Exhibition Planning

In this article I am writing about how to plan exhibitions effectively. Exhibition planning needs a marketing plan including pre-show, at-show and follow-up plan which I will discuss one by one.

Pre-show Planning

1. Assembling a team of people who have the necessary skills and experience.

2. Exhibition budget should be prepared.

3. Research about the exhibition and about the organizers before deciding to get registered. Check the past exhibitors list to get an idea of what kind of companies have previously participated in this.

4. Register in the exhibition in which you want to participate.

5. The next step is to get the information about the floor plan of the exhibition and the costs associated with it. 

6. Discuss with your managing team and decide about the exhibition space you want for your exhibition stall. Identify what kind of space best suits your sales/product placement.

7. Reserve the space that best suits your requirement.

8. Send email to the prospective customers and existing customers telling them about your participation in the exhibition.

At-show Planning

1. Carry a visitor book to record the information about the visitors and the important information that you can use for post show follow-up.

2. Laptop is needed at the time of exhibition for showing any demonstration or presentation.

3. Carry your visiting Cards to exchange with the people visiting your stall.
4. Develop a presentation in an auto run mode that means the presentation plays in loop so that you don't have to play the presentation all over again each and every time.
5. Company brochures are required in the exhibition to give to the people visiting your stall.

6. Last but not the least keep a visiting cards bowl at your stall so that the visitors can drop their visiting cards in it.

Follow-up planning

1. Create a database of leads generated through this exhibition.

2. Send the thank you email to all the visitors for visiting your stall in the exhibition. This is done to get the direct response from the recipient.

3. Wait for the response and call the prospects next day to follow-up on any requirement or as discussed at the exhibition.

4. Do the continuous follow-up to get more responses.

I hope this helps, please leave comments if you have any questions or thoughts on this.