10 Simple Tips for Successful Event Exhibiting

1. Arrive early: Put up your booth so you can relax until the floor opens. Don’t come an hour before set-up ends and put a banner up; this is your time to make an impact.

1. Utilize the event hashtag: Use your voice to tweet or Instagram about the event, your booth, the hotel, the presentations, the host city, or even a great meal you had while in town. This is a great way to start conversation with other event-goers and meet people in the process.

1. Be Welcoming: For every 10' by 10' booth, you have approximately 4 seconds to engage someone that's walking by. To draw in people, create a clean, warm environment they can step into. Think about the way you want to impress guests who come over for dinner – This is your home away from home, so keep that same mindset.

1. Highlight credentials: Make it loud and clear who you are - Show you are worth seeing by noting any recent and past media coverage and highlight the best things you are showcasing.

1. Live demonstrations: Product presentations draw crowds and create believability. Every once in a while, throw out trivia about the industry or your product category so everyone feels that they are learning something and it doesn’t just seem like an advertisement.

1. Unique attention getter: We read about a company who was working with a “Hawaiian” theme. They packaged up pineapples in bags with their logo screened on it and attached a funny brochure about "Ten things to do with your pineapple" and mailed them off in advance of the show. They have NEVER before received so many visitors to their booth.

1. Talk to strangers: As children, we’re told over and over not to talk to strangers. Well, it’s time to forget everything you know on the show floor and speak to everyone with a pulse.

1. Training counts: Too much of your exhibiting success revolves around your staff so make the extra effort to train them. Your staff should never eat in the booth, sit down during peak hours, have your back to the aisle, make a mess or offer tacky giveaways…these are automatic repellant’s.

1. Travel in groups: People are attracted to booths that already have people in them, so get a couple of friends or co-workers to stop by your booth and engage in your products or service. Ask other booth members to pay you a visit during their breaks. It's amazing how warm bodies will attract more warm bodies!

1. Swag bag: The key question every attendee asks is, “Do I need or want this?” So you have to help them to see themselves using it. Consider giving away small electronic components, an attractive branded t-shirt or even a Starbucks gift card…if nothing else, they’ll thank you for the caffeine!

Have you tried any out of the box methods to drive traffic to your booth? Have a creative promotional branding idea? Email your tip to Kaitlyn@katherinefrank.com and we will feature it on our Facebook page!