Thousands of people come to tradeshows. Most are pretty nice. Many are a joy to meet and greet and do business with.
Then there are the annoying ones. Worse than Uncle Marvin at a family reunion. Harder to put up with than sand in your beach barbecue.
So what are the most annoying behaviors at tradeshows? We scratched our collective heads – then asked some of our online friends. And we came up with the following obviously incomplete list.
10. The guest who won’t leave. Yeah, you’ve done all you can, answered all his questions, put up with his lame jokes and made it clear you need to talk with other visitors…but the guy is still standing there. Waiting for…something?
9. The visitor who tries to pick up dates with booth workers. ‘Nuff said.
8. (related to #9) Guys who hit on the ‘models’ in the booth. Okay, so the company decided to bring ‘booth babes’ to attract an audience. But it’s still a pretty eye-rolling thing to have guys try and pick ’em up.
7. When visitors bring their bratty kids to shows. Now, bringing youngsters to a tradeshow (as opposed to a consumer show) is a bit questionable…but when they’re in a horrible mood and bratty? Yeah, annoying.
6. When an attendee says “I’m just looking” when I approach them. Trade shows are NOT The Gap!
5. Petty annoyance, but how about people who just dart over to your booth to grab the “free stuff” and then vanish? (too typical, but still annoying)
4. Stand in your booth talking to each other but refuse to engage your booth staff! grrrrr…
3. When attendees don’t wear their badges or turn them around. Just let me know who you are and what I can do for you..
2. The ones who refuse to accept that a female booth personel could be the expert and keeps addressing the men in the booth.
1. “They don’t show up!”
Your own exhibiting experiences would give you a different list…but for today and today only, those are the top 10 annoying things tradeshow attendees do!
Thanks to all the Tweeps who participated, including @rbakctiff, @katiejcrose, @qualitylogo, @EmilieBarta, @leyla_a, @ckinney, @Asa_Dahlqvist and @ctstew.
