Best tradeshow marketing tips and case studies. Call 800-654-6946.
Best tradeshow marketing tips and case studies. Call 800-654-6946.

Tradeshow marketing

50 Essential Tradeshow Tips in 50 Minutes or Less (video replay)

Not a bad way to kick off June! I sat down with Mel White of Classic Exhibits, along with a few dozen viewers, for a presentation on tradeshow tips for newbies and wannabes. He invited me as part of their ongoing “Fast and Furious” webinar series, and I was grateful to be asked and glad to join. We nicknamed the presentation ‘From Tradeshow Stupid to Tradeshow Smart in 50 Minutes,’ but whatever you want to call it, I jammed a lot of stuff into the presentation. Take a look – hope you get something out of it, and thanks to Classic Exhibits for inviting me!

TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee, March 21, 2022: Dave Brown

Coming off a busy and successful week in Anaheim for the Natural Products Expo West, it’s the perfect time to get back into the podcast/vlog game.

Former TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee guest Dave Brown is now with Tive, a company that tracks shipments in real-time. That technology is now being applied to tradeshow shipments, which as you can probably imagine can offer great utility to tradeshow exhibitors and logistics managers.

Take a look:

Check out Tive.com.

This week’s ONE GOOD THING: Station Eleven, both the book and the TV series. Good stuff.

TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee, November 8, 2021: Ken Newman

Ken Newman of Magnet Productions is a long-time colleague and industry friend. He’s appeared on the show several times, but since it was his first time at ExhibitorLive I was curious to get his take on it. As usual, he was glad to chime in and didn’t pull any punches.

This week’s ONE GOOD THING. Paul McCartney’s new book, The Lyrics.

TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee, November 1, 2021: Ed Vining

Lead capture is, arguably, the most important part of tradeshow marketing and function. Don’t capture a lead that you should, or fail to follow up, and you’ve let one slip away.

On this week’s TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee, I sit and chat with Ed Vining of Event-Capture.com about the state of lead capture. Lots of things to consider when you get to that part of your tradeshow journey.

This week’s ONE GOOD THING: Wyze Buds, a solid alternative to more expensive Bluetooth earbuds.

TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee, October 11, 2021: Kevin Carty

Kevin Carty, EVP of Classic Exhibits in Portland, Oregon, shares thoughts on the upcoming ExhibitorLive, the tradeshow world, supply chains, price increases, staffing challenges, and more.

This week’s ONE GOOD THING: The return of the National Basketball Association. Season starts soon!

TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee, September 13, 2021: Shep Hyken

It’s been only a few months since Shep Hyken appeared on TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee, but with his new book out next week, I wanted to have him back to talk specifically about it. The book is called “”I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again.” Find it at IllBeBackBook.com.

This week’s ONE GOOD THING: Football season is back! NFL and NCAA are both underway. And yes, both my teams won over the weekend. It’s a good thing.

The Fits and Starts of the Tradeshow World: Late July 2021 Edition

The on-again-off-again return to events is proceeding as you might expect: with unexpected twists and turns that are keeping everyone a little off-balance.

In the past week, I’ve seen the following:

  • A return to masking for the most populated counties in Nevada, which of course affects tradeshows and events in Las Vegas.
  • A noticeable and stressful challenge is still with us when it comes to shipping. A recent email from our main exhibit manufacturer Classic Exhibits to its distributors outlines freight size limitations. Many tradeshow exhibit crates are 98 – 103” long, but now many freight forwarders will not accept any shipments that are not skidded or crated, and will no longer accept any shipments that are over 96” L or 96” H.
A recent note from Classic Exhibits outlined some of the shipping challenges they’re seeing now.
  • A note just came in this afternoon from Freeman, which says that effective August 1st, Freeman will require anyone on their property or show site to wear a mask and practice social distancing. Freeman employees are also required to either show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test within the previous 72 hours to be able to work.
  • A Facebook page I follow had a recent post where the HIMSS Show has been canceled, but at this point, it seems to be a rumor. The show’s main page doesn’t mention any cancellation, but there are details on how they’re now requiring masks (see the above story on Nevada’s return to mask mandates), even for fully vaccinated people.
  • Another one: we’re working with a client for a show in late October, and with the recent news of the past week, I point-blank asked if they were still planning to attend and move forward with a new booth project. Suffice it to say that they’re still in discussion about it and haven’t made a final decision yet (which has to be made within the next couple of weeks). Contrast that to just a couple of weeks ago where they were full speed ahead.

Yes, as Mink DeVille once sang, it’s a mixed up, shook up world (okay, they were singing about a mixed up, shook up girl, but hey, it’s about the same thing, right?)

All I can say is hang in there, in spite of the two-step-forward-one-step-back world we’re living in. We’ll make it through. I got faith in the world and in the industry.

Stranger in a Strange Land: the New World of Tradeshows

If you’re a fan of Robert Heinlein’s classic science fiction book “Stranger in a Strange Land,” you know the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who was born on Mars, raised by Martians, and comes to Earth in early adulthood. He ends up in a political power struggle and as the title suggests, he’s a little lost in the whole thing.

I sense that many people are feeling a similar way when it comes to returning to the tradeshow floor. Exhibit designers, builders and exhibitors are looking to the future when things will return to normal and they can get back to the action of exhibiting and all that entails.

Except…

This morning I see a post in a tradeshow group on Facebook that a client has canceled an appearance in an upcoming show in early August. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the resurgence of the delta variant of the virus and the continued resistance by a significant portion of the population to getting vaccinated.

Another commented that they also had a cancellation at the same show, and a second cancellation by another client at another show in October. Also due to uncertainty of the virus numbers.

But for some exhibitors who are looking at shows in late October, the assumption is that everything will be fine and they’re proceeding with plans for new exhibits. So they’re forging ahead on designs and are getting ready to put significant money down on new exhibits.

I get the sense that with all the players involved – organizers, exhibitors, attendees, designers, fabricators, labor and support services – no one is sure of which way to jump, and unfortunately we’ll all have to jump several times before we learn where we’re going to land.

In the TV show “Billions,” one of the questions that come up now and then is: “Are you certain?” And the response is meant to be “I am not uncertain.”

But I don’t think anyone has much certainty right now about the tradeshow world and when it might return to normal. Or even settle into a “new normal,” which will be different but at least predictable.


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Tradeshow Guy Blog by Tim Patterson

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