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As we move on from 2020 into a brand new year, the excitement of resuming meetings and trade shows cannot be understated! We have new rules and even a new vernacular.  "Social Distancing" is a newly coined term thanks to coronavirus(!) and is now priority one for gatherings of all sizes. We have all become familiar with it thanks to those handy directional arrows and neatly-spaced “X” spots in grocery stores and retail outlets. We all know how to keep our distance. But what about when we all get back together at trade shows and marketing events? How do we stay safely distant but intimately connected to our customers and prospects?

What Has The Highest Marketing Value? or 10 Reasons Face Time Beats Screen Time

With the very limited amount of face time that 2020 has afforded us, those of us in the marketing and exhibiting business have had to get very creative with our outreach and customer service. Now more than ever, we’ve utilized email, social media, “live” videos, and webinars to reach clients.

25 Business Travel Tips

What are the risks of exhibiting with the health threats that are currently looming?  We have put together a few travel tips to address the Corona Virus outbreak.  More people are taking pause before booking their travel to their next event. This is a unique situation, and hopefully will be over soon. However, as trade show and event professionals you may wonder what you need to think about when preparing to travel or organize your next event. If you are not the event organizer, do you even go? Recently, Amazon, Sony and Ericsson decided not to exhibit at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona because they did not want to expose their employees to the Coronavirus.

As the old saying goes, “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” You actually have no idea what is going to happen at a show – what could go wrong or who you might meet. There are a LOT of moving parts to a show – from the travel to the hotel to the display setup to the tech. Anything could happen. So, why even have a solid plan? Because the actual planning of the trip helps you think through all those moving parts. Even if you’re a veteran exhibitor, you need a checklist and a plan to help your trip go smoothly. Here’s a quick list to keep you from stressing out about the details and to help be plan-savvy about the parts you CAN control.

Recently, two separate studies were conducted involving hundreds of exhibitors to determine exactly what works and what doesn’t when it comes to trade show practices. Skyline Exhibits and Access Intelligence Research & Consulting asked over 400 exhibitors how to get better results from their trade shows.

3 Surefire Questions to Get Your Booth Attendees Talking!

It’s no surprise that the most important goal at a trade show is also the biggest challenge – getting people into your booth space. Obviously, the first step is to have an eye-catching exhibit. Many companies try product demos, professional entertainers, and giveaways to attract visitors. But what if your budget doesn’t afford professional corporate entertainers? What if your exhibit is more subtle than dazzling? What if your product or service doesn’t lend itself to a demo?

In the event and exhibit industry, airline travel is frequent and common. Usually, it all goes off without a hitch. You grab your stuff, get to the gate, board the plane, and off you go. However, if you’ve racked up millions of frequent flyer miles, there’s a chance you’ve also racked up an airline delay or two. And despite our best efforts at managing delays, layovers, connections, and other unforeseen stresses, we might even be faced with an overnight airport stay due to weather or airplane mechanical issues.

“Safe travels!” We hear it all the time when someone’s wishing us farewell for a trip, and we say it to each other, too. In fact, it’s SO common that we handily dismiss it without even really thinking about what might help us actually HAVE safe travels.

Managing a trade show is not a job for the faint of heart. It is a demanding job with a lot of moving parts, which we’ll discuss below. A trade show manager might work for the sponsor or the organizer of a trade show; or they might work for a company participating in a trade show. If a business is smaller and only occasionally participates in trade shows, the trade show manager hat might be worn by the marketing manager or to someone from the sales team. No matter where the trade show manger comes from, their job is to provide an experience benefits the company and satisfies the customer.

Less Obvious Trade Show Do's and Don'ts

You probably wouldn’t talk on your phone or blow bubble gum or eat a Subway sandwich while manning the booth at your tradeshow. These are egregious errors in protocol that none of us would commit. However, have you ever skipped an opening event? Overlooked a surly-seeming booth visitor? Been too tired to give a client your full attention? These more benign breeches in etiquette might not strike us as that unbecoming, but to a prospective customer or client, our behavior matters. A LOT. If you think you’re above slipping up in the area of manners, look over the following trade show etiquette tips and judge for yourself.

Ice Breaker Questions for Trade Shows

With actual human connection going the way of the dinosaur recently, people have to work harder than ever to see (literally!) eye-to-eye. Think of your day to day life. You’re at work and you see people over the top of a computer screen or listen to them as you work on your iPad or device. You’re in a public space and people are just head down, ear buds in, face in phone. You’re in your car at a stoplight, and chances are all the people around you in their cars are on their phones; not that you’d notice, because you’re checking Instagram.

Tips for Staying Afloat at Work When Life Gets Messy

Most people think their jobs are stressful, but some may be more entitled to complain than others.  As it turns out, the number 6 most stressful job in America is Event Planners.  That said, we need to take a breath and unpack some ideas to implement when life gets messy.

Empower Booth Staffers and Drive Better Staff Interactions

Albert Einstein once said, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”  If he said that over 80 years ago, I wonder what this brilliant scientist would have to say about technology and human interaction today.