by Kyrah Howell, on 31/01/19 12:06 AM
Expos are a fantastic resource available for businesses hoping to achieve their goals. With a large volume of people from all across the nation and hundreds of exciting new products and/or services to discover all in one place, it’s an experience worth investing in for your business. This investment isn’t just in the way you organise your expo, but also in your presence during the expo.
As an expo organiser, often your main priority is to generate revenue and keep your consumers happy, including both exhibitors and attendees. To read about key ways to keep exhibitors happy, check out our blog post here. With the stress of organising an expo, it can become easy to forget about your own role and involvement in the expo on the actual day. However, investing resources into having a strong presence at your expo can be a great opportunity to measure the success of your event and achieve your goals. Having a strong presence at your expo can allow you to gather feedback, get to know the exhibitors, generate sales and interest for future expos, share important information, build a positive brand image and create positive relationships.
When making the decision to attend your own expo as an exhibitor, you can decide between having a larger custom stand to attract attention, or a smaller shell-scheme stand to keep it simple. Be thoughtful about your space and the location of the display. Do you want to exhibit in the centre of the venue, or to the side? Do you want to exhibit in the foyer of the venue? No matter what you choose, it’s great to have a significant presence at your expo. If a small stand is preferred, then it may be beneficial to move around the expo to extend your presence beyond the confines of your stand.
But how important is your presence? Do organisers really need to attend and have a stand at their own expo? We’ll take you through some of the benefits and opportunities you can expect to see if you choose to exhibit at your own expo.
Generate sales
If you’ve already started planning your next expo you can use your current expo to generate sales or interest for tickets. You can encourage people to purchase by:
- Introducing early bird pricing to get attendees committed to purchasing with a limited pre-sale or discounted tickets, or
- Offer loyalty perks to emphasise on the importance of your loyal customers
Opting for a smaller stand means you can be located anywhere in the venue that will provide the best opportunity for sales. On the other hand, using a custom stand will help you attract attention.
You can also speak to current exhibitors and encourage them to consider exhibiting again in the following year.
Measure success
By being in the heart of the expo you can measure its success based on factors you can physically see. If your goal is to attract a large volume of attendees, then attending the event will help you identify whether this has been achieved.
Gather feedback
Having a presence is important as it helps you gather valuable feedback and gain insight into the attendees and exhibitors. You can find out what they enjoy about the experience or what they suggest you do better for next year. This information can be hard to chase up after the event has finished so make the most out of your event by being present.
Create relationships
There’s no better way to build connections with your exhibitors and attendees than to talk to them face to face at your expo. This helps you get to know them and their reasons for exhibiting so that you can continue to improve your events and achieve customer satisfaction.
By interacting with attendees and exhibitors you give them a face and personality to associate with the organisers. This helps to build a positive relationship between your audience and your brand. Businesses may be more inclined to exhibit at your event again if you can build a trusting and long-term relationship with them.
Show your exhibitors and attendees that you are proud and passionate about your expo by interacting with everyone and engaging.
Share information and provide assistance
Being present at your expo is a great opportunity to prevent issues from arising by providing assistance and information when needed. Rather than your exhibitors having to deal with matters over the phone or through a third-party member, make yourself contactable and available to personally deal with any issues. Business will feel reassured that you are a great business to deal with.
Expos provide an opportunity to hand out flyers, brochures, cards or receive sign-ups to an online mailing list containing important information, upcoming events or exciting news that you would like to share with everyone at the expo. Whether you’re promoting an upcoming expo or informing people of activities at the expo, this is a great way to get involved on the day and interact with people face-to-face.
Build a positive brand image
Your presence at an expo will contribute to the perception people have about your brand which is why it can be a great opportunity and an important decision to make. Engaging with attendees, providing assistance when needed, and offering sales deals is a great way to encourage exhibitors and attendees to develop positive opinions about you and the expo. This, in turn, will affect your brand image and whether people think positively of your expo.
If you're considering exhibiting at your expo or would like further tips on how to have a strong presence at your event, contact us on letschat@events720.com or click the 'Let's Chat' box below.
