When planning an event, it’s important to make sure that you assess just how beneficial this can be for your company. One way of doing this is by asking all of your clients to confirm to a meeting in writing by sending a confirmation form with the date and time that they can meet you via email.
PLAN HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO YOUR STAND
Always make sure that you ask for the final floor plans from the event organiser and use this to work out directions of the stand so that you can provide these directions to your attendees.
Make sure that the flow of attendants matches how props and collateral are displayed on your stand to ensure that your printed merchandise is in clear view as this gives it the best chance of getting taken and this can help you with your marketing efforts in the future.
Once that you have confirmed everything that you need in the previous step, make sure that you double check to make sure that you have all of your promotional materials printed and ready to go.
You also need to make sure that the materials are distributed to everyone from your organisation before the event.
Ensure that everyone from your team attending the event has been passed all of the print-outs of hotel and car bookings, maps, business cards and any other promotional material that you have ahead of time.
It’s also important to make sure that plots of exhibition space that you have booked are clearly marked on a map, plus the stand number to help your visitors find you quickly and easily.
Ensure that the route to the event has been passed around to everyone and there’s no excuses for not being able to find the event and your stand.
Also, have an easy-to-find meeting point organised for the day of the event.
Each organisation has a different internal structure and responsibility chains. Although the following recommendation is not essential, it is best practice to pass over responsibility of the individuals attending the event to other people within your organisation.
If workload and “decision-making responsibility” has been passed over, it then allows everyone attending the event to be 100% focused on delivering and achieving their personal goals.
It’s also important to make sure that everyone who delegates work to another co-worker writes up a process of how to deal with every issue which they may encounter. This should be completed at least 48 hours before the event is about to start to ensure that everything is fully prepared before the event.
Your organisation’s VIP and senior decision makers should have the sole focus of helping clients, new businesses and the campaign. Get them to pass any responsibility outside of this to the next senior in the business.
The use of mobile phones at an event encourages distraction. The use of them on a stand gives the message that you’re not approachable to the attendees and this could be the reason why your stand didn’t get as much attention as it should have.
The phone should only ever be answered away from the event location and preferably outside of the events opening hours.
Make sure that every member who is working on the stand is on hand at all times and they look sharp and dressed to impress. This is because people will remember your company from the event by the staff who helps them. If your staff look untidy and they’re not fully prepared, this will give off the impression that your company operates the same way and this will mean that you’ll struggle to build up business from the event – which was the original purpose of you going.
It’s also important to make sure that everyone is wearing comfortable footwear as they will be on their feet for the majority of the event and you don’t want staff members suffering from fatigue and pain while they’re there.
When attending an event, one of the worst things that you can do is leave the stall unattended. This will mean that people attending the event won’t have anyone to talk to and it gives off the impression that your company couldn’t be bothered.
For this reason, it’s incredibly important that you create a structured plan for break times for the staff at the event to ensure that there is someone always manning the stall but also to keep your staff fresh and ready to help people and show the positive side of your company.
Before the event, it´s important to hold a meeting with everyone who is attending the event from your business and any third party people or organisations who are helping you.
Use this meeting to make sure that all of the literature that will be distributed at the event is passed on to everyone who will represent your business. Also, it’s important to pass any recent press releases to anyone who is attending the event. Get the communication department to summarise the releases in person with everyone who will be on the stand.
MAKE AN EVENT TOOLBOX
At the event, it’s important to make a toolbox which includes items such as personalised pens, pencils, tape, staplers, staples, paper clips, printed USB sticks (for each person), calculators, headed paper, notepads, compliment slips and also scissors.
Inside of the toolbox, make sure that the contact numbers for all of the support staff are stuck onto the box to stop them from getting misplaced.
Send around the list of support contacts to everybody to input into their devices before the event starts.
MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE WATER ON YOUR STAND
Arrange for a number of small water bottles to be on the stand so that it can be used by both your clients and your staff. This will help to encourage people to visit your stand and it also means that your staff won’t have to continually make regular trips to a shop or cafe to buy water for the team.
POCKET MONEY FOR THE TEAM
Arrange for a small budget to be available for the event team which covers expenses at the event. This can be a pre-signed budget which has been organised by your Accounts or Finance department.
