Cost-cutting ideas

Let's ring in the new year with some ideas on how to save and make your exhibit marketing dollar (peso, euro, lira, drachma) go further.

There are several ways you can make your investments and expenditures go further. Here are three ideas:

1. Streamline current processes.
2. Review your freight plans.
3. Standardize configurations.

Streamline current processes. Take a look how you are spending your money. Are you asking your vendors to do things you could be doing? Is there something that's being duplicated for each show that could be done once in the year? One of our clients, when she came on board as TSM discovered that her predecessor had had the exhibit company buying exhibit space and marking it up! Do you have a similar example?

Review your freight plans. Do you have several shows in a row using the same properties in close geographic proximity? That is, is that 20x20 at the January show in Las Vegas going to be used within 2 weeks again at a show in LA when the shipment originates at your warehouse in Dallas? By planning ahead on configuration, routing and packing, you can save freight (no back and forth) and pull and prep charges by your exhibit house.
Standardize configurations. Do you use the same properties for all of your configurations? Is the 20x20 configuration different each time? Does it have to be? Or can it use the same properties (cabinets, headers, walls) each time? Is the 20x20 the core of the 20x30 and 30x30? By using the same properties for each configuration, you standardize the pull and prep costs and the shipment size.

Lesson Learned: a simple review taking a few hours could yield a savings of many dollars over a year's time.

Happy New Year!

TTSG