Location, location, location

Do you know where your exhibit is placed in the hall of your next trade show?

As the real estate folks always say: location, location, location.

Where you are in the hall impacts just about everything concerning the set up and configuration of your booth:

• Whether you can have a hanging sign (if you have an island booth)
• How you will place elements and demos within the space
• When you can move in
• How you might conduct business in the booth

Consider the following when you look at a floor plan:

• Traffic flow: which way are people turning and walking when they come in the hall?
• Where are your competitors?
• Are you near food or otehr services (rest rooms)?
• How high is the ceiling?
• Where are you in relation to the dock doors and entrances?
• Who is in the booths around you?

Hanging signs are determined by ceiling height and other considerations. If you are planning one, be sure and understand the rules.

The choice to place and conduct elements is based upon lots of things: which side of the booth has the most traffic? Is there a slow side of the booth? What does the structure allow for?

Targeted move-ins are based on where an exhibitor is on the floor. For example, if your booth is number 1685 and booths 1400-1800 move in on Sunday at 8 am, that's when your truck should arrive and when you should schedule labor.

Depending on traffic and competitor location, where will you place a demo or graphic? Who will you have in your booth at what time during the show? What do you want your your competitors to see (or not)?

Lots to consider.

TTSG

Choosing space, Part II

Here's an additional note on choosing space: today the organizer called us in to choose our space for next year's show. Our time to meet the sales person was set on our seniority in the show (a combination of how many years we had consecutively exhibited at the show, sizes we had purchased, position on the board, how much advertising space we had purchased in the association magazines). At the meeting, we were shown a floor plan with the spaces that already been sold in front of us marked out. We reviewed the plan and chose a space that maximized our place on the floor, took into consideration where we were in relation to competitors and partners and the size we could afford. We'll get an invoice and pay 50% within 90 days.

This is a civilized way of choosing space. Some organizers put all of the exhibitors in the same room at the same time and call you in order, ala the NBA Draft. You wait your turn and watch as the prime spaces are picked off by the highest seniority exhibitors.

I have no preference as to how to choose, but you need to be prepared with your choices in order and with your plan of where you want to be.