Are Your Exhibitors Engaging Enough?
This past weekend, I went to a giant tradeshow and observed hundreds of exhibitors in action, trying to engage passersby. Most exhibiting organizations spent a lot of money on booth space, amazing exhibits, signage, samples, discounts, and collateral materials. However, despite all this investment ahead of the show, most exhibitors were still missing the mark on engagement.
Are exhibitors at your conferences, trade shows, or even career fairs making the most of their investment?
Maybe not…
One of the most interesting things I noticed was how exhibitors behaved when their booths weren’t busy.
During prime show hours, about three-quarters of the people staffing booths were focused on their phones or laptops. The nonverbal message read like, “I’m busy. Don’t bother me.“
I get it! Booth downtime is boring, but potential relationships were walking right on by.
On the other end of the spectrum, some exhibitors were somewhat aggressively trying to drum up interest. Some were calling out slogans or shouting about their special show discount. Most were asking questions like, “Have you ever tried a [insert product/service here].“ I was even startled by two different vendors, who were calling out mildly lewd remarks, which I soon realized were a play on words based on their product, but felt very unprofessional. One vendor representative was standing in the middle of the hall, purposely and uncomfortably disrupting the flow of traffic. These hard-sell tactics can be super anti-engaging.
Between the busy times, there is a spectrum of exhibitor behaviors, from passive (absorbed in their phones) to borderline aggressive. Few exhibitors are in the happy middle—attentive, kind, personable, and ready to help.
The best signage can’t overcome the fact that the people operating the booth are the face of the organization, brand, product, or service, and the first impressions these folks make have a huge and lasting impact on potential customers.
So what does all this have to do with you, the event host? You need to engage exhibitors, and one way to do that is by helping them get a great ROI while they are exhibiting at your event and have a great experience while they are at it.
Here are some ideas that might help you help exhibitors help themselves:
Booth personnel training.
Research for and about exhibitors.
A white paper about the best practices of the most successful exhibitors at this show.
Food & water wagon for the exhibitors (they’ll love the thoughtfulness, and the extra calories and hydration will keep them fueled and happy.)
Walk through the exhibitor experience and figure out how to model the culture you hope exhibitor personnel will use at your event.
There are varying levels of sophistication among your exhibitors and the folks staffing their booths. What can you do to help them be a little more successful to make the event more fun, enjoyable, and comfortable for your attendees?
