It's an 'Appy day for Trade Shows

Everything is going mobile. If you own a smart phone, and at least 33% of us already do, then you know how convenient it is to have it all at your finger tips. Neilsen forecasts that one in two Americans will have a Smartphone by the end of 2011. That’s a big jump from one in ten in 2008. So, how can exhibitors efficiently take advantage of the mobile movement?

There are a few items that we know are pretty standard across most trade shows:

1. People spend a lot of time and money attending trade shows; they want to find your business
2. Trade shows can overwhelm and confuse the senses, making it difficult to find your business
3. Some shows are so large an attendee can miss entire aisles without even realizing

The mother of invention is a necessity and in the trade show industry, we’re finally seeing mobile apps come to the trade show floor. My favorite apps are the maps of the trade shows with additional sponsor opportunities and after show guidance. There are even a few shows that are starting to feature apps as a selling point of their show. The possibilities are endless and pretty inexpensive for the show organizer or the attendee. Below is an overview of a few that I have found.

iLeads- iphone app. Ileads, from Bartizan in New York, is a free app for attendees. Bartizan makes their money by selling it to show organizers.

According to their website, iLeads is the world’s first lead retrieval app. It enables exhibitors to collect trade show leads using an iPhone® or iPod touch®. It’s a new and better way to collect data and exchange information. iLeads benefits exhibitors, attendees, organizers, registration contractors and even sponsors with its features such as: notes, surveys and qualifier exhibitors.

Follow Me Mobile Phone App In September of 2010, CEDIA EXPO 2010 is using this app, which offers “several unique features, including an interactive show schedule, floor maps, session schedules with rating capability, event schedules, social media interaction, and the ability to download e-brochures from the exhibitors”.

Sounds pretty similar to me, but I have yet to see either of these app in action. I wish I had an app for Exhibitor2010 when I was there last month. Some shows are so huge; it is easy to get lost.

EDIA and Core-Apps (an official CEDIA vendor) have developed the Follow Me Mobile App to enhance the trade show experience and provide valuable show information on every Smartphone. Right now it looks like it is just iPhone, but a Blackberry version is coming soon. That’s okay, they have some time.

ETA 2010 App ETA 2010 (Electronic Transactions Association) is an international trade association representing companies who offer electronic transaction processing products and services. They will be the first (that I know of) to launch their app. Great marketing has the ETA 2010 APP developed and sponsored by 1st Merchant Funding. What a great way to spend sponsor funds. The show was earlier this month, so I am hoping I can track some feedback. The release date was April 10th.

The marketing says that the app features: Interactive Trade Show Floor Plan Map, Booth Locator, Exhibitor Navigation, Exhibitor Profile, Digital Business Cards, Daily Show Schedule, Meet Up, Facebook & Twitter, Flight Tracker, Las Vegas Strip Map, and Vegas nightlife info.

The best thing about 2010 is that it is so different from 2009. Apps are taking over the world and yes, Lindsay Exhibit Group is currently investigating how best to serve our clients with a mobile application. I have a few tricks up my sleeve, but I am not quite ready to share them yet.

Have you been to a show where the show organizer offered an app and you used it? Tell us your thoughts and share how it worked for you.

Because, as we like to say at Lindsay Exhibit Group… it’s all about successful events.

My Birthday Wishes

Today is my birthday or maybe my anniversary of my 29th birthday.  I would like to share some of my exhibit and trade show wishes.

#1.  I wish the show decorators would standardize the show rules and books.  Seems like every show decorator has a sneaky item hidden and if you only work with shows a couple of times a year it can be difficult to catch all the rules.  If you miss a rule they will charge you for it.  My clients who do the show management themselves spend hours pouring over the show book.  We offer this service a la carte and we do it daily.  Even for us it is hard.

#2.  The easiest way to save money is to ship slow as much as your schedule allows.  A general rule of thumb is that art is not finished until time is up.  I wish we could have enough time to slow ship all the time.

#3.  I wish that I had a display for my clients that fit into a shoe box and was mailed with a stamp.

#4.  I wish more clients would invest in Pre and Post trade show marketing.  Heck, let's skip this one sign and put 5k into digital pre and post marketing.   You will get better show traffic and as a bonus  you get digital data that proves the importance of your marketing.  (if you are interested- call me, we can arrange this for you)

#5.  I wish more people went with simple design.  I had a client once who made custom tooled parts. He brought crates of custom parts with him to the show, he had pictures of all his custom parts on his 20' booth.  He even had a giveaway calendar done with a custom part pictured on every day.  But no where-  no where-  did his exhibit say the word "Custom". 

These are my top birthday wishes for exhibits. (as of right now).  Do you have some more?  Is there something you would like us to provide?  Is there a different method you would like us to use?  Please let me know

Happy Exhibiting!

The exhibit is only part of the program-

When working with a client we seem to focus on the exhibit design.  But that is only part of the program.  Actually I don't even think it is the biggest consideration. 
I've said it a thousand times- Your people working the booth are the most important part.  Attendees go to a lot of expense and effort to go to the trade show.  Why?  to meet your people and talk about your product and services.  Trade Shows exist because people want to meet face to face. 

The exhibit is important in that it meets your goals; does it do what you need it to do? Communicate and provide an architecture that reflects your company AND is the layout conducive for your goals?

Another important part of your trade show program is your trade show marketing.  Pre and Post. The onslaught of digital has made this easier with a multitude of options.  Great- but who has the time to handle all of this when marketing staff has been cut during these economic times? 

I can help.  I would much rather you have more leads than design you another hanging sign.  A benefit of professional trade show marketing is that it comes with statistics.  Wouldn't that be nice to have during your planning meetings. 

Let's talk about it-

Today's Horoscope is to good!

"That thing you didn’t think you were good enough to do pro­fessionally? Well, you could get a paying job doing just that next week. Put the word out that you’re looking for an opportunity. "

LOL- there is so much to choose from, any suggestions?

Exhibitor2010 #2

Exhibitor 2010 was another good year or info, insights, people and product.

The show was smaller this year but they had more exhibitors.  Most everyone went with a smaller foot print.

We walked the show about 5 times to make sure we saw and touched and talked to everyone.  My feet hurt.  Hmm, if your feet do not hurt after a show then you might need to go again.

My earlier posts goes over some impressions of the show and the exhibitors and here I will do some more.

My favorite booth was Champion.  *see picture below.   Because exhibitors went to a smaller booth space they had to get creative with how to keep as much floor space as possible.  A lotof exhibitors hung truss and draped fabric from the ceiling.  The Champion booth uses two towers and a fabric sign to claim it's foot print.  Very nice.  And it had some color.  There sure was a lot of white at the Exhibitor Show- too much.  A sea of white.  Can I officially declare white to be over?  I understand that people think that white will stand out at a show.  The absence being the drawing feature but, dude, it's so over.  This year if you had color than you stood out.

Another good example is the Exponents Booth.  Lots or bright, saturated color to draw your eye.  They have a new version of the Lumiture that has angles.  The kiosks sweep and arc and do not require a base plate.  There is a lot that we can do with this hardware. I am looking forward to incorporating them into designs.  The company was bought last year by a company from India.  I expect growing pains but we shall see.  Exponents has some great product but you also need a big ole' dose of patience when working with them.  The new owners have some new ideas and I look forward to seeing how it goes.

I was disappointed that there wasn't more social media incorporated into the event.  Freeman was there (in a white booth) and they had a twitter feed going. The staff did not know their hashtag so I think a bit more training on useing twitter -as opposed to just having it, would have been good.   I did get to meet @JohnDLindsey from Moss.  We have been twittering back and forth and I really enjoy his blog.  Blogs can add so much more to a company website.  I made it a point to tell the bigger wigs in the booth what an asset he is to the company.  Moss bought Nichols a few years ago and Nichols was not a favorite in my book.  Mostly because they were a PIA to work with on a project.  Really?  Why do some companies make it so hard to buy?

There was only one company there with a QR code or something like it but I found it hard to use and that is kind of the point with QR codes- that it is easy.   First time I tried I could not get it to work at all and I asked the guy in the booth what reader it used and he did not know.  Turns out that was the president (no, offence here- it is still new).  I came back later and talked to the one person who knew how it worked.  Turns out it is more of a text message.  Take a picture of the code, text to a #, then wait for response with link, then open the link that leades to an animation that I could not hear.  All to find out that the animation told me to go to the booth that I was standing in to register for an iPad.  Hmmm- the code is in the booth dude. 

I have more but I will save it for another day. I want to comment on the awards that were given out at the show.  I will also load up my pictures for the world to see.  I know you are waiting with baited breath.