If you are attending an exhibition this year, then this blog is for you.
Being prepared, whether on Basecamp, Wunderlist or just a pen and paper, is vital. There are so many components to any exhibition and juggling suppliers, your internal team, deadlines and paperwork can be a nightmare. It’s important to ensure that nothing slips through the net.
After 30 years experience in the event industry, working with clients on very short timeframes doesn’t phase us, however, “better planning, better results” is a motto we use in-house. Marketing budgets are precious and we understand that, and poor planning can be costly.
We prefer to work with our clients to create a time line, discuss a comm’s plan, prepare a content media strategy and we have client check lists for every single step of the event planning process.
The question is – have you?
We recommend that more time you can give to planning your exhibition, or creating an event from scratch, the better. Typically space is booked over a year in advance, and we suggest you begin working with your team to conceptualise your stand, around 3 months in advance of the show. However, with a busy schedule, things can slip through the net, so our team decided to put together some tips that outline some basic points, as you get closer to the event.
At 7 weeks :
- Your creative strategy should be confirmed and stand plans should have been approved and drawn up in order to plot electrics etc.
- Take advantage of early bird rates for booking external services i.e. electrics. (Surcharges are often applied for forms arriving after the deadline)
- Most of your online portal forms will need to have been completed and submitted to the organisers. That’s electric, wifi, health and safety, risk assessment.
- You should be sending out your first (if not second) email communication to your prospects asking them to save the date and come see you/products/services on your stand. Ensure you have your comms plan included in the timeline
- Your social media content should be created for the next two weeks and both scheduled and spontaneous content conceptualised. Did you create your content framework?
- Have a meeting with your stand contractor and check through stand regulations in terms of height restrictions etc
- Hotel bookings – these should have been booked at the same time as booking stand space, but if not, now is the time to find out who needs accommodation and book it!
One of our recent blogs, outlined some of the pitfalls that can be experienced without proper advice, and we’ll be sharing more information over the coming months.