TRADE SHOWS--PART 1

I have read about other people’s trade show experiences, and I have now had enough of my own to have actually have some information to pass on. The first installment is general information about shows—how to find them, when to think about them, costs, questions to ask, and any other general information that comes to mind. I will save my personal experiences for the second installment and beyond.

First off, just what is a trade show? I define them rather broadly to be a temporary marketplace (other than a weekly market) at which products are displayed and sold. The audience can be either the general public or a subset of the general public (street fairs, holiday shows, hobbyists, crafters, ski bums, etc.) or non-public shows open only to industry buyers (every industry has at least one show per year).

PUBLIC SHOWS

Why participate in a show open to the public? Here are just a few:

1. Participating in trade shows is a viable business model, and many businesses at public shows do just shows all year long. These are the vendors you see regularly at state and county fairs, and they travel the country selling at public shows of various kinds.

2. To gain exposure for your product(s) and to introduce the public to your company.

3. To do market research, practice sales skills, etc.

Shows open to the public require stock on hand to sell, and require that you have it with you in the booth or can easily be restocked. We only do local shows that allow us to restock easily if needed. That way, we do not need to rent a truck to store stock on the show premises. We learned this hard way, which will be more fully covered in the second installment.

We participate in public shows in the local area in order to 1) make a little extra money; 2) to gain exposure and introduce the public to our products; 3) to conduct market research; and 4) so that I can develop my sales/people skills. Nowadays, our goal is always to break even, and we don’t always make our goal.

We have participated in four public shows so far, three of which we have been invited to after an event manager saw our booth and products at another show. Beware that it is the job of these people to fill the booths at their show, not to make sure you have a good or profitable experience. There is a great deal to consider prior to putting down money for a show to which you have been invited. Put aside the pride and go into it with your eyes open. I list some questions to ask below.

NON-PUBLIC (BUYER) SHOWS

We have decided to participate in non-public shows open only to buyers in order to 1) introduce retailers to our products and 2) to generate orders from these retailers. No product is sold during the show; only orders are taken. There are some non-public “cash and carry” shows throughout the year, but these are less common.

Buyer shows require a completely different booth design and configuration for us, but they do not require stock on hand at the show. Our booth design for these shows is portable enough to fly around the country, and for 2008 we have several of these shows lined up in different parts of the country.

RESEARCHING SHOWS

When researching shows, I head to the two websites listed on the right, www.tsnn.com and www.tradeshowweek.com. I have found these two to be pretty comprehensive listings, and I always check both of them because their categories are a bit different and they don’t contain exactly the same information. To use the tradeshowweek site, click on Directories and then Tradeshow Directory.

When researching local shows not listed on the two aforementioned websites, I rely heavily on the web, especially listings in the local newspaper or a site that lists community events throughout the year. For fun, I like to participate in school bazaars, and I have to contact individual PTAs to find out about these opportunities. Other local shows in which I participate or plan to participate are local summer street fairs in different neighborhoods, a weekly Sunday market, the annual women’s show (bigger show than most local ones) and local “specialty” shows such as hobby shows, recreational shows, etc.

BOOTH DESIGN AND COSTS

Keep your booth design simple and inexpensive. You can do a lot with what you have around the house to begin with. Tablecloths from discount stores are a great bargain and hide just about everything. You want your design to be easily portable and easy to set up and take down. We design our own booths for both public and non-public shows. Fixtures for our public show booth have cost about $75 so far, and we have contributed some items from home (card table, chairs, tv trays). I can fit the entire booth and stock in the back of my Toyota pickup.

We do outdoor events regularly (weekly markets) and those tents you see run about $100-$200. Side panels for the tents, essential for inclement or very sunny weather, run around $40 per panel. In addition to side panels, you will need weights to hold the tent down in case the wind picks up. You can make weights (Seattle can get windy, so I use 20 lbs per leg) out of just about anything or buy them specifically for the tent. My weights are bricks held together with and wrapped completely in duct tape because they are cheap to make, compact and easy to transport.

I recommend a sign for your booth for public shows. Our 8x2 vinyl signs have cost us approximately $125 and $175 each. We use them for both indoor and outdoor shows. If your sign is handmade or smaller, it will be probably a good deal cheaper.

We are now designing and constructing our booth for the buyer shows we will participate in this year. We have budgeted $500 for this booth. We will be using a lot of materials from the local kite shop, which will save us tons of money. When in need of supplies and fixtures for something, we brainstorm to consider how to get what we need most economically. We get ideas from the most unusual places!

So, you have looked up some trade shows. Now what?

Booths cost money. Sometimes lots of money. My lowest so far has been $250 for a weekend I will be spending with hobbyists. Our highest fee is $2100 for a non-public show. Buyer shows are more expensive than public shows. Our average for public shows so far is $900 and for buyer shows about $1900. A buyer show in New York City will run you at least $3,000. These fees must be paid well in advance, so you need to plan for them.

You need to sign up to exhibit at a show well in advance, usually at least six months in advance, which means you have to be on the ball and perhaps start researching and planning shows during the development phase. We did not research buyer shows or sign up for any for our first year of operation. We probably could have exhibited at some buyer shows this year instead of waiting. However, this first year has allowed us to work out early operational bugs, work out manufacturing, and to gather information and knowledge we will need to play with the big boys in 2008.

One piece of advice I see is to attend the show in which you want to participate sometime in the future. This is not always possible or, in our case, not always economically feasible. If you can do this, by all means do it. If you can’t attend a show in advance and talk to the vendors, or even if you do, I recommend posing the following questions to the event managers when signing up for a show:

1. What has been the attendance the last 3-5 years? (or whatever attendance figures you can get) The show managers like to fudge these numbers.

2. What percentage of the vendors return from year to year?

3. What are the hours the show is open?

4. What is your advertising plan/strategy for the show? You are paying these people to drive traffic to the show, so you want a strong advertising strategy on their part.

Once we have the answers, we consider the following:

1. For public shows, booth fee divided by total number of hours the show is open. Kind of a “price per hour” measure. So far, our “price per hour” has ranged between $11.50 and $28. This give us an idea of how much stock we have to sell to break even. Typically, the more local the show, the more bang for your buck (street fairs are cheaper than regional shows). Additionally, we look at whether the show is open a variety of hours, midmorning to past dinner time to allow the greatest flexibility.

2. Total past attendance versus booth fee. We compare between shows. One show wanted $800 for an audience of approximately 600 attendees. Another show wanted $675 for what turned out to be 8,000 attendees. You need to know when you are getting took. I utilize a little formula that gives me a ratio for quick, easy analysis.

3. Vendor return percentage. This tells us how satisfied the vendors are with the show management and attendance. Other vendors are also a valuable source for this kind of information, and we get friendly with those around us when at the public shows.

4. Advertising—Are multiple mass channels being utilized (local newspaper, radio advertising, billboards, television)? This is extremely important for driving traffic to the show.

5. Show location. Is the show in a venue that is easy for people to reach by car and public transportation? Is parking convenient, free or reasonably priced? We have discovered that downtown Seattle is no place for a public show. The location (convention center) is inconvenient to drive to and parking is expensive.

6. Entry fees. Fees charged to the general public have been getting quite steep. Too steep and the public will not come, or will come and not buy because they have spent all of their money on entry fees.

That’s it for the first installment. I will be recounting some of our experiences, mistakes we made, and lessons we learned in the second and further installments.