Nearly every business, institution or nonprofit has the opportunity to “table” during the course of their fiscal year. It can be expensive, time-consuming and ultimately a bit of a bust.
Unless of course you commit to the event and really go all in. That goes for attendees as well as sponsors. Before you register, find your reason for attending or sponsoring. Once you have it, commit to going all in.
First things first: Get organized
Like life, tools make events easier.
Love them or hate them, business cards are the easiest way to connect when you’re working the tables and booths. Unfortunately, they can be cumbersome. It’s inevitable you will misplace the one card you really hoped to follow up with upon your return to the office.
Keep a handle on your contacts. CamCard and ScanBizCards quickly and accurately read and save business cards to your smartphone. It’s greener and a less bulky option too.
Hosting? There is so much data coming your way and so many details to manage. It’s easy to overlook the little things, like communicating with your attendees.
- Certain Touchpoint is an award-winning event management app to help you make connections with your attendees and gather key data signals before, during and after an event.
- CrowdCompass is another award winner that provides a platform for the entire lifecycle of your event, including a customizable experience for attendees. Guests are given a unique schedule where they can add a session, a personalized activity feed and the ability to post directly to their social channels from within the app.
Own your space
We believe you can do better than a tablecloth with your logo and pull-up banner. You have paid handsomely for your event space – make the most of it.
At Flint, we think of brands in terms of experiences. When you are preparing for your next trade show, ask yourself, “How will people feel when they interact with my brand?”
Start with a concept.
We have been golfing at our Chamber of Commerce event for years. It’s great fun being part of a foursome, but we were looking for more reach. This year we were on a mission to interact with as many golfers as possible. We decided to sponsor a hole.
Create a story board for the event. Sketch out your space.
The elements and the weather aligned for us to have some fun with our space. In a conference hall or event location your options will likely be more limited. That does not mean you can’t go big.
Emagispace provides environmentally friendly options to build out your booth to any size and shape. You can easily move and adjust to fit your environment.
Stand out by finding your thing
We promise your thing is not a great pen. You paid for a booth for one reason, and one reason only: You want people to be interested in your brand. So please, at the very least, be interesting.
- Add a little sparkle. Fireworks in a Box are indoor cold-water sparklers that require no permitting, are easy to use and, for added drama, are also touchable.
- Offer fun giveaways that add to attendees’ event experience. Hi Lites are brandable augmented reality sunglasses that are fully customizable. When the wearer looks at a light source your logo will appear before their eyes.
- Be interactive. We wanted to offer an experience that would create a buzz. We went with an old-school party game. Golfers were encouraged to “take a shot, give a shot, make a shot.”
Hole sponsor at the Duluth Chamber Golf Classic.
Golfers took a shot of our curated flavored vodkas, used a water gun to knock a ball off the tee and then teed-up and drove to the hole.
Feed the people
This is the year to reset the booth parade vibe. Let’s be honest. Even curious attendees interested in your brand are leery of your booth; the perception of being “sold to” or ending up on yet another newsletter is exhausting.
Consider your 10 x10 stall your own personal event space. Think of yourself as a host welcoming people into your home.
What do all good parties have in common? Food, drink and a little something extra.
- What’s better than an awesome selfie op? How about one that is edible or drinkable. You can do this with drinks from Print a Drink.
- Candy can be a fun and whimsical opportunity to get attention. Spark o Sweets creates gorgeous customizable suckers. Even companies like NASA and Amazon have thrown business their way.
- You can also go all out and create an entire Lite Brite-styled drink wall. It doubles as a cool art piece.
- Or go analog. We offered shots of UV vodka. We created a “brand persona” for each flavor and asked them to select a personality that most closely resembled their own. We served UV vodka for their diverse flavors and because their vodka colors matched our brand color palette.
A little thank-you gift from the host goes a long way, so long as it’s useful. Once again, your gift, like your thing, is not a pen.
We hand-stamped these muslin bags with our event logo and tucked a stainless-steel shot glass with a note explaining our Brand Experience Initiative. The neutral logo was not heavily branded. Avid golfers kept the shot glass in their golf bag for the next outing.
Presenting at the event?
Well, now. That is another opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Instead of talking at your audience, invite them to join the conversation.
Social Wall Pro helps you engage your audience with a live Q&A. Their customizable templates provide an opportunity to connect through live social media feeds as well and increase your reach. You have likely already seen this platform in practice on the popular reality show The Voice.
Looking for some more ideas? Send us an email or contact us here! We would love to help you maximize your experience at your next trade show, conference or golf tournament.