{"id":326,"date":"2011-06-13T19:23:43","date_gmt":"2011-06-13T19:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/blog\/?p=326"},"modified":"2011-06-13T19:23:43","modified_gmt":"2011-06-13T19:23:43","slug":"its-not-about-the-tradeshow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/13\/its-not-about-the-tradeshow\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Not About the Tradeshow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Too often, suppliers are caught in the trap of putting all of their eggs in the tradeshow basket.\u00a0 Gone are the days when suppliers will leave a half-day\u2019s work standing on the exhibit hall floor with a stack of RFPs as souvenirs.\u00a0 Tradeshows have become meet-and-greets, a place to see and be seen, a place for networking, for new ideas, and for reacquainting with friends and colleagues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But tradeshows don\u2019t often happen in a vacuum.\u00a0 More commonly, the tradeshow is just one facet of a larger conference complete with educational sessions, meal functions, networking receptions, and breaks.\u00a0Suppliers need to embrace that the tradeshow is not the only opportunity to secure business; in fact, these days, of the four other aspects to a conference mentioned above, the tradeshow may be the least likely location at which business is conducted.<\/p>\n

Educational sessions at industry conferences are generally geared towards educating the planner on new meeting planning techniques and trades.\u00a0 For this reason, any savvy supplier who sits in on an educational session, will not only glean the lessons of the day, but they\u2019ll be surrounded by the very planners they hope to capture when standing on the tradeshow floor.\u00a0 Arrive five minutes before the session and stay five minutes after for increased networking and exposure, and be sure to mingle with your neighbors to your right and left.\u00a0 Who knows who holds the next meeting for your hotel?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ah, the general session breakfast.\u00a0 Oh that rubber chicken lunch.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a supplier skipping out on the group meal functions, you\u2019re a fool for two reasons.\u00a0 For one, food is fuel, and you\u2019ll need it to survive the tradeshow you\u2019ve sunk all of your marketing dollars into.\u00a0 But more importantly, when asked to pass the salt, you\u2019ll be seasoning the tasteless food of a prospective customer no doubt.\u00a0 Be the life of your table.\u00a0 Indeed there will be a mix of suppliers and planners alike at the average ten-top banquet round, but allow your sales personality to shine and make a friend.\u00a0 That friend whose salad was dressed thanks to your reach might have a holiday party that fits perfectly in your largest ballroom.<\/p>\n

A networking reception at an industry conference should nary be missed because, unlike any of the other events, this one is designed for the very reason you\u2019ve attended the conference.\u00a0 Mix and mingle by bouncing strategically from one high top to another.\u00a0 Stand near the dance floor, dance if your skills won\u2019t preclude your ever making another friend, and make sure you watch your cocktail intake.\u00a0 Staying loose at the networking reception is key, but being sloppy defeats every purpose surrounding the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And finally, please do not ignore the breaks.\u00a0 More business can be conducted in the narrow prefunction space of the junior ballroom, and in the hotel lobby, and in the elevator, than may be conducted on the floor of the expo.\u00a0 Take a moment to check your email and voicemail.\u00a0 Take another to grab a granola bar.\u00a0 But save the lion\u2019s share of your break time to network with individuals you haven\u2019t already seen.\u00a0 The time is invaluable and too few suppliers seize these moments.<\/p>\n

The tradeshow can\u2019t be ignored.\u00a0 Certainly, it\u2019s the time when one is most prepared to speak eloquently about their product, to showcase and highlight their advantages, because marketing materials are readily available.\u00a0 But it\u2019s also the time at which suppliers are most succinctly pitted against their competition, sometimes no more than ten feet away.\u00a0 And, sadly, it\u2019s also in many cases so overdone, that planners don\u2019t spend the time suppliers had hoped for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The irony is, that many suppliers come only for the tradeshow and spend all their marketing dollars on creating the perfect booth.\u00a0 And if no RFPs were collected while standing in their 10×10 cell, it\u2019s deemed a failure.\u00a0 Hardly!\u00a0 The tradeshow is just a wee part of the overall conference and by no means the only place where the investment can be returned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Too often, suppliers are caught in the trap of putting all of their eggs in the tradeshow basket.\u00a0 Gone are the days when suppliers will leave a half-day\u2019s work standing on the exhibit hall floor with a stack of RFPs as souvenirs.\u00a0 Tradeshows have become meet-and-greets, a place to see and be seen, a place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nIt\u2019s Not About the Tradeshow - hotel-lobbyists.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/13\/its-not-about-the-tradeshow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It\u2019s Not About the Tradeshow - 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