Miniseries: Aspects of Exhibitions and Events – What am I selling?

Drive thy business or it will drive thee – Benjamin Franklin

Without exhibitors, there is no exhibition, no visitors, no turnover. Sales plays an essential role in the preparation for an exhibition or an event. In this blogpost, I will write about which choices are important in deciding what to sell to an exhibitor.

What am I selling?
The first step in the sales process is to decide what to sell. Will they be complete booths, including carpeting, booth construction, electricity, lighting, furniture and media? Or will all these products be sold separately? Both options have certain pros and cons:

Complete booths
- not every exhibitor will need the complete booth; some companies will have their own booth construction, which they want/must use for every exhibition (f.i. to portray a uniform, consistent image of the company to their target groups). These exhibitors will not be happy with a complete booth, because they might only need the carpeting and electricity, and bring their own booth construction, furniture, etcetera;
- if an organizer offers complete booths only, they will have to do concessions to large exhibitors with their own booths – they will have to make exceptions. This may lead to other exhibitors asking for an explanation for the fact that they did take a standard booth, while their competitor has their own booth, and has the advantage of standing out in an otherwise uniform exhibition;
- offering complete booths only results in a uniform, potentially boring exhibition;
- offering complete booths provides convenience to many exhibitors, especially exhibitors who come from far, or who have little experience exhibiting;
+ offering only complete booths results in the ability to control the final look of the exhibition. Because every exhibitor has a complete booth, you will not have a problem with clumsily disguised forgotten booth construction;
+ you can take away stress from inexperienced exhibitors by providing everything they need in the complete booth;
+ offering complete booths only results in a uniform, clear exhibition, where visitors can focus on the exhibitors; the booths themselves do not claim attention.

Separate components
- it is difficult for inexperienced (or busy) exhibitors to gain and retain overview of the products they have ordered, which products they need, and which products they still need to order;
- selling all components separately makes selling non-essential products (f.i. media) more difficult and time-consuming for the organizer – exhibitors with smaller budgets will not be buying such products, which also influences the appearance of the exhibition in a negative way;
- the organizer needs to spend more time selling non-essential products and getting an overview of which exhibitors have ordered what products;
- the organizer runs a greater risk at getting last-minute orders during the build of the exhibition – exhibitors only then realize what they need and haven't ordered;
- the exhibition looks more varied because of the greater difference between the booths, and runs the risk of looking unorganized;
- the organizer has less control over the general appearance of the exhibition;
+ selling all components separately provides your exhibitors with maximum flexibility: exhibitors with their own booth, can just order the products they need, and supplement their own booth with products ordered by the organizer;
+ exhibitors with smaller budgets are not forced to buy more expensive, complete booths, which often include things they don't really need – the threshold for participating in your exhibition becomes lower;
+ the exhibition looks more diverse, thus reducing the risk of ending up with a boring-looking exhibition.

Most organizers will end up with a combination of offering both complete booths, and selling all components separately. An important implication of this strategy is, that the organizer needs to be able to quickly signal potential problems, and take appropriate actions.

Fairsatile offers the possibility of offering both complete boothpackages, and all components separately to your exhibitors. They are presented in a webshop, so the exhibitor can see his or her options. Fairsatile also provides the organizer with an overview of pending orders, enabling the organizer to contact the exhibitor to provide support and guidance if necessary, in order to prevent last-minute surprises during the build of the exhibition.

15 February 2011 11:22