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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Before you start on the journey to your trade show success, it might help to know a little more about us and why we’re hoping to inspire you to think differently about your own campaign. In different ways we’ve been involved in trade shows and exhibitions for more than 20 years collectively, as exhibitors, visitors and helping organisers to add value to their events.

We started out much the same way as many of you will, inheriting the planning and execution of a trade show as a ‘development’ project, with a reasonably sized budget but very limited information on what had and hadn’t worked in the past. The only way we learnt how to do it was to ask questions, lots of them, about everything from where to store huge boxes of chocolate or crates of beer, to which colours are most likely to catch a visitor’s eye on graphics and how many staff to have on your stand. We asked everyone from event organisers to stand design agencies, visitors, other exhibitors, venue managers and logistics experts and found that everyone had a different version of the truth. One of the most important things we learnt on our own trade show journey is that there isn’t one single truth when it comes to trade show execution. So much depends on the specific circumstances, objectives and resources of an organisation that not every piece of advice is going to work for every single exhibitor or event. However, there are some general principles that help provide a framework of best practice that help inform decision-making and generate powerful results.

Steve Reeder

Logistics guru and lover of a planning spreadsheet, I thrive on working out how to get all your kit, equipment and people there on time, in full and with all the right permissions. My areas of expertise are in the operational aspects of trade shows, understanding the Exhibitor Manual and scheduling what needs to happen when to make sure an exhibition stand looks as engaging and professional as possible. As a quick-thinking problem-solver, I have overcome several challenges on behalf of clients including regularly finding homes for stock and kit when no one has booked storage, writing risk assessments and health and safety statements when exhibitors arrive on-site without either, and getting very large boxes through very small holes.

Nichola Reeder

I thrive on discovering an exhibitor’s commercial selling story and bringing that to life through their stand, pre-show marketing, squad training and follow-up. Finding the reasons why an exhibitor’s product or service meets (and exceeds) a visitor’s need brings the whole campaign to life, and for me it’s the core to so many other decisions and actions that will ensure a trade show fills an organisation’s sales pipeline. Having delivered trade show campaigns on behalf of multinational organisations, I also understand the crucial role the stand squad play in the success of the show and have trained exhibitors on how to engage, develop and filter visitors to ensure that the most valuable visitors become future buyers.

We’ve worked on several different projects as exhibitors ourselves as well as with clients who need either a guiding hand with their decision-making or want us to do all the work for them. We also work with event organisers on several exhibition elements including exhibitor training courses, developing and managing live theatre areas, visitor recruitment campaigns and working with high value sponsors and exhibitors to maximise their returns. Over the years we’ve heard the frustrations of so many exhibitors who feel they have wasted their money, or blame event organisers for poor results, yet we’ve seen so many fantastic executions that have generated solid commercial returns for businesses. Through The Exhibitionist we want to bring together some of the answers to the questions we’ve asked over the years and to provide some inspiration and food for thought that helps exhibitors, event managers and anyone involved in the industry to add more value to their campaigns and generate more profitable results.