Trade Show Lessons

By startupprincess | Published March 10, 2007

images.jpgToday’s Magic Wand: Here’s what we learned from participating in our first trade show for my husband’s business, Wholesale Works:

  • Corporate color shirts are effective; the brighter the better
  • Professional Signage/Displays are worth every penny
  • Pay the extra for the internet, the carpet, the electricity
  • Position your booth near FREE food or other main events; this worked well for us
  • Have a drawing; booths that did this got more attention
  • Offer a tradeshow special
  • Get cards; Give your cards; but make sure you don’t lose any! (we didn’t lose any, but I was sure nervous that we would)
  • Hire additional people to help; this was one of the smartest things we did
  • Borrow a dolly to move your stuff in and out
  • Get property-damage insurance! (Unfortunately one of the demo plasma TVs got broken because of another company ran into it with their truck OUCH).
  • Have fun!
  • Get a massage afterwards, sleep in! You deserve it
  • Reply to your emails from the show within 24 hours; they’re excited, show them you are too!
  • Wear good shoes and put a pad under your carpet (this would have been such a great idea!)
  • Postcards from Overnight Prints are great! Use the coupon code “postcardsale” and get $100 off! We paid $125 for 3,000!
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