Introduction

Last week a colleague and I attended the ATA2018 conference in Chicago. This was a small segment of our overall trip to the U.S., but it did get me thinking about some of the key factors of attending trade shows. Therefore, I figured I would share my thoughts on this with you.

Me attending ATA2018 last week in Chicago

Attending trade shows can be costly and time consuming so a business needs to think carefully before it decides to invest in a show. This applies even more so to start-ups where cash flow and key resources are usually scarce.

So – is it really worth it?

According to the Centre for Exhibit Industry Research, nearly all attendees (90%) plan to make a purchase within the next 12 months. In addition to the percentage of prospective customers, the vast majority of attendees (80%) are decision makers or have some influence on the business they represent. In addition to being prospective customers, 30% of trade show attendees have a definite interest in your product or service. Over 75% of trade show attendees are looking for new suppliers and buy 1 or more products. Finally, (26%) of trade show attendees purchase products at exhibitions. These statistics suggest that it can be a worthwhile investment.

With this in mind here are some key tips for attending trade shows from a business development and start-up perspective.

Cash flow is king in any business but especially critical for start-ups. Cash is usually generated through investment and revenue from sales. Therefore, in my opinion, you should only be attending trade shows to secure either of these things or both. Leave the ‘fact finding’ and interesting market and technical conferences for a later time when the business has reached sustainable break-even.

I mentioned that attending this trade show was a small segment of our overall business trip. We went simply because it made logistic sense (we were travelling from Salt Lake City to Boston) and 2 of our partners were attending which we needed to meet with anyway. To be blunt, had they not been there and our travel plans been different, we would not have attended.

Attending trade shows can be expensive. There’s the cost of attending and/or exhibiting, travel to the event, hotels, food and entertainment etc. Make sure you choose the most cost-effective path. Simply attending as a standard delegate with a targeted approach to meet investors, customers, partners or suppliers can be much more effective than forking out thousands of dollars on exhibitor booths for example. Even then, check the pricing tiers to see what works best for you.

Simply attending ATA2018 could cost as much as $1,375 for the full 2-day attendance and conference pass. We were only interested in meeting our current partners and scoping out some competitors. Therefore, we spent a total of $300 on 2 ‘exhibitor hall only’ passes and lunch.

In order to understand your RoI of attending a trade show you need to have clear goals and a target outcome of attending. This can only be measured by assigning clear success criteria.

Given the nature of our attendance at ATA2018 this wasn’t really applicable for us this time. The target outcome was to meet with our partners to move a project forward (achieved!). That could have happened anywhere.

However, as an example, we attended Mobile World Congress last year in partnership with Cisco Jasper. This was a large investment on our part, sending three staff from New Zealand to Spain for a week and attending the Cisco Jasper booth. That kind of investment warrants clear goals and criteria which included:

• Generate international sales leads (Outside of NZ and Australia)

• Further enhance our strategic partnerships (Cisco Jasper and Samsung)

• Create global brand awareness

• Identify industry trends

• Look for potential EU distributors

Being a guest speaker and getting great media coverage will provide you with a much better RoI than standing in a booth all day.

This is not always easy when you are just starting out, but you could look for a particular ‘Subject Matter Expert’ angle in terms of pitching to speak. It might be that you get assigned the slot of the last hour on the last day of the show where no one attends but it’s a start. You’ll at least get published on the website as a speaker which you can milk for all it’s worth! You may even get a copy of the recorded session which you can publish on your website.

If you can’t get press coverage at the event, come up with your own social media campaign. Get selfies with the keynote speakers, tweet on the assigned hashtags, anything to build you profile at the event.

Here are some examples of what we did at a Milken Institute – Asia Summit and Mobile World Congress last year.

Let’s be clear, learning about a market or a new technology is important. However, as we stated earlier, your main purpose for attending a trade show should be to generate cash.

By all means attend some of the talks and seminars that are on offer. Just don’t spend MOST of your time there. You will ultimately learn more by talking and socialising with people anyway, with the added benefit of forming useful business relationships.

Stay at the hotel of the conference where possible. This may be more expensive, but that’s where most of the trade show delegates will be congregating and socialising afterwards. You’ll also save on commute time!

Try to get invited and/or pay to attend the evening events such as the opening night networking session, awards night or formal dinner. This can be a great way to mingle with the movers and shakers in your industry.

Conclusion

There is a whole plethora of web articles discussing tactical tips for attending trade shows (wear comfortable shoes, bring business cards etc.). I’ve tried to focus here on things that are critical for start-ups to ensure precious cash and resources are put to good use.

I hope this was helpful and, as always, please provide your feedback. I’d love to hear about your experiences at trade shows and what you found worked and didn’t.

Take care,

Alan

Alan Brannigan
Husband, Father, CEO, Entrepreneur, Tech-Geek, Crypto Enthusiast, Believer in Freedom and Liberty

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