A messe right now is like a warzone, where it’s every exhibition company for itself. There are tons of strategies and books that say that they can make an exhibitor stand out from the rest. But that is not so easy because every company tries to implement such tactics, and you may end up sharing some similar ones as well.
Thus, it is important to implement tactics that will help you excel at exhibiting. Once you do that, you will automatically beat your competitors to the finish line.
Skip the Start and the End
Keep in mind that you shouldn’t stay at a given conference all week. In our experience, the first and last day of the conference can be the worst days to gather intelligence.
During the first day, the exhibition stand staff is laser-like focused on talking to potential customers. They’re not as interested in having conversations that go left, right, or centre. Thus, their conversations are typically going to be fairly brief.
On the last day of the conference, the junior staff in the exhibition stall or hired staff might fill in for the closing day. The more interesting folks to talk to have probably already flown home.
Hence the sweet spot is right in the middle of the show. Obviously what the middle is for you is going to depend based on how long is the given conference. The upshot is if you’re trying to maximize your time, definitely don’t bother arriving for that very first day or staying for the last day.
Combine your Efforts
To maximize your time while visiting various booths at technology conferences, you can get meaningful demos of multiple products at the same time. For instance, you can ask staff members about how two products work together in a customer data centre.
Because multiple products are presented by multiple people in the expo stand, this is easier than you might think. It’s just a matter of asking the person you’re talking to, “Can you bring somebody from the other side of the booth because my question crosses both products?”.
Thus, you can gain much insight using these strategies. Although the staff will do all in their power to provide you will all the knowledge they have, as an attendee you must ask questions to gain more knowledge about the product.
