Kick out the Sad Sacks. Negative people will make your booth negative period. The negative energy will flow all over and people will see you. I had a couple of sad sacks monopolizing the only two trade show chairs in my space, and they were constantly being negative, negative and more negative. I am sorry but my feet hurt too. Especially, when you have to get up on day two and your Prius blows a tire on top of a bridge (tangent and separate story – view blog later). Get up off your tush and smile; say “hi” and showcase what you are selling despite your feet hurting and your desire to crawl under the table and take a nap. Even more strategic – look at the program … I visited a couple of magazines and other media I wanted to target. If you are going to be a sad sack, please don’t attend – it will be a waste of money. Lucky for M Communication we were on fire the whole time and in attendance with our positive go-big-or-go-home attitude. Once our sad sack’s left, we sold books non-stop. In the end, our booth housed four very tired women, but we began to have the best time ever (despite the fact we were having a really good and productive time the whole time). The moral of the story? Leave the sad sacks at home. Embarrassingly enough, one of our new authors from the conference asked who the two sad people were … not good.
The All-Important Checklist. One word of advice – have a checklist to go before you pack and have one after the fact. The before checklist reminds you to check your business card status (yes, you need these) and includes some of the necessary items: bowl, giveaway (careful here – if you give away a Nordy’s card you are going to get a lot of useless business cards with people you will potential never do business with – if you do a giveaway – keep it targeted), pens, and receipt book if you sell something. Also, check in with the conference and see if there are astronomical fees to charge things to ship to the conference. Super important. You might want to invest in some suitcases with wheels instead. Wheels = good. Also, make a list of everything you need for your booth … collateral, signage, power point, and what you are selling (duh!). The after checklist is important as well – list what you missed bringing, what you missed at the conference at the conference that may have been beneficial, and notes that say if it is a go or no go next year.
What not to wear … and Bad Dress Behavior. As much as a women’s conference may be fashion show – and believe me Kate paraded by quite a bit – you are what you wear. Dress professional and wear comfy shoes. If you want to wear the “oh I am so trendy shoes,” please put a back-up comfortable pair in your bag. Your feet will thank you for it. Plus – it is super unprofessional to completely do the barefoot thing unless you are in the Hawaiian Islands or at Sandals (where I will be next month … he he). Bad attendee dress behavior includes go-go boots and a black mini skirt when you are with the likes of Caroline Kennedy. Really. Please hire a image consultant … I know one … call me.
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Some really nice ideas here on what you can do. I really may have to apply them to my conference facility cheltenham as I really want the best of what i can do. Great Tips.