I spent the past two weeks traveling through Canada for trade shows. I was on 7 plans in 12 days, and spent time in 3 different time zones during these travels. I had also never been to Canada, so it was a great (but tiring) experience.
I left Boston to go to Calgary (see my hotel room in the post below). In Calgary was the first session of the iTech 2010 Summit. It took place in the Telus Convention Center which was conveniently located across the street from the hotel I was staying in. This was a one-day show, all day, in which 500 participants were expected to show up.
At this trade show, my company, ORSYP, has a booth to display what we do as a company and attract people over to us to start chatting with them. This is our booth:
We had a spinning wheel to drive traffic, and another table we had our slide show on (see both below).
The Calgary show was a bit of a disappointment, attendance wise. 500 were expected, and there were never more than 50 people in the room at once - I would say at maximum there were 200 people that attended the show that day. But, my silver lining, is it was a great way to get the feel for a trade show (seeing as it was my first time).
The next portion of this show was located in Vancouver. (I'll make another post about Vancouver, but I want to say quickly that I feel in love with this city and would give anything to go back).
Vancouver was much more of a success than Calgary. 700 attendees were expected, and I'd say the actual attendance was pretty close to that number. It turned out to be a great day overall (and people really loved that wheel). This took place at the Vancouver Convention Center, which is a relatively new facility (conveniently located right on the water, a few blocks down from where the Olympic Torch was held for the 2010 Winter Olympics). The facility was great and we had a great location for our booth (corner spot near the lunch tables) so the amount of traffic we got was double what we had in Calgary.
Overall, a successful show. Not only for my company, but for myself as well. I got to learn the flow of an IT trade show by being completely immersed in it, which quite frankly, I believe is the best way to learn. It had me looking forward to more trade shows to come, and next time, I won't be as nervous to start.
Eventfully Yours,
Megan
That's right! The more you attend and participate in trade shows, the more you get to learn on what makes a particular booth stand out and be a success. But there are also other considerations to make a booth successful. Most of which don't actually happen on the day of the trade show itself. For example, participation in a trade show requires shipping of your booth, and you have to manage your items well to reduce drayage costs and other mishaps in handling. You have to be carefully consider which freight company to choose, as well, especially in attending multiple trade shows.
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