‘Trade show presentations’ Articles
Written by Ken Newman on 20 July 2010
Hey Newman: I just got back from attending a trade show in Vegas and from the look of things, it seemed that most of the people staffing the booths just didn’t want to be there. Don’t you think there’s a much cheaper way to have a lousy time? —Gail from New York
This is a message for trade show vendors: At your next show, sneak up on your own booth. That’s right, pop out from around a corner about 10 yards back and take a good, honest look at your investment.
Do your booth staffers look like sad little wallflowers?
Do they look like kids at a high school social afraid to ask someone to dance?
Is there a guy sitting expressionless in front of a glass bowl of Hershey’s Kisses, wondering why no one is coming up to talk to him?
This “condition” is more common then you might think, especially with the smaller booths. At one recent show, I walked around and paid particular attention to the 5 x10 and 10 x10 booths. Often they’re manned by just two or three people who are so uncomfortable they’re burying their heads in books or dabbling with smartphones — just sitting there waiting for it all to be over.
I looked at these people and found myself thinking about Neil Strauss, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone best known for penning a book called, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists. This was the inside story of guys who despite NOT being the most attractive males out there, pick up women with absolute ease. Strauss not only researched this “secret society,” he became arguably one of the top pickup artists in the world and actually started conducting workshops for the undesirable and uninitiated.
At the heart of this book is a philosophy about “how to engage people.” He argues that if you’re going to try to pick up a woman in a bar, you don’t say, “Can I buy you a drink?” You don’t ask anything that could elicit a “no” response. Instead, you “engage” her. You contrive a story seemingly playing out before her eyes and ask, “What do you think?” Yes, it’s an opening line. But it’s an opening line that’s not clichéd or overwrought; it’s a question that pulls this woman into a story with you through her advice or involvement.
Strauss’ philosophy is hardly limited to the world of pickup artists. “Engagement” is something that most certainly can be applied to trade show marketing. I was observing the booth staff at this recent trade show, and they weren’t engaging anyone. First of all, they’re sitting. Rule No. 1: No sitting! Secondly, even when standing, they look positively miserable. If you’re spending that kind of money at a trade show and you’re planning to go there with the attitude that you’d rather be anywhere else, then don’t go! And before you say a couple of staffers don’t represent the “enthusiasm of the company,” remember that these faces are your company for the purposes of these crucial three trade show days. They are the representative image of you and the images that attendees will remember.
Honestly, if I had some sort of magisterial banishment power, King Newman would have sent home half the people working this particular trade show. If you’re going to look bored — if you’re going to feel miserable — find another way to market your services.
Here’s the ironic thing: A lot of these same people will spend a fortune on search engine optimization, which is designed to drive traffic to their site. But they don’t spend any energy driving traffic into their booth. And that doesn’t necessarily mean hiring a trade show presenter like me but perhaps a crowd gatherer — at least someone with people skills! If the person in your booth is not the type who can go up to a perfect stranger and strike up a conversation, then they’re the wrong person to be at the show.
You need to find someone who is not just a technical expert; you also need your company’s best pickup artist.
Have an industry-related question? Send “Newman” an e-mail and get your inquiry answered on the blog.
Tags: Booth staff, booth traffic, engagement, passion, pickup artists
Posted in Booth design, Booth staff, Trade show giveaways, Trade show news & trends, Trade show presentations, Trade shows & social media | 2 Comments »
Written by Ken Newman on 29 June 2010
Hey Newman, all you have to do is pick up a newspaper to see that we’re in a VERY serious climate right now. I know as a trade show presenter, your approach is to balance content and comedy. Are you still finding it appropriate to be funny, or are companies so sensitive about everything that they want strictly informational presentations? —Karen from P.A.
Karen, you’re right. A lot of companies are in a serious mood right now and are concerned whether laughter in presentations is appropriate. Generally speaking, companies have the tendency to hide behind, “We have a serious message.” The fact is, every organization has a serious message. Business is serious stuff. But there are a million ways to communicate that message.
Haven’t we all gone to the movies where we’ve seen a “serious” film, and found ourselves laughing? You might be laughing through your tears. Or crying through the laughter. But the power of the film, its message still comes through.
If you’re going to impart information — especially if it’s difficult-to-grasp, complicated information — people are more likely to remember it if they’re laughing about it.
I had a Chemistry teacher in high school who made the dullest material come to life through story-telling, crazy props and even costumes. His classes were like 45 minutes of stand-up punctuated by the occasional explosion. I’m sure you have your own version of that science teacher, and I’m sure you remember a lot of what they taught you.
To appreciate the lasting power of humor, all you have to do is walk up to someone on the street (preferably 30 and up) and say, “Remember ‘The Puffy Shirt’ episode of Seinfeld?” Instantly, that person’s face will brighten and they’ll start quoting lines from it … despite how many years it has been since that person saw it on TV. For my generation, you can do the same experiment reminiscing about the campfire scene in “Blazing Saddles,” or your favorite Monty Python sketch.
There’s plenty of evidence to support laughter as a highly effective memory device. When you have a booth of people laughing about something, you can ask them two hours later “what was so funny?” and they’ll be able to tell you not only what was funny, but the substance behind the joke. They remember. And in the same way, they will remember your company and your featured product or service.
I have watched scores of trade show presentations over the past few months, and the vast majority of them are horrible. About as riveting as watching paint dry.* No laughter. No smiles. Just a lot of vacant stares. The presentations are little more than a staged reading of a product white paper, followed by, “Thank you very much” and “Here’s your free shirt.”
Ask someone what they remember two hours after a presentation like THAT, and they’ll say, “Um … well I did get the free shirt.”
(By the way, I actually did find a video of paint drying on YouTube. Watch it and judge for yourself.)
Have an industry-related question? Send “Newman” an e-mail and get your inquiry answered on the blog.
Tags: humor, live presentations, storytelling, trade show trends
Posted in Trade show giveaways, Trade show news & trends, Trade show presentations | No Comments »
Written by Ken Newman on 07 May 2010
1) Realize smaller can be better
When selecting your booth size, keep in mind that investing in a 20×40 might not guarantee you a more successful show. A smaller booth that is constantly packed is a lot less expensive than a large half-empty booth and will generate much more excitement. Think of your last dinner party. Doesn’t everyone seem to congregate in the smallest room in the house?
2) Make sure your booth staff is ready to talk to attendees
That means don’t sit down. Avoid standing in groups of two or more fellow staffers. Stand near the aisles. Look out at the crowd and make eye contact. Smile. Don’t say, “Can I help you?” They’ll say, “NO.” Instead, look at their name tags. Use their name. Ask them what their company does. Invite them into the booth. Now you’re getting somewhere.
3) Quickly follow up on leads
Three-quarters of the leads generated at trade shows are never followed up on … and when they are followed up, it tends to be way too late. Those 2,000 leads you got don’t mean anything if you don’t do something with them. You need a way to categorize your leads as “HOT,” “warm” and “cold” — and with hot leads, there’s no such thing as getting in touch too soon. First contact should come within days of the trade show’s end. When weeks or months go by, you just end up lumped together with all the other SPAM.
4) Use giveaways to build booth traffic
BUT, don’t just give stuff away. USE that giveaway item to quiz the audience on what they’ve just heard. Use it to get them to ask questions. You can also use higher-priced giveaways (from thumb drives to HD TVs to wads of cash) as an incentive to get people to the demo stations and get them into the booth. And consider “green” giveaways. Cheaply made swag just ends up in the trash and then in landfills. You want your giveaways to last … so that attendees hold onto your branded item as long as possible.
5) Keep product demos short
Seven minutes is ideal. Ten minutes is the limit. Fifteen minutes … Get the hook! Trade show attendees have a lot of real estate to cover. Don’t feel you have to tell them your entire story. Pique their interest. Get them to want to know more. Get them into the booth.
6) Limit your seating
A seating area with 50 chairs is intimidating. Few people want to be the first to sit down. Also, if you have an audience of 25 people, it still looks half empty. But with a dozen or so seats, you’re looking at a standing-room-only crowd. People walking by will be more interested in what’s going on if all the seats are full. It’s only natural to wonder what could be going on over there.
7) Have at least one crowd gatherer
We are not talking about scantily clad eye candy for your booth. We’re talking about warm, engaging, gregarious greeters. We’re talking about men and women who know how to chat up people in the aisles, ask them questions, invite them into your booth, introduce them to your knowledgeable (and well-trained) staff. These crowd gatherers will continue to invite people to stop and listen even after the presentation has begun. If you skip the crowd gatherers because of the stereotypes, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
8 ) Insist on an “open” booth design
Think about the lines. Think about the traffic flow. And think about how much you enjoyed the last time you couldn’t find your car in a parking garage. Try to design your booth in a way where there are virtually no impediments in any direction for someone coming in or someone going out. Make the booth’s architecture as open as possible to create maximum flow. You want people to just stroll through and almost accidentally find themselves in the booth. Booth layout and thoughtfulness has much more to do with success than booth size and “impressiveness.”
9) Do your pre-show work!
Promote in advance using social media. Send e-blasts to prospective attendees. Offer up a promotional tease to get people into the booth before the show even starts. Tweet from the trade show floor with your latest news and special offers. Utilize video. Do a “Live from the Trade Show Floor” spot and a daily wrap-up. Announce news and promotions with all the fanfare a live recording can offer. Make it short, interesting and something to get people excited in anticipation of your event.
10) Utilize a professional presenter
Bippy the Mime making a workstation out of balloons may be impressive, but it’s not likely to ensure you qualified leads. Have someone represent your company who is engaging, knowledgeable and will interact with the audience. Most trade show demos seem to be staged readings of marketing white papers. Whether you hire a professional presenter or not, don’t do this … under any circumstances. Everyone talks about “24/7, valued-added solutions.” Your audience will tune out. Say it in layman’s terms, and say it with passion. Find a reason to truly care about your subject matter.
This article originally appeared as a guest contribution on the ChoiceVendor.com blog. We’ll return next week to the usual Q&A format. If you have an industry-related question, send “Newman” an e-mail and get your inquiry answered on the blog.
Tags: Booth design, Booth staff, crowd gathering, lead follow up, targeted giveaways
Posted in Booth design, Booth staff, Going green at trade shows, Lead generation & follow up, Trade show giveaways, Trade show news & trends, Trade show presentations, Trade shows & social media | No Comments »
Written by Ken Newman on 30 March 2010
Hey Newman, we’re in the midst of scripting our next trade show presentation. It’s coming in at 21 minutes. Is that too long? –Walter in Las Vegas
No problem, Walter. As long as you can talk three times faster than normal and bring it in at SEVEN.
Seriously, here’s a question for you: If you only had that seven minutes to tell your product or brand story, what would you say?
Imagine you’re the point person at a big trade show presentation. You’ve set up a small theater in your booth. You don’t have a professional presenter, so it falls on you to entertain, stimulate and inspire this throng of attendees that’s formed around you. The microphone has just been placed in your hand and you have to go … now! You have only seven minutes and then the mic goes dead. That’s it. You take a deep breath and step in front of the crowd. With such limited time and so much on the line, what do you say?
This is the essence of a compelling trade show presentation. It’s not how much you can say; it’s how little. What actually is your message when you’re “forced” to distill it down? The reality is those people in your audience are visiting 25-30 booths a day. They will only walk away remembering two or three key points, along with the “feeling” they got from the message and from your energy and enthusiasm. So, what are those two or three points they cannot leave without?
If you’re finding it difficult to answer that question, there’s an approach that can help: If you had to offer up all your messaging on just one piece of paper, what would you say? Many of my clients have 200 products and a worldwide audience. They deserve at least 10 pages, right? It doesn’t matter. No one is going to listen to that. It has to be ONE page — and not 2pt type!
Try to challenge yourself on that single page. Make a list of all the corporate jargon you’ve ever heard, read it over carefully, and then toss it. There are immense benefits in brevity, and even greater benefits in originality.
Now it gets even harder. Cut that in half, and give it to your booth staff as a guide for talking with attendees. Condense it even further and give it to the crowd gatherers as an elevator speech. For them, it’s perhaps one great phrase that encapsulates what you do and what your presentation will be about.
Many years ago when I began producing trade show presentations, I would have my client tell me their story. Their WHOLE story. That typically ran 45 minutes or so. Armed with that and a FedEx package filled with white papers and product brochures, I would craft what I believed was a tight, entertaining seven-minute draft. I’d present it over the phone and await my client’s response. Often they would rave about the comic framework, tell me that it really “moved well,” but then mention that unfortunately, I had extracted the “wrong” seven minutes. My heart would sink and they would say, “What we really want to talk about is ‘this.’” It was one of the things they’d mentioned, but there was no way for me to know that this was where the emphasis was supposed to be. The client didn’t know at the time, either. It proved to be a clarifying exercise, but not a particularly efficient one.
Now, I work with every client to first find out what they care about. And then I keep at them until we can fit that on a single page. We talk about the big deliverables. We talk about the key messages. We talk about how this product/service/brand will make people’s lives better. With this, I can begin structuring the routine and build the “right” seven minutes. I add in the entertaining elements, and this time, when I do the read-through, it’s 95 percent of the way there.
This may be more work up front, but it pays off in fewer iterations and a much better (and tighter) script.
Oh, and on the off chance you think it’s impossible to get your message across in only seven minutes, take a look at what professional trade show presenter, William Hall is able to do in just a One Minute Presentation.
Do you have an industry-related question you’d like answered on “Hey Newman”? Send him an e-mail and get your inquiry answered on the blog.
Tags: Booth staff, crowd gathering, live presentations, storytelling
Posted in Trade show news & trends, Trade show presentations | 3 Comments »
Written by Ken Newman on 16 March 2010
Hey Newman, at the last trade show I attended, it seemed like every presentation had been written by the same committee. Is it just me, or do I need to look for a TradeShowSpeak/English dictionary? —Steve in NYC
We all know that digitized scalable monitoring can offer a compatible WYSIWYG Intranet or a horizontal, even-keeled knowledge base. But for an extended fault tolerant matrix or for ameliorated scalable process improvement, you really need extended systematic software. In fact, a vision-oriented actuating migration or a right-sized, bottom-line help desk can provide the kind of eco-centric customer loyalty for which we all clamor.
Something tells me that opening paragraph didn’t do much for you. In fact, if you were a trade show attendee listening to THAT presentation, I suspect you’d fake an “important phone call” just so you could get up and leave. Yet, many trade show presentations sound just like this. Many of them (most?) are little more than a staged reading of a marketing whitepaper — without any emotional connection at all.
Specs and high-tech talking points don’t sell products and services; enthusiasm and passion do.
Connecting with your audience is key. They need to hear the passion and energy in your voice, and they need to hear how that product will change their lives (or the world at large). How is this going to help people? Why should they care? What are the benefits for them? And why are you so excited about it? For some reason, answering those essential questions is most often lost in the development of the presentation script.
Whether it’s an enterprise-class server or a new baby formula, you MUST find a way to be passionate when you’re talking about it.
I recently represented a solar power company at a large home and garden show. The company had given me the basic data points about solar panels, which I incorporated into my presentation. After just a few shows, it became very clear to me that attendees weren’t paying much attention to those details. What they responded to was the way I talked about solar power. They could tell that I really believed in this technology — that it was good for the homeowner and good for the planet — and they flocked to me after the presentations with their technical questions.
They just figured if I was that passionate about the product, I must know all the nitty-gritty details. So, clearly what stayed with them wasn’t the technical info. It was the way they connected with me and my presentation OF that information.
I was getting qualified leads and signing people up for free in-home consultations based on the feeling the people had about the product and how it could help them … and the feeling they had about the “energy” of the presentation.
That energy — that passion — needs to be there all the time. If you’re the presenter, you have to find something about that product or service that you can really get behind. As a presenter, you owe it to yourself and to your audience to be genuinely passionate about your subject. The audience will pick up on that … or they’ll just be lulled into a coma by a barrage of corporate jargon.
If you’re not hiring a professional trade show presenter, then find someone in the company who is genuinely passionate and has the facility to deliver that passion on stage. Eight minutes is long enough, so long as that enthusiasm comes through. More than the size of the booth, more than the thickness of your carpet pad, this passion level really matters. The alternative isn’t pretty:
“We offer you a 24-7, mission critical, best-of-class, paradigm-shifting solution that will proactively enable cross-platform deliverables in a synergistic, distributed LAN/WAN environment.”
Tags: connection, crowd gathering, passion
Posted in Booth staff, Lead generation & follow up, Trade show presentations | 1 Comment »
Written by Ken Newman on 05 March 2010
Supercomm is no more. If you’re curious what that means for the trade show industry, be sure to read Part I on this topic. Today’s subject is the Top 5 Ways Show Sponsors Can Host a Successful Trade Show — and not have it become the next Supercomm or Comdex.
1. Treat your trade show like any other business. To succeed, a trade show needs to be well managed and cost effective. When a trade show goes under, the first assumption seems to be “there goes the industry.” That’s simply not the case. Shows die because they’re poorly organized, poorly promoted and poorly attended. Well-run shows are doing just fine.
In fact, some trade shows are exceptionally well organized. The timing is right. They host a two-hour cocktail reception on the first day so attendees can get a feel for everything without having to rush around. Visitors know they still have three more days to explore, so they can enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and socialize with friends and business associates. The trade show days have reasonable hours and there’s an absolute minimum of conflicting events.
It’s all the little things being done well that make for a successful show. The devil’s in the details, and that’s how many trade shows miss the mark. It’s about the quality of the experience for both the attendee and exhibitor.
2. Keep your exhibitors happy! Don’t schedule a rock-star CEO’s keynote during Prime Exhibit Hours. Exhibitors don’t appreciate sitting around in a ghost town — especially when with a little thought (and better timing) that keynote could infuse the trade show hall with more life and energy. In fact, here’s a radical idea: Why not schedule hours when the exhibit hall is open and NOTHING ELSE is going on: No general sessions. No eating sessions. No keynotes. No salsa lessons. Nada!
Thoughtfully limit the number of announcements that come over the exhibit hall’s PA system. Every announcement interrupts presentations and follow-up conversations, and an interruption by its very definition stops progress. Think about that.
While I’m on the subject, don’t schedule a wonderfully catered luxury luncheon somewhere else! Schedule a wonderfully catered luncheon at the venue and keep the leads inside the trade show hall. Exhibitors are paying a substantial sum for their trade show booths. Their investment needs to be worthwhile.
3. Publicize. A trade show is not a single event; it’s a process. You have to advertise and promote the same way you would launch a new product or garner buzz for a new downtown restaurant. Ask yourself, “What more can I do?” Opening night needs to come together and impress, as if there was a critic scribbling on a notepad somewhere in the room who was going to make or break your whole future with that one review. Make sure there’s ample staffing and ample direction. If you have one bad day, that’s a third of the trade show! Three bad days and it’s lights out.
4. Create the proper infrastructure. The hall needs to be set up in a way that’s easy for people to register, get in and get around. Think about the lines. Think about the traffic flow. And think about how much you enjoyed the last time you couldn’t find your car in a parking garage. A LOT of trade show attendees have this experience trying to find booths at some of the bigger shows. At one of the more popular Las Vegas events last year, I saw countless attendees wandering around clutching maps and looking like kids lost at Disneyland.
5. Make sure there is adequate signage. At a recent trade show in San Francisco, many exhibitors complained that traffic seemed to be a lot lighter even though attendance was actually up. Why? Turns out that a good number of attendees had no idea there were exhibits on the other side of the Hall! This could’ve easily been avoided by using little colored footprint decals on the floor leading the attendees to and from both sides of the event. When in doubt, add more signage, more guides and more information kiosks.
When attendees and exhibitors alike have an easy and enjoyable experience, they’ll come back. Overlook the little things, and you might be the next news headline.
Next week, we’ll return to the usual Q&A format, so click the big “?” in the blog banner and submit your itching trade show question or concern. This blog is for you, and your topic might just be the subject of the next post.
Tags: booth traffic, happy exhibitors, publicity, signage, trade show opportunities
Posted in Trade show news & trends, Trade show presentations | 4 Comments »
Written by Ken Newman on 22 January 2010
Hey Newman, I’m in the process of selecting my exhibit space for our next show. I want to make a big splash. Do I need a big booth to do it? —Tom in Mystic, Conn.
Tom, you don’t have to pay a fortune to get people to pay attention.
You can re-skin your booth. You can have a smaller trade show footprint (and in doing so have a smaller carbon footprint). You can use a small space to reduce your costs while keeping your booth packed with people, which looks better anyway.
Too many companies choose large booths because it’s a status thing. Look how big we are! That model just doesn’t work anymore. It’s not essential and it’s not cost-effective. Think about it like this: People will always cram into the smallest room at a party. The same psychology exists at a tradeshow. There’s nothing more depressing than a 50×50 booth with four people walking around … and three of them are the exhibitors. When you have a 10×10 and people are bumping into each other and crowding around a single kiosk or a single monitor to watch a demo, that creates a wow factor and the impression that “there’s something really exciting going on here!”
I say use a small footprint and then put more money into what’s going on IN your booth. Consider a three-hour training session for your staff. Then, create real excitement in your booth with a live presentation. I’m seeing more live presenters than at any time in recent memory performing in the smallest booths at the show. At a recent trade show, the big players had 60×60s and 80×80s—enormous footprints with 12 kiosks. But there were a considerable number of big companies with booths as small as 8’ X 10’. One had a magician. Another, a juggler. A third had a professional speaker on a podium telling a half-dozen different stories in rotation, with each mini-presentation lasting just a few minutes. Each one played to consistently large crowds.
At this same exhibit, our client had one of those 8’ X 10’ booths. With a registration desk and two demo stations, that left virtually no room to spare. I did my presentation on a small riser at the very edge of the booth, stopping attendees as they walked by. I delivered a short, entertaining pitch to anywhere from 10-60 people per show. Those people would then come into the booth, get their badges scanned and many would hang around and talk to our booth staff.
Our client for this three-day event got over 2,000 leads. Considering the size of the booth, they paid a heck of a lot less for their leads than the large booth next door. And, they got much bigger bang for their buck.
So, no, you absolutely don’t have to have the biggest footprint at a show. If you make the biggest splash, create the most buzz and get the highest value for your investment, then that’s a success. A big success.
Note from Ken: If you’re interested in booth re-skinning or a smaller, more efficient booth design, a great resource is Tim Patterson with Interpretive Exhibits.
Do you have an industry-related question you’d like answered on “Hey Newman”? Send him an e-mail and get your inquiry answered on the blog.
Tags: Booth design, Booth staff, lead generation, re-skinning, size matters
Posted in Booth design, Booth staff, Trade show news & trends, Trade show presentations | 4 Comments »
Written by Ken Newman on 10 December 2009
We recently participated in a major Chicago trade show that was not very well attended. In the pictures I saw online after the event, most booths looked like carpeted ghost towns. The writer of one story said you could have easily held a sporting event in the aisles. The only picture I saw featuring a massive throng of people happened to be a shot of our booth, during one of our live presentations. People were packing the aisle, and I remember thinking one thing: “WHEW.”
I don’t say this so much to toot the Magnet Productions horn as to illustrate an extremely important point: Having a live presenter made all the difference in our client’s success at this show. In fact, it was the difference between an empty booth and a full space clocking 2,000 leads (out of a trade show attendance of 7,000 total) … and this in a relatively small booth.
There were other live presentations at this show, and those booths had similar experiences. We heard comments like: “I didn’t understand why we needed a live presenter until today.” Another said, “Some people are already packing up, and we’re still packing them in. And this: “It’s not just that we got a ton of really good leads, it’s that everyone in the booth — our entire staff — had a really good time at that show. And that’s a first.”
You can’t predict the size of the crowd in these changing times, but you can protect yourself against a failed trade show experience. Think of it as preventative medicine: Booking a live presenter is like preventative medicine against an empty booth, ensuring good return on your money and good leads from the show.
When the trade show doors open and the first crowd comes through as a mere trickle, you know that you’re going to be in for a long three days — particularly if that trickle is on the morning of Day One! That’s exactly what happened in Chicago, with most of the booths staffed by people ready to pounce on anyone who came near. Pretty intimidating for a trade show attendee.
Instead, at our client’s booth, our live presenter would stop people in the aisles, offering to teach them a mindreading illusion.
“Come look at this! It’s amazing ! I am going to prove to you that we know EXACTLY what you’re thinking. And then, if you hang around, I’ll teach you how I did it.”
And attendees would watch … and then a few people would come by and watch them … and then some people would watch them … and then the presenter would take the stage and deliver our client’s message … to a standing-room-only crowd.
What I think it comes down to is this: Trade shows may be seeing a drop off in the number of attendees. But this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t exhibit. What it DOES mean, is that when you DO exhibit, make it count! If, for example, you are committed to a show that is only going to be attended by 7,000 people, you’re not going to want to come home with just 50 leads. The best medicine to prevent that is to have something going on in your booth that will make it THE place to be. And that something is a live presenter.
Tags: booth buzz, Booth staff, booth traffic, live presentations, trade show opportunities
Posted in Booth staff, Trade show news & trends, Trade show presentations | 3 Comments »
Written by Ken Newman on 04 November 2009
Hey Newman, in honor of Halloween, I thought I’d ask: Do crazy costumes and characters at trade shows actually accomplish anything? I usually just shake my head and move on. –Dan in Des Moines
Dan, the short answer is “sometimes.” Costumes and theatricality can be great, but it’s essential to really engage your audience—whether that’s onstage during a live trade show presentation or by having a giant gorilla wandering the trade show halls.
Over the years, Magnet Productions has been involved in many highly theatrical trade show presentations, including parodies of hit shows such as CSI, phenomena such as Star Trek and physical humor classics like The Three Stooges. In each of those cases, one thing became abundantly clear: You’re bound to attract attention and get people to stop and look (important), but a mere “act” won’t hold attendees’ attention for long (essential).
The problem with a traditional performance is you’re not playing to a captive audience. There’s so much stimuli and so many things to see at a trade show that it’s much too easy for someone to watch your Star Trek parody for a minute or two, laugh at the halting delivery of Captain Kirk’s lines and then move on to another flashy booth. Attendees will zone out and they will walk away.
So, what’s the answer? Break the “fourth wall.” Address the audience directly. Incorporate them into the show. Make funny asides to the crowd. Invite people to play along and show them you’re not taking yourself too seriously. If you’re going to do The Stooges, get someone up onstage to be the reason Curly takes a pie in the face.
Having a sense of humor about the whole thing is incredibly important, and when you can laugh at what you’re attempting, you can take advantage of what the situation offers. If you hire a life-sized banana to walk the trade show floor handing out flyers, people are going to think he’s just a model in a silly costume. So, have him jump up onstage, take the microphone from your presenter and be even more tech-savvy than your own product marketing people. Shock the audience! Defy their expectations. Play off obvious contrasts. Give attendees the unexpected … so that they’ll stay with you for more “unexpected.” And as I’ve talked about before in regards to magic acts, make sure that costume presentation immediately reveals itself as a legitimate way to communicate important client information in an entertaining (non-boring) way. The costume or character must be a device to tell a compelling story.
The star of the show is never the guy in the banana suit; the star of the show is the company.
Do you have an industry-related question you’d like answered on “Hey Newman”? Send him an e-mail and get your inquiry answered on the blog.
Tags: booth buzz, live presentations, storytelling, theatricality
Posted in Booth staff, Trade show presentations | No Comments »
Written by Ken Newman on 08 September 2009
Hey Newman, is there a way to effectively use magic in trade show presentations? They tend to be cheesy or off-point a lot of the time. –Susan in San Jose
Magic as part of a trade show presentation is not about shock value or “wow” factor. It’s about storytelling. Once you get that, everything else will quickly fall into place.
I’ve you’re using a magic show to bring people into the booth, that’s fine and it can work when done well, but it’s far more effective to think of it as a show that uses a variety of really interesting visual demonstrations to reinforce story. Here’s an example: While presenting I’m telling a story about a product and want to emphasize the message with a magic device. So, instead of simply holding up fingers for Points 1, 2, and 3, I hold up a coin that suddenly becomes a second coin that suddenly spawns a third out of thin air. All the coins are rare and valuable, and since we’re talking about generating money, it reinforces my point without putting people to sleep with PowerPoint or a bullet list.
If I’m talking about a particularly complicated methodology that somebody has to go through, I could enumerate those points as No. 1-12 and bore myself and the audience to tears … or I could use the same simple brand of magic to entertain and inform while I cover the necessary technical ground. I’ll bring audience members up on stage. I’ll make them part of the magic. And I’ll make them part of the complicated explanation and a part of the fun. Together, we’ll all tell the story in a humorous fashion.
And long after the presentation is done, THAT story will be remembered.
Imagine you’re at a party and someone says, “Hey, tell us that crazy story about what happened to you last week!” Immediately, there’s 25 people listening to you. Now, you’re not a standup comic or a magician, so you just tell that story in as colorful a way as you can. That’s what people forget to do at trade shows.
What’s endlessly fascinating to me is you can go into a trade show booth an find a bunch of salespeople standing around a guy who’s telling them a killer story. He has that micro-audience eating out of the palm of his hand. Everybody’s laughing and hanging on his every word. But that same guy then gets up on stage 10 minutes later, puts on his wireless headset and mike and bores the bejesus out of the audience. This is the same guy, but where did that great sense of humor and storytelling ability go? Instead, he’s up there telling us about Slide 74.
It’s the same thing when a magic show lacks connection to story and message. A lot of people have a negative bias towards magicians and think it’s just “silly stuff.” That’s because magic can seem silly when it’s not serving the client’s purpose.
Demonstrate a technological solution with a straightjacket escape. Make something appear to represent a product’s answer to an industry problem. This isn’t magic for magic’s sake. It’s in support of story. Remember that, and your trade show presentation will be TRULY magical.
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Tags: booth buzz, live presentations, magic, storytelling, trade shows
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