‘Trade show presentations’ Articles
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.
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, magic, storytelling, trade shows
Posted in Trade show news & trends, Trade show presentations | 1 Comment »
Written by Ken Newman on 04 August 2009
Hey Newman, how long is too long before following up on trade show leads? Something tells me I’m not going to like the answer. -Robert in Palo Alto
Robert, 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. So, what does that mean for you? It means don’t bother to spend the money on lead generation if you’re just trying to impress the people in the next booth with a big statistic. Those 2,000 leads you got don’t mean anything if you don’t do something with them.
It’s essential you have a mechanism in place for when you’re receiving the leads, whether that’s using barcode scanners or a little Q&A afterward to ascertain if this lead is something worth pursuing over the next week, two weeks, month or year. You need some way of categorizing your leads as “HOT,” “warm,” “cold” and “dead fish.” (Well, maybe not the last one.)
Take those leads and, for example, send each one a postcard with a funny photograph from your presentation. People aren’t very accustomed to getting real mail anymore, and sometimes that can be far more attention-grabbing than just seeing another e-mail in the inbox. But at least promptly send an e-mail with a memorable photograph in it. Thank that potential customer for coming by the booth. Tell them you really appreciate it—and have that note waiting for them Monday when they get back from the trade show.
First contact should come within days of the trade show’s end. When two or three weeks or God forbid a month goes by without contact, you just end up lumped together with all the other SPAM.
I use a postcard as an example of something that makes people stop and take notice. When I get a postcard I say, “Wow, that’s amazing. I haven’t gotten a postcard in a long time.” It will make me not want to throw it out, particularly if it’s a funny image that makes me laugh. And when it’s flipped over, there’s just a quick note:
“Thank you for stopping by the booth. We’ll get in touch within a week or so to follow up.”
It’s just a warm way to reach out to people. Warm is good. Prompt is even better.
People go to such lengths to get traffic in their booth—renting the leading scanning devices and hiring crowd gatherers … and then it either all sits untouched in a database or collects dust as a stack of business cards or filled-out lead cards. Somehow, nobody does anything with them after putting in all that initial effort. Worse, they’ll group them by territory and send the info out to their sales staff, who expect these to be qualified leads. But after a few phone calls those salespeople realize these were just a bunch of people who stopped by to get a T-shirt. They’ll quickly feel like they’re wasting their time and stop making attempts, which ultimately throws out the good with the bad.
That’s why they need to be categorized as real leads, as opposed to just inflating the body count. Sometimes you’ll know immediately when you have a hot lead. In those cases, there’s no such thing as getting hold of somebody too soon. (Well, let them de-board the plane and get home first.) But there’s nothing better than arriving and finding a note waiting for you.
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: lead follow up, lead generation, qualified leads, trade show opportunities, trade shows
Posted in Booth staff, Lead generation & follow up, Trade show news & trends, Trade show presentations | 7 Comments »
Written by Ken Newman on 14 July 2009
Hey Newman, I saw your Live Presentations post. So what’s the deal with PowerPoint? -Ray in Oakland
Well, Ray … simply put, don’t use PowerPoint. I’ve seen more PowerPoint used badly at trade shows than anywhere else. Even a tight, concise presentation can be sabotaged by poor PowerPoint usage. It’s just not enough to throw up bullet points, text, graphics and beauty shots of the product. That’s exactly what it is: throwup. The audience’s eyes glaze right over—especially if you’re reading from the PowerPoint as if it were a TelePrompTer.
The only time to use PowerPoint is when there is something you have to show that words cannot adequately describe. Use it for counterpoint, irony, humor and surprise. I started off a recent live presentation with a 60-slide PowerPoint presentation. Sixty real, honest-to-goodness slides about the company. But it was a joke. I put those 60-slides on automatic at overdrive PowerPoint speed. The whole thing ran about eight seconds from start to finish, with frenzied music underneath. At the halfway point it stopped and said, “YOU’RE GETTING THIS, RIGHT?” Then it did 30 more slides with an epic music finale and one final slide that said, “ANY QUESTIONS?”
Can you imagine the applause? Can you imagine the additional applause when I told the audience we weren’t going to do anything like that? Ultimately, I did use PowerPoint during the presentation, but only for exquisite images from nature that enhanced the storytelling.
I tell my clients all the time that if you hired a compelling presenter, you want the people looking at that presenter. You want me to make contact with your audience-to look them in the eyes and tell them that company’s story. You don’t want their eyes shifting back and forth between me and the screen because that will dilute the message completely.
PowerPoint is not effective; storytelling is effective. If you use juggling, magic, plate-spinning or humor to tell that story, it’ll trump PowerPoint every time.
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: connection, live presentations, trade show opportunities, trade show trends, trade shows
Posted in Trade show news & trends, Trade show presentations | No Comments »
Written by Ken Newman on 07 July 2009
Hey Newman, in your opinion what are do’s and don’ts of live presentations? -Marcus in San Diego
The death of live presentations is the l…e…n…g…t….h.
Let me say it right now: Your trade show presentation is probably too long. Twenty minutes is too long. Fifteen minutes is too long. Ten minutes is too long. As a general rule, if audience members are looking at their watches, it’s too long.
I’ve participated in hundreds upon hundreds of trade shows, experiencing them both as a presenter and an attendee. In all that time, no one has ever come up to me and said, “That was a really great presentation, but it was a little too short.“ Ever. In 25 years, it’s never happened.
Want to know (as a presenter) how to have your audience utterly thrilled? Tell that crowd there’s only three things you expect them to remember. Describe those three things. Reiterate those three things at the end. That’s it.
Two hours after the live presentation is over, an audience member should be able to tell you precisely what the presentation was about. These folks are completely inundated at a trade show, so if you can get them to remember a phrase or a slogan and up to three basic points, that’s a triumph.
Make Your Live Presentation Twice As Nice
If you want to get the biggest bang for your buck, don’t make me do a 15-minute show. Let me do a seven-minute show twice as many times a day. Let me build a crowd, work that crowd and then do it over again.
It’s About Questions, Not Answers
Ask more questions than you answer. Get them to think about your company in a unique way, inspiring them to follow up with booth staff. It’s not important to explain everything. What’s important is to ignite a desire for that audience member to independently acquire any information not included in the live presentation.
So, to recap:
- “Too many answers” is death.
- PowerPoint as a crutch is death. (We’ll discuss this next time!)
So, stay away from these traps and have a tremendously successful live presentation. If you’ve absorbed this advice and need more guidance on where you go from here, feel free to contact us for a consult.
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, consultations, live presentations, trade show opportunities, trade shows
Posted in Trade show presentations | No Comments »
