Experts & Opinions
Nov 10, 2012
I was recently having a conversation around positioning and a book written in 1981 by Al Ries and Jack Trout.
They referred to product positioning as the ' battle for your mind'. It got me to think about positioning and the trade show. I think that trade show positioning is the 'battle for your heart'.
The Plan to See You
First, you are working with your pre-show communication to have the attendee plan to see you. While you will certainly take a spur of the moment walk in, you would rather have someone you have communicated your messaging with and have… more
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Nov 05, 2012
We’ve all been there … miles away from our loved ones feeling tired, stressed and desperately wishing they were by our side. Not that long ago, voices of a parent, friend or child through the phone were as close as we could get to their touch.
Now Apple’s FaceTime, Skype and numerous other platforms have given us a greater sense of connection through the use of video. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I think back to a Thanksgiving holiday where I found myself in a similar long distance predicament.
It was Thanksgiving 2010 and I had been studying abroad in Sydney,… more
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Oct 27, 2012
Most trade show exhibitors put the vast majority of their effort into creating their presence at a trade show – the trade show displays they build, the staffers they send and house, and for some, the promotions they do to create greater activity in their booth space.
Unfortunately, too many waste these valiant efforts, because they fall down on managing their trade show leads. That’s because there are more hidden roadblocks than they realize, obstacles to getting the full value from their leads.
So let’s bring those roadblocks out into the light. I believe the… more
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Oct 27, 2012
Conferences, trade shows, conventions, and other events, just like people, have unique personalities. There are all different types, and many have been conditioned by their environment.
Over time, they become a caricature of themselves, and this can drive people away in subsequent years. If you want a well-rounded event that has a lot to offer attendees, you need to question how people perceive the experience of participation.
Just as with relationships between people, the personality of your event is important to how attendees feel while present. If a person is too serious all the time,… more
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Oct 27, 2012
Giveaways are an extremely popular way to get more people into your trade show displays. But not all giveaways are created equal.
To help you whittle through the nearly infinite choices of giveaways, I’ve grouped them into 7 types, with the strengths and weaknesses of each type listed below. Keep this chart handy the next time your team gathers to brainstorm ideas for your upcoming trade show.
Giveaway Type
Strength
Weakness
Cheap stuff
Doesn’t cost much so you can give them to a lot of people… more
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Oct 20, 2012
As co-creators and champions of their clients’ brands, ad agencies can immensely help their B2B clients achieve their marketing goals at trade shows. And because trade shows are the largest marketing expenditure for B2B companies, ad agencies have good incentive to get involved.
Yet, some ad agencies have not fully reached their peak involvement with their exhibiting clients. Let’s look at the 5 steps along the way:
Unaware of client trade show participation. Sure, ad agencies execs know that trade shows exist – they’ve been to the local car show or… more
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Oct 20, 2012
This is the third part of a six-part series on WiFi at events. Assuming your venue has sufficient WiFi coverage everywhere it is needed, the next component you need to consider for good network design is capacity.
Capacity is a little more obscure of a topic than coverage because, unless you are a network engineer, you probably have never run into a situation where you connected so many devices to one access point that you exceeded the limit of the access point’s capacity.
Before I started learning about wireless networks, I naively assumed that any wireless network could… more
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Oct 13, 2012
How do we stay innovative, deliver value to our exhibitors and stay personally motivated about our work when we have less time, money and resources? After almost 13 years with PMA, I feel lucky that I’m still excited about what I do.
Yes, I still have nights of being awake at 3 a.m. because I can’t turn off the ideas in my head, and I still get all “giddy” when I get feedback from exhibitors about something that really worked, no matter how small.
One of the biggest things I struggle with is having enough time to come up with new opportunities and ways to… more
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Oct 13, 2012
I am leaving New Zealand, and I am very sad, partly because I won’t be able to watch rugby 24/7. But watching rugby got me thinking about how you can use this game (my second favorite sport, the first being baseball) to have a proper trade show. After all they call rugby ‘the game of animals played by gentlemen’. Aptly put.
1. Team captains – I was watching one of many matches, and there was a small break out fight on the field. The one referee (and yes, there is only one on field) easily broke it up, and then called over the team captains (not the coaches… more
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Oct 06, 2012
This is the second part of a six-part series on WiFi at events. Let’s explore the topic of WiFi coverage, as this is a topic that most people are somewhat familiar with as it is similar to coverage for cell phones.
To connect via WiFi, your device (be it a computer, cellular phone or tablet) must connect to a wireless access point or router. As with all wireless connections, the further away from the source you are, the weaker the received signal. But distance is not the only factor that affects how far a signal can travel.
It turns out that water is a great… more
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