The Best Kept Secret of Tradeshow Success

May 13, 2015
4:26 pm

Posted by DMA Solutions Team

Even for the most experienced of marketers, tradeshows can sometimes get the best of us! If you’ve ever returned home from a tradeshow only to find that the experience for your team wasn’t as impactful as you had hoped, we’re going to let you in on a little secret…

It’s all about scheduling and communication.

With 20 years of collective tradeshows under our belt, we’ve found that our tradeshow secret sauce really hinges on team scheduling, personal and company goal setting, and strong communication prior to and during the show. For years now, we have utilized a team tradeshow schedule that outlines who will be where at any given time so that we know who is taking care of client needs, who is attending educational sessions, who is meeting with existing or potential clients, who is walking the show floor identifying leads and who is making notes about new ideas and best practices that we or our clients should employ.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.
– Alan Lakein

Granted, flexibility must be our best friend. Without fail, booth emergencies will arise that require an extra set of hands or a run-in with an old colleague will lead to an impromptu two hour meeting. In those cases, the team schedule can help you to quickly identify who can step in to cover you and not skip a beat. We also include our goals, as a team and individual, in our team schedule for quick reference and accountability.

A wise man once said “Plan your work and work your plan.” We couldn’t agree more – especially when it comes to tradeshow preparation. So to help you get your plan in place for United Fresh 2015, we’re sharing our schedule template with you as an editable Excel file. Simply download here, delete the information that does not pertain to your team and beginning adding in the details. We’ve also included a few examples of goals to help you identify your optimal path to tradeshow success.