Trade shows can be incredibly stressful when you first start in the industry. There are new phrases to learn, new environments to explore, and you are taken out of the comforts of your office and placed in a new city to promote your business. We have been providing trade show help for years for companies and we created a list of questions to ask before exhibiting.

Question to ask before exhibiting

1. What are you hoping to accomplish at the show?
   • More sales
   • Increased brand recognition
   • Current client meetings
   • New product/service launch
2. What are you promoting at the show?
   • Show/Industry specific content
   • Product/Service
   • Company rebrand
   • Merger/Acquisition
   • Product demos
3. Who will attend from your organization?
4. How will you measure success?
   • # of meetings
   • # of demos shown
   • # of business cards received
   • # of sales signed
   • # of social media interactions

After you work through the above questions, you need to figure out what your team will bring to the show.

1. What type of marketing material will you be handing out?
2. If you are handing out giveaways, what will they be?
   • Product specific
   • Theme specific
   • Décor themed (if you’re at a dental expo, do you hand out toothbrush holders with your name engraved on them?)
   • Practical (if you’re a pet brand, do you hand out themed dog waste bag holders?)
   • Food specific (make sure to include ingredients depending on allergies that attendees may have and see the show rules regarding bringing your own food)

We’ve also created questions to ask about your exhibit.

1. What’s your budget?
   • Is the budget strictly for the exhibit? Or does it include everything for the show?
2. What size exhibit do you want/need?
   • Will you have enough room for your employees at the exhibit?
   • Do you need a conference room/meeting space?
   • Will there be room for product demos?
   • Do you need a certain amount of space for equipment?
3. What kind of storage do you need?
   • A locked cabinet for individual bags and giveaways or a storage closet?

When it comes to trade shows and what to ask before exhibiting, we can go on and on. Schedule a consultation with our team to deep dive into what your organization may or may not need for an upcoming show.