Two things that I do regularly get bad press - networking and exhibiting.  People complain about them both, saying that they’re a waste of time, they can be expensive and not worth the effort.  I agree - they can be.  If you go into them with a negative attitude it’s self-fulfilling.

Let’s take networking.  You’re basically walking into a room full of people, many of whom you don’t know, some of whom you really wouldn’t want to know and some who frankly look a little scary. What’s the point?  No, really, what’s the point?  What did you plan to do at the meeting?  If you say that you just like a chat over coffee I’m really disappointed.  If you say you want immediate sales I’m still disappointed.  I know, I’m hard to please but networking is expensive as it takes key people out of the business for hours at a time so you need to have a plan.  Spending time looking in on your job or your business is useful but networking may not be the best place to do that.  So what do you want?  Make a list of what you expect to achieve and set out to realise those objectives.  Don’t forget that a really important aspect of networking is to build relationships for future objectives - you never know who might know someone who can help you in the future.

What happens if you now remove references to networking and replace them with exhibiting.  I think they’re similar - exhibitions can be big, scary and expensive.  If you go to an exhibition without a plan it’s just a waste of time and money.  I often think that people spend less time looking at exhibiting in it’s entirety than they do with other marketing mediums. Would you send out a press release on plain paper or with typos?  Would you place an ad and not think about what your message is and how best to get it over?  So many people seem to exhibit without those basic considerations.  They  use paper posters stuck on a wall at the last minute with old Blutak. They have a meeting area which is covered with equipment and trailing cables.  Why do it?  What does it say about your brand and the way you care about your company?

Two really important questions to ask yourself before you network or exhibit:

What do I want to get out of this activity?

How do I make this activity fit into my marketing plan?

When you sign up for exhibition space the question always is - how much do you book and where do you book it?  It’s difficult to work out how much space you should book at an exhibition - well, it’s hard if you don’t know what you want to do on that space.  Often my role is to work with clients on the background to their events, as well as the actual planning.  This is where I really feel I can add value.  It’s so easy to book the same amount of space as last year or to just pick a nice looking space. Why waste your money if you don’t need so much or why push your design beyond it’s limits if you book a space too small?

As you often book space a year or more in advance it can be really hard to know what products/services you’ll have online at that time, and more crucially, how you want to demonstrate them.  However, we have to make some decisions so lets start with the basics.

Why are you exhibiting?

Are you there to promote your brand, to meet new clients/dealers or to sign deals and sell product off the stand?Each element requires a very different presence, and so a different space.  I urge you not to book space just to look good  - it’s easy to sign up for more space and create a very open, airy booth but is it really worth it?  Could you spend your marketing money better if you had a smaller space and had sponsorship or a secondary offsite meeting room?

There are so many considerations and each company is different - I’ll try and outline some questions in a future blog but for now, here’s a case study of what my client did at ISE 2012 this year.

ISE 2012

My client had a relatively small space on the show floor so we didn’t have too much flexibility.  They were at the exhibition to meet old and new dealers and distributors - to build relationships and show their latest products.  We all know that trade show floors are not the best places to show off video and audio so we have to compromise but that doesn’t mean we can’t give a good overview of products.

Traditionally, they had several small demonstration areas where sales staff could bring their visitors and explain how the products worked, we also had a table and chairs where we could hold informal (but often planned meetings). Lastly, we had a reception which enabled us to monitor the booth activity, act as a focus for meeting visitors, have a small demo area and track visitor presence.

This year they wanted to try something new to demonstrate their latest product.  This would involve putting a theatre onto the booth - not easy on the space we had.  In fact some designers we discussed this with, said it couldn’t be done. So we had to maximise our space.  To do this we took up much of the stand with an enclosed theatre. We then moved a product rack to an outside wall, allowing us to utilise aisle space effectively (and within regulations).  The reception was positioned to allow us to welcome oncoming visitors but also to manage entrance to the theatre (scanning every badge as they entered) and be a last resort demo station.  We then had a single product demo area and a separate museum case which gave us two more spaces to discuss products.  Lastly, we managed to squeeze in a table and chairs.

The design wasn’t roomy but it was effective, we gave sales people 3 areas to discuss products.  We had space for the development teams to sit informally for their pre-planned meetings and we had an enclosed theatre which demonstrated the latest product.  What’s more - as we had a booth by the aisle and catering concessions we could use their tables and chairs for further meetings when we were overrun.

All in all it worked really well - there were some things we’d change for next year but stands should evolve and we should always review how each aspect worked for sales, marketing and top management.  By adding in this feedback we will know how to amend the design for next year - whatever products we have at the event at that point!

So when should you start your event and which day is best? Over the years I’ve heard many different event managers comment on this, all with gusto and most with experience to back up their decision.  At the end of the day it depends on your audience and your topic - are you aiming for business or consumer and is it something that people want to make time for in their busy days or would they rather team it up with some drinks and make an evening of it?  The questions (as ever) are never ending but here’s some thoughts to help you decide.

- I’ve found that people like Monday mornings to decompress from the weekend and get their thoughts in order for the week.  Hence Monday’s may not get the best attendance.

- Similarly, Fridays are either frantically full of the work that hasn’t yet been finished or is the wind down day.  Catching up on emails and work in the office so you can leave for the weekend with a clean conscience.  

- So let’s aim for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Being a pragmatist these may already be booked up for travel and meetings so get your invites out early to book these slots.

Should we now go for morning, afternoon or evening?  

- Evenings are great if you want people to network or be sociable - I concede that some are happy to do this on company time but a lot of people will be focused purely on their job during the day and so evenings, give them the option of a learning/networking opportunity with the possibility of a a free drink or canapé thrown in.

- Afternoons have never been particularly successful for my clients.  The audience fills up the morning with work and then it’s hard to justify/find the time to leave for an event.  Something always seems to come up be it traffic, bad weather, another meeting, a shortened deadline - small things can tip the scales to prevent attendance.  Do you want to risk it?

- Mornings are often the best option as people go into automatic pilot, check their diary and head to the first appointment - your event!  OK, traffic can affect timings but you can plan around that.  The crucial thing is that something else hasn’t managed to squeeze it’s way into the diary that day.

And don’t forget to look up bank holidays, any strike action due, election days, school holidays and annual national holidays ie some European companies effectively shutting down in August. It’s a complex business working out the best time and date to hold your event.  The best advice is to research your potential audience and find out how they plan their week.  Fit that research into knowledge about the local calendar and you should be able to make a rational and effective decision which gives you the best chance to get your audience to attend.

Technology is moving on fast nowadays.  After all we can now talk to our phones and ask them to find a suitable meeting time, then email or text the people to invite them.  The only trouble is, we now seem happy to talk to a phone but not to actually contact the person and talk to them about the meeting.  OK, that’s taking it to extremes but I’ve had a few instances recently where I’ve been invited to meetings and yet not one person has tried to speak to me.  Hence - I haven’t gone along.

As a person I want to be engaged, encouraged and spoken to - emails just don’t always fit the bill.  So here’s 3 circumstances that may just make people think about how they invite people to events and meetings.

Case 1: I was invited to meet up with a new employee at a supplier.  I don’t use the supplier regularly but am willing to stay in touch.  However, I have now been sent 3 group emails inviting myself and other clients to contact them to set up a meeting.  This seems so lazy to me and as I’m not valuable enough to the supplier to warrant a phone call I’m just not going to use them any more.  

Case 2: A venue finding client wanted to host a small seminar in London and they had met a collection of potential attendees.  This seminar did incur a small cost but the Return on Investment on attending was huge - so it should have been an easy sell.  However, the client refused to call the interested parties and get them to sign up.  They were trying to be more subtle and didn’t want to appear to pressurise people. Emails are great but they can be ignored (see Case 1!).  If you really want to get people to sign up you need to do more than just blast them with social media.  Try the old-fashioned picking up of the phone - especially for a small event where you have already got agreement of interest.  It may take more time but I am sure it will get you the sign ups you need.

Case 3: I was invited to visit a local venue recently - the emailed flyer was once again sent to a large group of recipients. Emails such as these are almost junk to me - with so many arriving they have to stand out to get my attention.  So I didn’t pick up on the first email but was surprised to receive another mail, marked urgent, which asked why I hadn’t responded and was I attending.  Again, it’s not a venue that was essential to my business so I put the email to one side to consider and a few days received another mail, once again demanding I let them know if I was attending.  I can’t believe that this small venue had invited more than 100 people so wouldn’t it have been so much more impressive to call me and invite me personally.  I’m not someone who goes to the opening of an envelope but I am someone who has serious business clients who might use the venue.  Group emails may get you some numbers but do they actually get you the quality atttendees that you need?So this may all seem like a rant but hopefully  you can all see that each scenario would have been so much better by the organiser knowing their mailing list, what motivates and engages them and then making sure that they use a variety of communication, especially a phone call to encourage attendance.  Please PICK UP THE PHONE!

I always find it a challenge to explain what I do.  So many people have their own vision of event management that as soon as I mention those words the listener disappears into their memory and assumes that what I do is what they think I do.  They activate their human listening filter. From art galleries filling their spaces with exquisite works of art, to the organisers of music festivals dealing with crowd control and highly strung band members, event management covers many areas and I have to bring clarity to explain my own particular niches.  This presents it’s own challenges as I want to come up with a snappy description of my business - encompassing all I do whilst inspiring the listeners.

It’s not easy to describe what you do - in fact I’d even say that you can’t do this effectively whilst your listeners have their own minds. They take the words you utter and filter them through their own memories and values.  The end result is a mismatch based on prejudices (good and bad).  Hence we need to work really hard to describe our roles and business in the clearest terms possible.

The first role I had to describe was one of sales and marketing trainee at Access, the credit card company.  Just mention who you worked with and suddenly you were inundated with views, opinions and issues.  The sales and marketing trainee aspect just got ignored.  As far as everyone else was concerned I could help them resolve their credit card statement issues, despite the fact that I was actually involved in market research and sales training for the terminals (no wireless electronic equipment in those days!)

I then went on to work for a company called Atex who made proprietary newspaper equipment.  As part of the Kodak group I was astounded when some visitors to a focused industry exhibition came up to me and asked if I could process their film.  Nowhere on the stand did we mention film, cameras or anything photography related but the Kodak brand was so strong in their mind that a small 20cm logo had attracted their attention.  So not only do we need to watch our words but also think about how your image is perceived through the human filter.

We can’t change the human filter - we all have it built in.  It enables us to pick up conversations from afar when someone mentions our clients or our favourite films.  It does that amazing thing where, once we buy a car we suddenly see 100s of them on the roads.  As a result I’m striving to come up with an objective but interesting description for my business so that I can automatically appeal to the interested parties and make the non-interested at least think about how events can improve their bottom line.  It’s an ongoing process and a fascinating one but one which means that I always try to tune my filters effectively when I’m talking to clients and prospects.  I’ve got to hear their needs and be able to respond and I can’t do that if my human filters aren’t fine tuned.

As you probably know if you’ve been reading my blogs, I’m on a mission to get out and about and meet and chat to as many interesting business people as I can.  I’ve found over the past few months that if I plan carefully I’ve always come away with something useful.  It may not be a sales opportunity but it can be some clarity or business inspiration.  However, I also have to confess that I’ve rushed into a few meetings where I was unprepared and without focus and have really found that I lost much of the potential value.

It is essential to think about why you want to meet each person before you set up a meeting. I’m not advocating a full time seat reservation at Costa Coffee but focused meetings that meet one of your outlined needs.  These needs may not all be sales focussed but may be about building your contact list, or they may fulfil your desire to help and support the community.  So, don’t set up meetings with anyone but do make a list of your requirements and consider if each person can meet that in some way. If they don’t meet those requirements, is it really worth your time? One last thought before you scrap the meeting - do they know anyone who can help you?  People buy from people so maybe the more people you know the more you’ll sell?

As you know, I work on my own now so one of my needs is to meet up with kindred spirits and just talk about my plans for my business.  As a result I’ve been lucky enough to find a small group of ladies who meet up once a month and discuss our business progress.  It’s a great pleasure to meet with them, and it gives me a chance to talk about my current business issues and what’s sometimes better, I get to support their businesses and help them grow.

Even in such a friendly regular meeting I go along with a list of what I want to cover and get out of the meeting.  I set out my issues and goals and make sure I cover them.  Even for new contact meetings I suggest you do this.  Conversations do have a tendancy to wander so it’s great to have focus and something to return too.  If it’s a sales call, not only do you look prepared and interested in them but you’ve got an agenda that makes sure that you don’t leave without the information/tip/contract you need.