Smart Event Participation as an Exhibitor

Smart Event
Participation
as an Exhibitor
Smart Event Book Series

Smart Event Participation as an Exhibitor (Smart
Event Book Series)
Title
Master Steve
Author
Somayeh Amiri, Tara Kamangar
Colleagues
Keyvan
Layout
Designer
Silk Road Publishing (Toronto, Canada)
Publisher
Printed Book: 978-1-990236-27-3
EBook: 978-1-990236-28-0
ISBN
www.MasterSteve.com
Website
Attributions:
Images Credits:Macrovector / Freepik
Note: The author of this book gives the right to use
the present content, provided that the source is cited,
to professors, educators, teachers, lecturers, and aca-
demic and non-academic educational centers, for an
indefinite period.
The copyright of this bookis internationallyregistered
for the author.

Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................................................4
The Importance of Planning Before Attending an Event .......................5
Chapter 1: Executive Measures Before the Event............................8
a) Preliminary Investigation and Event Evaluation ............................10
b) Determining Your Type of Attendance at the Event .................... 12
c) Determining Your Purpose of Attendance at the Event ...............14
d) Purchasing and Selecting the Location of the Booth .................. 16
e) Designing the Booth .......................................................................................20
f) Designation of Booth Operators .............................................................25
g) Developing a Performance Protocol for Operators ......................27
h) Preparing the Advertising Items ..............................................................34
i) Arranging Appointments at the Event ...................................................35
j) Informing and Inviting the Audience ...................................................38
k) Determining the Methods of Attracting the Audience to the
Booth ............................................................................................................................ 40
Chapter 2: Executive Measures During the Event......................49
Chapter 3: Executive Measures After Holding the Event...... 55
a) Following-up ........................................................................................................56
b) The Performance Analysis ..........................................................................59
Chapter 4: Attendance at Foreign Events ...........................................63

4
Introduction
One of the most crucial marketing issues for businesses is
the method of smart attendance at events; both for busi-
nesses that are exhibitors in events and for the people who
visit events.
In this book, like other books in the “Smart Business”
series, you will learn to look at attending an event as an
exhibitor from different angles and use the best ways to
take advantage of opportunities in accordance with your
goals. This book will help you get the most out of any
event that you attend.
In this series, I will suggest some tricks and executive
points to you in three stages before, during, and after hold-
ing events, to allow you to apply them to have a practical
and beneficial presence in the events.
The points raised here are all executive and uttered by
someone who has gone through all of these steps in prac-
tice. This means the points mentioned here have been
proven and are workable.

5 Smart Event Participation as an Exhibitor
The Importance of Planning Before
Attending an Event
¾
Events are held with different subjects and each
of them has its requirements, attendees, and
audience. For example, participants in business
events are companies, rather than the general
public.
Depending on the subject of the event and
the type of audience, events are generally of two
types:
ƒ
Public events;
ƒ
Specialized events.
¾
Attending an event is one of the most difficult
tasks of a business. Some large companies hire
workforces to take the necessary steps to ensure
the company’s presence is felt at an event. These
companies also hire workforces manage their
booths in various events. The more experienced
you are, in this regard, the more professional
you will be to do it.

6 The Importance of Planning Before Attending an Event
¾
After deciding to be an exhibitor at an event,
you need to take actions in three steps:
ƒ
Before the event;
ƒ
During holding the event;
ƒ
After the event.
¾
Participate in the event with plans and strate-
gies. Otherwise, you will not definitely achieve
the desired result.
¾
For each of the three steps of the event atten-
dance schedule, define a list of necessary actions
in a detailed timeline according to which, it is
determined when, by whom, how, why, and
where the things should be done.
If you forget to do one of the tasks, everything
will be affected in practice, and this may bring
irreparable losses to you. For example, if the
catalog is not prepared at an appropriate time,
you will have to work hastily, and as a result, the
work may have unsatisfying quality.
¾
Prepare the situation such that you have enough
time to do the tasks and do not leave the works
for the last moments. Imagine that you are
going to participate in an event on January
20th
. Schedule everything at least six months in
advance; investigations, booth designing, find a
team to design the event and perform it, put a
team together which will find suppliers for dif-
ferent parts of the event, etc.

¾
Some companies plan to hold another event
next year upon the end of one event. Deter-
mine the things that you need to do six to twelve
months before the event date. Do tasks such as
concluding a booth contract and choosing the
booth design.
The closer you become to the time of the
event, the more tasks will be listed. By one or two
weeks before the event, all your plans to attend
the event should have been implemented.
Here, some explanations are provided on the
actions you need to take in three steps of your
attendance plan as an exhibitor.

Chapter 1
Executive Measures
Before the Event

Important measures to consider before the beginning of
the process:
a.
a. Preliminary investigation and event assessment;
b.
b. Determining your type of attendance at the event;
c.
c. Determining your purpose of attendance at the event;
d.
d. Purchasing and selecting the location of the booth;
e.
e. Designing the booth;
f.
f. Designation of booth operators;
g.
g. Developing a performance protocol for operators;
h.
h.
Preparing the advertising items;
i.
i. Arranging appointments at the event;
j.
j. Informing and inviting potential audiences to visit the
booth at the event;
k.
k. Determining the methods of attracting the audience
to the booth.

10 Preliminary Investigation and Event Evaluation
a) Preliminary Investigation and Event
Evaluation
In the preliminary investigations,
specify plenty of things for yourself
because it can determine how you can
plan your presence.
Participating in an event as an exhibi-
tor requires a defined program, and var-
ious factors. Following points must be
considered:
¾
What is the level of the desired
event?
¾
What is the history of the event in
question? Is it held for the first time,
or for several times?
¾
How important is participating in
the event to you?
¾
What is your goal of participation in
that event?

¾
What kind of audience do you plan
to communicate with by participat-
ing in the event? Are your audience
exhibitors or marketers and visitors
or both?
¾
Who are your audiences and what
specialties do they have? For exam-
ple, what geographical areas are
they from or located? What is their
gender? How much is their income?
¾
Are you going to attend a business
event whose audience involve pub-
lic visitors or an event whose audi-
ence includes businesses?
Investigate about exhibitors and visi-
tors; besides the information you gained
from your participation in the past years
or from others, complete your research
on these two groups.
Suppose that you work in the fields of
photography and videography, in that
case, even the event organizer can be
among your target audience.

12 Determining Your Type of Attendance at the Event
b) Determining Your Type of
Attendance at the Event
The type of attending an event can
determine the type of your presence
strategy.
¾
Sometimes after investigating, you
may conclude that you should not
attend the event as an exhibitor, but
as a sponsor of the event. In this case,
you need to consider a different strat-
egy.
¾
You can use event tools foryouratten-
dance. Provide the event bags or print
the designs of the participants’ pen-
dant cards, and engrave your name
on them, for example. You are, in fact,
both present and absent in this way,
and use the event advertising tool.
¾
Some people attend the event,
both as an exhibitor and a sponsor
because one of the services that the
event organizer may mainly provide
to the sponsors is offering booths.

¾
The owner of one of the most suc-
cessful printing houses in North
America and Canada took the high-
est advantage of a successful atten-
dance at a printing event; such that,
they assigned the key points of the
event to the brand they intended
to introduce. All the event bags had
that brand name on and they could
achieve their goals by the appropri-
ate presence in the event. He had a
booth and was an event sponsor at
the same time.
If you intend to choose your presence
as a sponsor, you should consider the
followings:
ƒ
How much is your budget?
ƒ
How much can you gain from spon-
sorship?
ƒ
Which goal does sponsorship help
you with? branding or sales?
In the scenario about the American
printing house, for instance, sponsor-
ing the event was very practical and
useful, since the purpose was to intro-
duce the website.

14 Determining Your Purpose of Attendance at the Event
c) Determining Your Purpose of
Attendance at the Event
One of the most important things you need to know
before attending an event as an exhibitor is your purpose
of participation.
All your event attendance plans depend
on the goals, the type of target audience,
and the schedule.
Which of the following is your company’s goal/purpose
for attending the event?
¾
Attracting customers?
¾
Direct product sales?
¾
Introducing new sales services or plans?
¾
Branding and introducing your services to the
participants in the event?
¾
Taking advantage of the presence of different
media in the event and the media coverage?
¾
Examining the status of competitors and their
attendance strategy at the event?
¾
Networking and getting to know more people?
¾
Participation in seminars and training programs
of plenary sessions of the event?

By answering similar questions, determine your pri-
mary goal for attending the event as an exhibitor to define
your attendance strategy, and schedule based on that.
For example, if your goal is to sell, your participation
strategy will be completely different. If your goal is to
introduce a product or offer a discount plan to increase
sales, determine your strategy based on the type of your
target audience. Offering a discount without a developed
plan for that will not lead to satisfying results.

16 Purchasing and Selecting the Location of the Booth
d) Purchasing and Selecting the
Location of the Booth
When signing a contract with the
event organizer, view the hall map
to find an appropriate place for your
booth. The location of the booth is sig-
nificant to the success of an organiza-
tion.
Select the location of the booth based on the
hall plan, attendance goals and strategies,
type of audience, desired budget, and traffic.
One of the booth selection strategies
is to stand in a booth close to a compet-
itor’s place. Do not be afraid to be with
your competitors. There you can meet
your competitors and identify their
methods.
Note 1

One trick is to choose your booth
somewhere close to the booth of a
famous company that may not even be
your competitor, but has a large number
of visitors.
Another method is to get a booth
close to the company you are going
to deal with. So when you attend an
event, the most important goal for
you may be to attract the same com-
pany that you intend to do business
with.
Since the main reason for attending a busi-
ness event is to be seen by participants, hav-
ing a booth at the corner is not always the best
thing to do. You can choose a small booth but
in a crowded place.
Notice

18 Purchasing and Selecting the Location of the Booth
¾
In commercial events that target
other businesses, having a booth
at the hall entrance can help with
branding.
¾
Keep in mind that the area around
the exit door is crowded and the
people passing by intend to leave
and do not stop.
¾
Do not forget that the event orga-
nizer will set a higher price for the
booth in high-traffic places.
The main reason for attending a busi-
ness event is to be seen.
Today, the layout of booths in business
events is changed to make it easier to move
for people.
Note 2

The corner of the hall and the end of
the exit corridor is also a good place for
the booth. At the exit corridor, people
moving out or in will see your booth and
recognize your brand. Therefore, when
the choice for the location of the booth
is restricted and you do not have a better
option, you can choose your booth to be
in such places.
When selecting the booth location,
examine what services the organizer
provides to you. For example, you may
have supposed that tables and chairs
would be provided to you, but, in fact,
you should have registered an order
requesting those items in advance. You
must, therefore, double-check what you
are getting from the organizers before
the event starts.

20 Designing the Booth
e) Designing the Booth
Another necessary step before attend-
ing the event is to choose the design and
designer of the booth. The design of the
booth should be such that it can attract
visitors. It must be inviting and can also
be colorful to attract people.
If you cannot afford to spend a large
amount of money to design a booth, use
simple and attractive designs, but follow
the basic principles, i.e., have a banner in
the background of the booth and write
your advertising slogan on it.
Display the company name clearly
in the booth and also consider a place
to display your business information.
Ensure the information of your com-
pany is clearly written and with attrac-
tive letters.

Stick posters and brochures flat on
the wall. Try to install them prominently
on the decor. This creates an optical illu-
sion for the viewers and makes it attrac-
tive to them.
If the visitors cannot find minimal
information about you, there will be
no reason for them to come towards
the booth. Having a branding strat-
egy requires that you display the logo,
trademark/service mark, color, too. Dis-
playing the logo is important for great
brands.
Choose an appropriate place in the
booth for placing the booth counter and
the operators.

The design of the booth banner
should be in harmony with the design
of business cards, catalogs, and other
advertising items.
ƒ
Consider the quality of color and
print in printing the booth ban-
ner.
ƒ
Print your advertising slogan on it.
ƒ
The dimensions and type of the ban-
ner should be easy to install, with the
least effort.
ƒ
The design type is related to your
business policies. Some companies
select a specific color and emplace
the slogan and logo within the design
in a different color.
ƒ
Display the company name as clearly
as possible on the banner installed in
the booth.

ƒ
If you use a special font to write the
company name, use the same font in
the banner as well. Some people fol-
low you on social media, and if they
do not see your company name and
pass you by, you may lose your audi-
ence.
Consulting with experts, use a vari-
ety of digital printing products that are
widely used in booth designing.
The digital printing industry or the
large format print, which includes the
followings, is largely used in designing
booths;
¾
Stand;
¾
Roll up;
¾
Coated laminate;
¾
Sticker;
¾
Banner.

Divide the booth into several sections.
Consider a section for presentations and
a section for distributing gifts. Depend-
ing on the nature of the business, you
can consider other areas as well. If you
plan to distribute a sample of your prod-
uct among visitors, do not assign the
entire booth environment to this task.
Sample distribution should be done in
one part of the booth so that if a queue
was formed, it would not interfere with
the normal affairs in the booth.
Touch screen TVs are attractive tools
for informing the audience. Your audi-
ence can visit your website pages and
image catalogs by touching the page.
Allocate one section of the booth often
to presentations using these smart
pages.

f) Designation of Booth Operators
Looking at your booth, the visitors
will find two things;
¾
One is your booth design; beautiful
design can attract the audience, but
you may not have enough budget
to design and provide information
about the company at the lowest
cost.
¾
Second, the people in your booth;
booth operators can attract cus-
tomers with their appropriate
communications. They should
respectfully invite visitors to a
conversation or, invite them to
the booth under a pretext. During
the time at the booth, the exhibi-
tors must act exactly in accordance
with the protocols defined for that
position.

26 Designation of Booth Operators
Before attending a business event,
decide on the people who will coop-
erate with the company to participate
in that event. Consider filters to select
the right people. An exhibitor is a per-
son who has a character suitable to the
event.
If you use friends and acquaintances
to attend the booth due to lack of bud-
get to hire professionals, you have to
practice with them, otherwise, because
of lack of training and experience, you
will not take advantage of your presence
in the event and will miss the opportu-
nity.

g) Developing a Performance Protocol
for Operators
Being stylish is a fundamental prin-
ciple. This principle must be seriously
considered when you are attending a
business event. Booth operators must be
neatly and professionally dressed. Dress-
ing up, wearing suits or other clothes or
uniforms, for example, depend on the
type of event and the business field. In
smaller booths, the outfit type becomes
more visible and the importance of
fashion is doubled.
The rhetorical technique of the booth
operators is another important factor
in selecting them. The following factors
should be present:
ƒ
The booth operators should enjoy a good expression.
The operators must speak clearly and fluently and the
expression should not be incomprehensible.

28 Developing a Performance Protocol for Operators
ƒ

Listen patiently to the audience and treat them
respectfully.
ƒ
Their personal ethics is not important, what is import-
ant is that they need to be attractive to the audience.
ƒ
A pretty face is important; however, a person who
does not have a beautiful face is not necessarily unable
to attract the audience. What matters is to speak well
and to use short sentences.
ƒ
Their tone of voice should be such that annoys other
colleagues or other booth operators. The voice should
be pleasant and smooth.
The combination of sentences that each person chooses
to start the conversation depends on three things:
z
The strategy of the company;
z
The individual features of the person;
z
The nature of the audience.
I took part in an event which was about holding the wedding
ceremony. The visitors were the future brides accompanied by their
mothers. There, we had to use appropriate words and sentences to
attract the audience. Because of the methods we used, our booth
was one of the most crowded ones. We had a few key phrases that
we used to attract visitors, and after they entered the booth, we
persuaded them to take the time to listen to our talk.

Men cannot easily say admiring sentences about young women,
especially young women who are about to get married. By stating
these things, the audience may think you have a different inten-
tion and stay away from you. Thus, we started the discussion by
praising the mothers or older ladies. These are all subtleties of
communicating with people. Therefore, observing polite-
ness and respecting the culture of the people is one of
the principles of communication.
Pay attention to two points to attract the audience when
expressing your ideas:
z
The first is key phrases to attract customers to the
booth, which can be a simple greeting and may
vary depending on the audience.
z
The second is the points that are stated after the
customer enters the booth.
Booth operators should stay at a rea-
sonable distance from visitors so that
they do not have to say attractive sen-
tences or discount plans out loudly.

Those who are in charge of the booth
should be able to answer visitors’ ques-
tions to get the best results from your
attendance at the event. If the audi-
ence finds the booth attendant to be an
ignorant person, the negotiation will be
fruitless.
The personality and capability of
individuals to convey information will
determine whether the audience takes
them seriously. This is less common in
public events, but in specialized events,
the booth operators must be able to
provide expert explanations about
the product. This means they must be
knowledgeable about the product.
¾
The responsibilities must be appor-
tioned carefully and extremely
clearly among the booth attendants.
A large number of the events I have
visited suffer from the problem of
the presence of several non-special-
ist forces in the booth, and they all
refer questions to one person.

¾
Assign roles and responsibilities to
the group in charge of the booth
according to their physical and mental
characteristics.
¾
If the company size and the booth
size are large and the events are
crowded, one person might not be
able to attend to all the visitors alone.
Many people can’t wait for their turn.
Therefore, it is necessary to increase
the number of experts in the booth so
that visitors won’t have to linger there.
¾
Not everyone in the booth needs to
talk to visitors. One person stands
in the front door and attracts peo-
ple, one person is responsible for
answering specialized questions, one
person is responsible for explaining
the business, and each person has
determined responsibilities.
Hold training sessions for the people
who are unfamiliar with the activity in
the event. Before the event, arrange the
necessary training for the booth oper-
ators. Prepare a text in advance so that
everyone can express it according to his/
her gender, age, and appearance.

Body language is imperative in com-
municating with the audience. A smile
can always be impressive. Even the ugli-
est face becomes tolerable with a smile.
Having a smile on the face plays a great
role in the other side’s initial perception
of your mood. Your first tool is to smile
when inviting visitors to the booth.
Train booth operators to be acute,
confident and not to look around or
lower their head when talking to people.
When they look somewhere else, the
other side may follow their gaze direc-
tion and lose concentration.
The form of standing in the booth by
the exhibitors is significant to what you
are projecting as a brand. Never lean on
the chairs. Assign a place to relax and
have lunch at the booth for operators.
Their fatigue and stress may send neg-
ative messages to the audience and can
cause them to miss several opportunities.

Booth operators should avoid things
like reading the newspaper or working
with a laptop. The purpose of attending
the booth is to serve the visitors. Deal-
ing with marginal tasks can cause a large
audience to be lost.
When the booth operators talk to the
visitors, it should not be assumed that
they intend to sell the goods in any way.
Every effort should be made to convey
the relevant information. This will make
the audience trust you more.
In each event, design your own yet
unique event. It means your booth is an
event in the heart of a large event. Having
this in mind, you can do various things,
including holding consecutive presen-
tation sessions in your booth or holding
training classes and seminars in your
booth.

34 Preparing the Advertising Items
h) Preparing the Advertising Items
Before attending the event, decide
what promotional items need to be pre-
pared for your audience.
Provide promotional items, including
catalogs and gifts, based on the nature of
the audience. A big problem with plenty
of companies with a booth in the events is
that they do not investigate the right pro-
motional materials for the event but only
make decisions based on what they hear.
Using the experiences of others is good,
but not enough.
Some companies would print one
type of catalog and represent it every
year in all the events they attend. With
this method, you would reach less than
five percent of your potential, because
you do not observe the major rule of
attractiveness for the audience; why do
you think they should come to you?!

i) Arranging Appointments at the Event
One of the most remarkable things that
should be observed in an event is time
management. This is important if you
want to make most of a business event.
The time of holding the event is restricted
and you need to manage time to get the
most out of it.
Before holding the event, specify who
you are going to meet and how to sched-
ule appointments.
One of the most important ways to
manage time is to fine-tune your appoint-
ment. In the morning of the appointment,
remind the other side of your appoint-
ment. You can do that by sending a mes-
sage to the other side so they can be aware
or reminded of your appointment. The
event environment will be very crowded
and the other side may forget the appoint-
ment time for any reason.

36 Arranging Appointments at the Event
When people are inclined to arrange
an appointment with you, respond very
quickly, otherwise they may arrange
with other people.
Most of the times, I reply people’s e-mails
to make an appointment so quickly that they
are surprised, i.e., I reply as soon as I receive
the e-mails, because I know that they may
immediately make an appointment with oth-
ers at the appointed time.
Activate the incoming e-mail alarm on
your phone, so you can reply to incoming
e-mails instantly.
To make the best use of time and
reach your goals, be sure to attend the
event’s plenary sessions and see what
role you can play in that program. Use
that opportunity to distribute catalogs
and communicate with others.

If exhibitors are your audience, inves-
tigate and find out relevant information
about them. Find out who is going to
attend the event on behalf of your com-
pany and arrange your appointments.
Of course, all the exhibitors may be your
competitors and cannot be categorized
among your audience.
Arrange to continue your conver-
sation after the event with those who
are at higher levels than the rest of the
audience. Be sure to remind them that
you have better offers for them after the
event.
Identify the entire environment of the
event. Exhibitors are usually introduced
on the event site, and applications are
provided using state-of-the-art technol-
ogy through which exhibitors can com-
municate with each other.

38 Informing and Inviting the Audience
j) Informing and Inviting the Audience
Announce your presence as an exhib-
itor at the event. The most important
ways to invite audiences that are attend-
ing the event to your company or booth
are:
¾
Mail banking;
¾
Online advertising;
¾
Social media;
¾
Advertising media;
¾
Printed invitations.
Social networks can be taken advan-
tage of in all three time periods of the
event. Before the event, inform your
followers about the event through social
media and invite them to visit your
booth.

This has several advantages:
ƒ
First, it represents you as an active
company.
ƒ
Second, it helps you in brandingyour
company.
ƒ
Third, it enhances the trust of your
social media followers.
ƒ
Fourth, it resolves part of your prob-
lem for making content on social
media.
Regardless of the number of peo-
ple invited by the event organizer, take
action and personally invite the audi-
ence to visit your booth. In this way, you
tell different people that you are a rep-
utable company and attend at various
events.
Inviting others to visit the booth at
the event is part of the branding pro-
cess. Even if 1 percent of the invitees
attend the event, the rest 99 percent is
covered by your notifications. You have
been introduced and content has been
made for social networks, too. Whether
they come or not, you are a winner.

40 Determining the Methods of Attracting the Audience to the Booth
k) Determining the Methods of
Attracting the Audience to the Booth
Consider three important issues for
event visitors:
¾
How to attract and manage booth
visitors;
¾
How to convey information to visi-
tors;
¾
Take necessary actions to get visitors
to remember you.
Each of these three sections needs
its own particular program, even the
program you design to attract visitors
might be different from the one you
do to attract exhibitors. Therefore, you
must be ready to make each aspect
unique, interesting and distinct from
the other.
Ask the organizer for permission for what
you do to promote and attract visitors to the
event environment.
Notice

Use attraction tricks to absorb visitors
to your booth.
In one of the events, I used two male and
female mannequins that had their bodies
painted and the company slogan written on
them. Thismethodwas atoolthatbothattracted
the audience and made a concept in the audi-
ence’s mind when moving towards them.
In an event in Las Vegas, an individual
was displayed in the form of a Greek sol-
dier in the same old clothes in the booth and
it reflected the culture of that country. In
another event, Chinese ladies had worn their
traditional clothes.
These tricks were not associated with
the business introduced in those booths,
but they helped to attract the audience
to a great extent.
In commercial events, you need to
observe more precise rules. Creating
attractiveness is not bad, but you should
use the right methods for that purpose.
If you are a large company, be precise in
choosing the method of attracting visitors
because the mistakes of a big company can
be definitely more destructive compared to
the mistakes of a small company.
Note

Having discount offers can be very
impressive in attracting the audience.
Think about offering a good discount
plan. Your audiences may expect to be
greeted with a gift or discount when they
visit the booth. This means both the cus-
tomerwhosupposedlyboughta$500000
printer and the one who bought a $20
item might be expecting a gift from you.
If the audience’s expectations are not
met, they will be disappointed.
Choose promotional gifts such as
pens, bags, mugs, and a variety of other
practical gifts to help your branding. It
should not be a gift that may be thrown
away on the way home and the money
you spent is wasted.
Many people come to the event only
to receive gifts; therefore, think of a plan
to take the advantage you desire by giv-
ing gifts. Some gifts are also specialized
and are prepared according to the needs
of the audience.
In one event, I saw a laser flashlight that
worked like a meter and measured distances.
The audience of that business will always use
such a device.

You can print gift certificates with attrac-
tive designs using smart methods and grant
them as gifts to your special customers.
Always consider a premium promo
for those who have a special relationship
with you. You can give an ordinary glass
as a gift to an ordinary individual but a
flask to a special person.

You can prepare bags containing
business cards, catalogs, gifts, and
other items that you intend to present
to visitors, and give them to the audi-
ence. In this case, the audience spends
time talking to you instead of collect-
ing these items and causing the booth
to become crowded. On the other
hand, when a bag with the logo of your
company moves around in the event,
your brand is inadvertently being pro-
moted.
Recently we participated in an event with
one of my brands called Dr. Advertise and
we had a regular booth. However, even large
and costly booths could not be as successful
in branding as we were, because everyone in
the event was traveling with bags having our
brand on.
Dozens of other booths may always
do what you do to attract the audience
to the booth; nevertheless, with a care-
ful plan and a high activity, you can
attract a good proportion of the audi-
ence.

Design premium brochures and,
when visitors are leaving the booth,
distribute them among those you think
may have the required potential to be
your customers. This will make them
remember you after they leave the
booth. A business card alone does not
have such a function.
Another form to attract the audience
to the booth is holding a contest and
awarding a prize. The type of contest
can depend on your product or service,
the type of the event audience (the gen-
eral public or economic actors), and the
event status.
With the advance of technology, the
contests can be held in more modern
forms. You can get a special application
for the event-specific contest designed,
or even get a contest held on the website.
When this is facilitated by technology,
the audience will enjoy more.

¾
One of the goals of the company
when participating in the event is
to collect customer information. By
drawing lots, you can award those
who give you their business cards or
fill out your form.
¾
The type of awards should be cho-
sen smartly and appropriately based
on the size of your business.
¾
The award should be attractive to
the audiences to keep them eager to
fill out the forms.
¾
The award should be proportionate
to the position of the audience. You
will not obtain satisfying results if
you set an award such as a computer
game in a commercial event where
the visitors are all manufacturers of
automobile parts.
¾
In addition to the type of award, the
quality of running contests or draw-
ing lots is paramount. If your form
is long and unattractive, the num-
ber of people participating will be
reduced accordingly.
For instance, a company in an event
could provide some tablets for the audi-

ence, and after filling out a form, visitors
could receive a code with which they
could play computer games in the booth.
This could be an interesting and deliber-
ately-designed trick. A large number of
people were standing in long queues there
to enter their specifications and receive
the relevant code. The important issue
for that company was collecting visitors’
information. Having access to the infor-
mation of potential customers is one of
the essential points for any company to be
able to contact them in the future.
At the end of the conversation, ask the audi-
ence’s views about your conversation or
whether they liked the award you granted. In
this case, you will get face-to-face feedback
from the audience.
One of the most modern technolo-
gies in the world is large touch screen TVs.
Today, the popularity of this tool has dra-
matically increased because it will act as
an assistant exhibitor and provides some
information to the audience. The audi-
ence can participate in the contest by
touching the screen. You can also have a
company introduction show on it.
Note

¾
One way to attract visitors to the
booth is catering them with food
items such as chocolate and biscuits
or even ice cream and finger foods.
This can be effective even in com-
mercial events.
¾
During catering, the audience
should not feel that they are going
to do something in return for it. At
the same time, the type of catering
must be in line with the goals of
branding and sales, otherwise the
costs incurred will be wasted.
¾
Sometimes you may see people eating
ice cream in an event and when you
ask where they got it from, they do not
even knowthe name of the booth! One
method is to offer food in your unique
packaging, such as special chocolates
offered in special packages.
¾
If a queue is to be formed in front
of the booth, think of a plan that the
queue does not disrupt your activities.
¾
Some companies serve customers
only with one bowl of chocolate.
You can do that.

Chapter 2
Executive Measures
During the Event

50 Executive Measures During the Event
Attend the booth quickly during the
days of holding the event. Although
you might have scheduled everything,
when you go to the booth before the
determined time, you can manage the
preparation process of the booth in
peace.
In the booth layout, place larger items
behind and smaller items in front. These
items include banners, goods, product
samples, furniture, and other accesso-
ries. Attempt to stand in front of them
yourself, but do not obscure the viewers’
eyesight.

Be sure to have tablecloths for your
tables. The design of the tablecloth
should be in harmony with the color
and design of other items. It does not
cost much. The harmony of design does
not mean one color for everything. Har-
mony means certain colors are artisti-
cally used by the designer so that all the
tools are associated with your products
or services. You must pay attention to
the harmony of design.
Make videos and slideshows about
your business to display on the booth
screen. The higher the information
quality and attractiveness of the film,
the better the result will be. Be careful
not to make videos from a collection of
computer screenshots. Such low-qual-
ity videos cannot be used to attract and
inform the audience.

From the beginning, think of a plan
to gather people’s information. Provide
categorized information of the people
you interact with.
Several of your audiences may not
have a business card. In some events,
there are barcode readers that can record
and store information when placed on
the name tags of the people present at
the event. Use such facility.
During the event, from the moment
the booth is set up, you can start
informing people at the event about
your activities. What happens during
the event can provide contents to share
on social media. Occurrences that are
somehow relevant to your company
are especially valuable news. Event
space allows you to produce profes-
sional content.

With today’s advanced technol-
ogy, take videos and photos using your
mobile phone and upload them to social
pages without the need to process them
on the computer. The mobile phone is
not comparable to any other tools and
when holding an event, you can use it to
the maximum to produce content.
Content production and social media
updates should be part of your daily routine
during event days.
Note

Keep in mind that your goods and
supplies may be stolen at any time.
Although the price of those tools may
not be remarkable, lacking the tools,
your work process will be disrupted. For
example, laptops and mobile phones are
your worktools, and some of your pro-
grams will be stopped in their absence.
The booth should be arranged in such a
way that your belongings are not lost or
stolen.

Chapter 3
Executive Measures
After Holding the
Event

56 Following-up
a) Following-up
After the event, you are required to
do various activities. In fact, whatever
you do before and during the event is
to enjoy the results after the event. To
take advantage of your programs, you
need to create a professional follow-up
program. You must keep up with your
audience/contacts after the event. Oth-
erwise, all your activities will be useless.
Following-up is the most important
part of attending an event. At the end
of the event, follow the discussions and
cooperation agreements. Finally, take
advantage of the cooperation by sealing
a contract.

Following-up is not an easy task and
requires a special strategy.
¾
Less than 72 hours, or finally a
week after the event, call or e-mail
all booth visitors whose contact
information is available to you and
thank them for their presence at
the booth.
¾
In the contacts you make to follow
up, remind how you can continue
the conversations.
¾
Your e-mail should be designed
using low-volume, it should always
be updated with attractive applica-
tions.
¾
There are ready-made templates
that you can use to design attrac-
tive e-mails. Of course, attempt to
maintain the harmony of the design
so that the audience can remember
you.

58 Following-up
¾
In the e-mails sent, attach pho-
tos of your booth to remind them
about yourself. Also, refer to the
exchanged conversations, attach the
links of relevant pages in the website
to the e-mail, and also explain the
discount plans. If you need further
information from the contacts, let
them know through the e-mail and
specify the information you need
and why you need it.
¾
If you send follow-up e-mails within
a few months after the event, have
new content each time and avoid
duplications. You may bore the
audience with repetitions and your
efforts will be futile.
¾
Attempt to send a specific e-mail to
each person using the software. By
mentioning the person’s name and
the company name in the e-mail
and addressing the person, more
people will open your e-mail.
¾
Keep in mind that hundreds of
other people like you attempt to
send e-mails to visitors to follow up
the conversations; therefore, you
have many competitors and your
audience may delete some e-mails
without opening them.

b) The Performance Analysis
Evaluate your success rate of attend-
ing the event. You can apply the tools
during the event to evaluate your per-
formance with them after the event.
At the end of the event, take a two-to-
three-month period to consider the rate
of achieving the goals.
To achieve a goal, find what you need
to measure during the event before
starting it. One of the things that matter
is the number of visitors. Another cri-
terion can be the number of brochures
distributed, which is calculated based on
the number of brochures you brought
with you to the event and the number
you returned.

60 The Performance Analysis
You can also evaluate your presence
at the event by the number of gifts dis-
tributed, the number of business cards
collected and the extent to which those
cards match your target audience, and
the number of participants in a contest
if a contest was held.
Event attendance assessment can
help you realize what methods could
be applied for the next events and what
should be avoided. You can also recog-
nize spending money in which cases
could bring you the best results.
After the event, write and submit a
comprehensive report of your presence
in the event with the videos and photos
you have taken. Up to 20 per cent of your
social media content should be allocated
to direct advertising, and the remaining
80 per cent should provide information
on topics related to your business and
promote your business indirectly.

Earlier it was mentioned that invite
people to your event by various means
in the pre-event step. After the event,
you need to knowwhat percentage of the
booth visitors came in with your direct
or indirect invitation, and how effective
each of the invitation means might be.
This will help you in your future deci-
sion.
When you realize this, you do not
need to spend extra money because you
will only use effective invitation meth-
ods.
There are various methods to assess
this issue:
¾
One way is to include a code in the
invitation you send on social net-
works and e-mails so that the audi-
ences submit it when they enter the
booth, or you can send a special
coupon to them to use when they
visit the booth.

62 The Performance Analysis
¾
Another method is to agree with the
event organizer; in such a way that
the organizer offers a discount in
providing some services for those
who submit your discount code, and
at the end of the event, you can ask
the organizer the number of people
who used that code.
¾
Another way is to put a different
code in each of the social networks
in order for you to be able to pre-
pare an accurate report.
¾
If the invitation is to be made
through individuals, give them sepa-
rate codes or unique discount offers
so you can use them to analyze the
results. These codes can be numbers
or QR codes. When it is scanned and
accepted, customers can then ben-
efit from your brand’s special gifts.
At the end of the assessment process,
evaluate what part of your goals was
met, how successful you were in brand-
ing, whether you could sell, and what
connections you could make with indi-
viduals and companies.

Chapter 4
Attendance at
Foreign Events

64 Attendance at Foreign Events
Attending foreign events requires a different perspec-
tive, and there are some issues to consider in such
events.
Consider appropriate time to plan. In
this type of event, in addition to observ-
ing all the points mentioned, you need
to study carefully the laws of the target
country. You may not be allowed to take
plenty of advertising tools with you at
all.
For example, in a strict Islamic coun-
try, you may not be able to use some of
your tools. Some samples might not be
allowed to be displayed for the audience
to see or may not have customs clear-
ance at all.

Do some basic research on the culture
and language of the target country and
memorize a few keywords such as hello
and the greeting.
The more you get to know a country’s
culture, the more successful you will be
in designing promotional items such as
catalogs, brochures, and promotional
videos, because you will take their inter-
ests into account. This will help your
operations to be flawless and help you
reach the right audience.
Itwas recentlyannounced thatwomen
driving becomes legal in Saudi Arabia.
Certainly, in the future car events in that
country, you will see the manifestation
of this change in advertising methods.
That is, advertising will change with the
cultural atmosphere of the country.
If the event is held in a city other
than where your hotel is located, make
arrangements to travel and make pro-
vision for your accommodation in that
city. Carefully identify all the tools
needed for the booth and make arrange-
ments for transporting the equipment.

66 Attendance at Foreign Events
ƒ

Attending foreign events involves
various marginal issues. Costs might
be overwhelming. You should not
just consider the booth price.
ƒ

Expenses such as transportation
and local workforce and printed
items specialized to that event will
largely impact the required budget.
ƒ

The issue of transporting devices
and samples to another country will
be a serious challenge for you, both
in terms of costs and customs clear-
ance.
ƒ
Customs clearance is a specialized
task and should be left to local pro-
fessional forces.
Use local forces to run the booth in
an overseas event. These forces must be
with you from the time you enter that
country until you leave. It is better to
have a few forces with you not simply as
interpreters, but to help you in special-
ized fields, too.

Besides English, provide your pro-
motional products in the local lan-
guage, too, otherwise you may face
numerous problems. You can get local
suppliers to provide a large number
of printed items you need. Of course,
order them a few months prior to the
event to create a margin of safety.
Bureaucracy is a slow procedure in
some countries and it will take a long
time to get things done. Consider this in
your schedule.
Credit cards are not available in some
countries. Therefore, ensure you have
enough cash with you to see you through
your stay in that country.

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