WORKING BETTER WITH YOUR ORGANISER
Organisers are simple creatures. In the main they love what they do but they love making money even more. They will sell you whatever you want at whatever price you can manage. Not an indictment just a truism. They also want you to be happy because if you are satisfied you will re-book and ergo more money. They also like visitors – lots of them – and of the right demographic make up. So that’s them. Now what about you – the exhibitor?
You are more complex. In the main you love what you do and you like financial reward. You will exhibit if you know you will get a decent return on your investment. You also know you need visitors again of the right demographic and quantity. So . . . it appears we have some common ground. So how can we work better with them in order for everyone to benefit?
Well as the expert in your market, you will know whom you wish to target. Ensure the organiser is hitting those targets and if not suggest media, lists or other ways of accessing that stream of potential visitors. You may have a membership list, customer database or belong to some association who can access them. Organisers will be only too happy to mail that list on your behalf – often by personalised mailings. Do you have any innovative products or services that lend themselves to demonstration or are they impressive enough to be a crowd puller in their own right? Organisers are constantly on the look out for crowd pullers and pleasers. Could your product become a feature are within their event? In exchange you get the publicity and possibly a sampling opportunity or a data base share. Can your products be used as a prize – a grand draw or competition that will give you huge publicity for the price of a single unit? Think about your ‘little black book’ of contacts.
Do you know a celebrity or member of royalty or parliament or any other notorious figure who could open your exhibit or launch your product at the show? Work with the organiser to see how you can benefit from pre-show publicity and on going kudos throughout the event. Is there anyone in your organisation who is a recognised authority or name in your field who will speak and present at the event. Organisers need good content and good speakers to engage with their visitors and attract them to the event. It may be you have a sales team or distributor network that could disseminate tickets on behalf of the organiser in exchange for your branding on them. The rule of thumb is what have you got that is cheap to offer that an organiser would value and what have they got that is valuable for you to receive that costs them little to provide. Then swap!