Trade Show Services and Tips

One of the most popular trade show services in the industry is events staff out there representing the brands! They can be interesting to work and range from extremely busy public tradeshows like the Gourmet Food & Wine Expo or the National Women’s Show to quieter private shows like Grocery Innovations Canada or Sourcefest. Trade show services are wide ranging and attending the events are informative for consumers. They allow you to check out items and ideas that haven’t even been released yet!

If you’re working at one of these events, it can be easy to become overwhelmed. Here are some strategies that go hand in hand with other trade show services to help onsite events staff prepare for a positive promotion!

1) BE PREPARED: find out which building you are going to in advance (e.g. MTCC North OR South) and which aisle your booth is set up in. Make sure you leave yourself enough time to register for your badge on your first day as well as line ups can be very long. Event staffing opportunities are easy if you come prepared.

2) INTRODUCTIONS: be sure to introduce yourself to your contact, any other colleagues from their company and your fellow promo staff. This will break the ice and get things going. Be sure to keep your personal belongings out of sight. There is nothing worse than stopping by a booth that has drinks on the tables and jackets hanging out from behind signage etc. Booth maintenance is one of the trade show services to be mindful of.

3) GET ON IT: contrary to what some people may think, you have not been hired just to stand around and look good. You are, to some extent, a “tradeshow model” but you are also much more than that. You are a walking, talking commercial for the brand you are representing so you need to get out there and engage the public. You need to get product into people’s hands and make sure they walk away with a positive impression! As a brand ambassador and event marketer, you need to do just that – market the product you are representing! Talking among other staff or stuffing your hands in your pockets is a waste of the client’s money and doesn’t do their product justice.

4) SELL YOURSELF: these events aren’t only about trade show services… it’s also about selling yourself and your own brand. If you stand out at an event, you can guarantee yourself great feedback from the client and future requests for you to work again. You may even be recruiting by other companies for full or part-time work. You never know who is watching from customers to other event staffing agencies.

5) FREE STUFF: depending on the type of trade show it is, there may be left over product at the end. This is common with a sampling promotion that involves food. I’ll never forget the time I represented Ganong chocolate and was swarmed by other vendors trying to trade their products for our left over boxes of chocolates during the last hour of the show! Do NOT give anything away unless you have permission from the client. Some client’s would rather donate their left overs to charity but in some cases, they’d rather give it away than have it shipped back to their office or warehouse. If they do give you the green light, this is your opportunity to score some really great stuff. A fellow promo staff and myself were fortunate enough to get an entire green garbage bag full of food EACH after one of these shows… so you never know! Definitely a highlight of my event staffing career.

6) DON’T FORGET YOUR P’s & Q’s: after you wrap up each day, and at the end of the trade show, don’t forget to say thank you to your contact and their colleagues. This will let them know how much you appreciated the work and enjoyed working with them. A little lip service can go a long way and the next time promotional models and trade show services are needed, hopefully you’ll be at the top of their request list.

The Best Trade Show Services are about Excellent People

Promotions, event staffing and trade show services can be amazing, but it’s not all fun and games. You are representing clients who invest alot of money to have you engage the public and get their product into people’s hands, and into their minds, which in turn, helps increase their sales. A national marketing agency may have a very different approach to a tradeshow than a smaller promotions company, but the goals the clients have are almost always the same. Trade show services is a talent!