Tradeshow Toolkit
Why Create a Tradeshow Toolkit?
The trade show industry is evaluated at $97 Billion USD in the US, according to IAEE president and CEO David DuBois at Exhibitions Day in Washington DC. With the advent of digital delivery mechanisms, some pundits back in the early 2000’s were predicting a significant decline in trade show attendance. Despite an economy-driven dip in 2009 and 2010, DuBois also affirms that attendance rates remain healthy and stable at 4.3% growth as of 2018.
There is no question, trade shows & events remain a major tactic and key component of the marketing mix. In fact, a 2017 Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) Study – How the Exhibit Dollar is Spent tells us that brands are spending an average of 42 percent of their marketing budgets on trade shows and events.
This is massive expense, and yet many brands admit they don’t have a good handle on managing shows and showing the ROI. According to IAEE’s DuBois, most CEOs and CMOs (93 percent) agree that lead generation is the number one reason they invest in a trade show program. Yet we still see companies missing opportunities to drive traffic to the booth, poor sales engagement in capturing leads on the show floor and poor follow up after the show.
To help you optimize trade show ROI for the business, our Toolkit draws upon more than 100 years of collective experience and knowledge from a diverse group of trade show experts and aficionados. It is a living, breathing, practical guide with resources to help trade show and marketing managers make systematic and deliberate improvements in this area to exceed their performance goals.
Tradeshow Toolkit Playbook: A Marketer’s HOW-TO Guide
We co-created this resource with the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA Cincinnati) for our customers and AMA Members, and now are making it available to you.
The Guide features in-depth discussion and tips in three core categories:
- Invest Wisely: Goals, Shows, Space & Sponsorships
- Call to Action: Medium, Messaging, Execution & Engagement
- Engage Sales: Training, Tracking, Enablement & Expectations
Tradeshow Planning Templates
To supplement the How-To-Guide and your trade show initiatives, we have also developed helpful templates for various aspects of the trade show planning process. When you download the toolkit, you’ll receive the Playbook, plus these template documents:
- An Excel Spreadsheet for Trade Show Evaluation, Prioritization & Selection, including common/recommended criteria and metrics
- A one-page Trade Show Game Plan Template for business-case building, executive approval and project kick-off
- A PowerPoint Template for Large Show Planning & Execution
- A PowerPoint Template for Small/Regional Show Planning & Execution
