The after the show review is just as important as the show itself. This is where you step back and take an honest, objective view of the event and get down specific details that you observed about the show. It is important to do this right away as the details will be forgotten, even just a week after the event.
At Exhibit Edge we have a tradeshow planning post-show checklist that all supervisors fill out that is related more to the logistics of shipping, items pulled or needed, damage to the exhibit or crates, client comments, additional orders placed on site, and much more. It is a good way to update the pull lists and address any needs during the return of the exhibit.
Likewise, a Marketing review should be done to assess the show’s impact (good or bad) on your company’s marketing goals. This can also be a questionnaire that is given to the members of your staff who worked in your exhibit at the event.
The questions would be things like:
- Did you reach your marketing goals each day? If you remember from previous blogs, our goal was to sign up 200 to 300 people per day.
- What were the attendees most interested in?
- Were the giveaways effective? Why or why not?
- What comments were made about the exhibit? The product? The company?
- Did attendees get a clear message about the exhibit as they walked by?
- What could be done to improve the exhibit for next year?
- Should we participate in this show next year?
You can ask any questions you want, but try to get these questions answered as soon after the show as you can. Your company spends a lot of money to participate in these events and an accurate assessment is the responsibility of the sales and marketing departments.
Next week we will either look at the budget compared to the final costs or we will review our post show report to give you some observations from Exhibitor Lounge’s participation at ExhibitorLive 2015. I haven’t decided the order yet.