Givin’ It All Away

“We’re givin’ it all away. Yes, we’re givin’ it all away.” If you’re not already, you should be reading this line with the song, “Throwing It All Away” sung by Phil Collins¹ running through your head. At least that’s what was running through my head as I thought about what to title this blog. Now, it’s stuck there.

When adding an exhibit hall to your event, there is a tension that exists. Balancing the schedule to allow time for attendees to visit the vendors but not leaving too much of a gap in the action that you lose the attendees’ attention. Or, giving the attendees a large enough incentive to make the 2-day trek to where the exhibit hall is located. To overcome the concern vendors have about how to get attendees into the exhibit hall, there are a couple of strategies the team I work with have found successful. Your organization may already be doing some of these, we just might be going about them in a different way. To drive attendee traffic to your exhibit hall consider these four things:

• Event Giveaways. If your event already gives away a t-shirt or water bottle as part of an attendee’s registration cost, or if the attendees each get a treat bag filled with promotional materials from the vendors as they enter the exhibit hall, consider handing these items out in the back of the room. This drives traffic through the exhibit hall as attendees come to pick up their items, allowing them to gander at the vendors on their way by. You may wonder if this will cause some people not to pick up their items. We had the same concern as we made that switch. Nope. When freebies are involved, people come.
• Game Prizes. Another way to get the attendees to interact with the vendors is to create an interactive game. Consider a “Bingo-style” game where the attendees need to find clues or items from vendors to get an “X” on a square of their Bingo board. You can give away prizes for different board patterns, who turns in their board first, who fills their board, and so on. You can even solicit prize donations from the vendors to save on cost. This gets the attendees actually speaking to a person rather than just stepping into their booth to snatch the free pen or piece of candy.
• Hidden Giveaways. Consider investing some money into gift cards that can be used at convenient locations. Hand out gift cards to select staff or volunteers who are stationed around the exhibit hall. As they observe someone who is interacting with vendors and participating in the exhibit hall like a champion, the staff member can surprise someone with a card. Have the staff member collect the name and email of the winner and follow up with a congratulatory message. This is a great “surprise and delight” moment as well.
• Snacks. You can’t go wrong offering ice cream treats, cookies, popcorn, coffee, or some type of grab-n-go snack that an attendee can pick up as they wander about the exhibit hall. Again, put these items throughout the room but towards the back half to encourage people to come all the way in.

There are many other ways you can encourage attendees to come into and walk through the exhibit hall. There are even more ways to encourage personal interactions between the vendors and the attendees. Be creative. Don’t be afraid to ask others for advice. Ask the vendors, they have probably been to a show or two and have seen things done by other organizations.

One of the worst feedback comments you can get from the vendors is that they stood around bored with nobody to talk to. They will have invested their money to exhibit at your event, not to mention travel, hotel, and staffing costs, and have to return to their supervisors without any contacts, sales, or follow-up steps to show for it. If that’s the case, you may have a difficult time selling your booths next year. Helping the attendees find their way to the exhibit hall, and enjoy their time there is critical.

Do you have another way you encourage attendees to engage into the exhibit hall? You can share it here or send me an email. I’d love to year what you’re doing!

Know someone who plans events and exhibit halls? Pass this blog on to them!

1. Genesis, “Throwing It All Away,” 1986, Virgin/Atlantic Records.