Exhibiting at a trade show demands time, effort, and money. Naturally, you want it to deliver returns, such as new clients, substantial contacts, and high-quality leads you can nurture through your sales funnel over time.
However, excellent results require an impeccable exhibition plan. You must know what, when, and how everything is going to happen down to the very last detail.
Are you using a custom exhibition stand design or going with the standard-issue shell-scheme stand? These are not things you can decide randomly or at the last minute.
It is as Thomas Edison called it. “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” If you’re ready to meet with good fortune at your next trade show, follow our step-by-step exhibition timeline planning guide.
Planning an exhibition takes time. Use the exhibition timeline planning template below and tweak it according to your specific requirements. It starts approximately 12 months before the exhibition date and assumes you know which trade show you’re attending, the audience the event will attract, your target market, and the type of people you wish to meet.
9-12 Months Before the Trade Show
Exhibition planning starts the moment you decide to exhibit at a trade show. Here are the things you must get done at least nine months before the event date.
- Register for the trade show. Let the organizer know you’re exhibiting. Fill out and submit the registration form, and pay the required deposit, if any. Registering and paying early will let you take advantage of early-bird discounts. More importantly, registering promptly gives you more booth options.
- Choose your booth location and pay for your floor space. Look at the exhibition floor map, and choose your trade show space as soon as possible. Once you have made your selection, pay for it to secure it. The sooner you decide on your space, the higher your chances of getting a premium exhibition spot.
- Decide on your booth type. Exhibition stand types range from row to island. Peninsula and island booths are options only if you have an appropriate location. Peninsula booths require an end-of-row or end-of-column, two-corner spot at the intersection of three aisles. Island booths require a stand-alone spot that’s passable on all sides.
- Confirm trade show rules and restrictions. Ask the event organizer for the trade show rules, particularly restrictions on booth design. Take note of space rental inclusions, light and electrical provisions, and restrictions on booth height, design, and equipment.
- Decide on your booth design. Once you know your location and type of booth, it’s time to design your exhibition stand. Are you using the shell-scheme stand provided by the event setup contractor, or are you getting a custom booth designed and built for the trade show?
- Allocate a budget. Compute how much you will need for a successful exhibition aside from your floor space rental cost. You will need a budget for booth design or construction (which you may outsource), marketing materials, shipping, and personnel costs (transportation, meals, accommodation, and allowances). Make sure to add a buffer to your budget for incidentals and unforeseen expenses.
- Identify sponsorship opportunities. Trade show organizers can use this as a means to cover costs for key aspects of the event, while exhibitors can leverage this opportunity to gain more visibility. Exhibitors can sponsor meeting rooms, workshops, lanyards and catalogs with their branding.
- Choose an exhibition stand contractor. Attending a trade show in the United Arab Emirates? Request proposals and portfolios of exhibition stand contractors in Dubai. Create a shortlist, meet them to discuss your vision, listen to their ideas, and determine the scope of work. Decide how much work your contractor will do. Will they be responsible for stand construction, transportation, ingress, setup, dismantling, and egress? Request a quote based on your discussions, and select the contractor that can provide your requirements within your timeline and budget.
6-9 Months Before the Trade Show
You must finalize your stand design and create a pre-show promotions strategy.
- Finalize your stand design. Determine if your vision needs adjusting for ease of execution. Brainstorm more ideas, but settle on a final design as soon as you can, and set clear expectations on deliverables and the timeline.
- Start networking. Get a list of the trade show exhibitors from the event organizer. Contact those whom you would love to network with. You can even arrange to meet them before the trade show.
- Decide on and design trade show perks. Are you giving away freebies? How about a discount? Discounts are excellent perks because they lead to sales and contracts. Freebies must be designed and ordered now.
- Decide on the product or products you will exhibit at the trade show. Are you exhibiting machinery, travel packages, or equipment? Which of your products will you be showing at the event?
- Create marketing materials to promote your trade show attendance. Create a pre-show marketing timeline for the exhibition, and then coordinate with your brand team to create social media posts, emails, and mailers.
3-6 Months Before the Exhibition
Start promoting your attendance at the exhibition and planning trade show logistics.
- Start pre-show promotions. Use the promotional materials you created in the previous phase and release them according to your pre-show marketing timeline.
- Check on your custom exhibition stand progress. Ask if the contractor is on track and everything is going as planned.
- Confirm the exhibition stand contractor’s scope of work. Verify the terms of the contract. If you agreed that they would transport and set it up on the trade show floor (and dismantle and take it away after the event), have them confirm it.
- Decide on and design on-site marketing materials. You will need brochures, flyers, postcards, and giveaways. Design them and get them made. You will also need to order your standees, banners, and other branding materials you will display during the event.
- Order the products you’re showing. If you’re showing machinery, equipment, or products, order them from your factory or manufacturing department now so they will surely be ready for the event. Set expected delivery dates.
- Create trade show standard operating procedures (SOPs). How will your staff welcome guests, what information will they collect from guests, how will they collect it, and where will they store it? Likewise, what information and marketing materials will they give to booth visitors?
- Create post-trade show SOPs. What will you do with the leads collected during the trade show?
1-3 Months Before the Exhibition
One to three months before the exhibition, focus on logistics and execution.
- Confirm your booth floor space and booth location. Contact the event organizer to confirm your floor space rental, your booth type, and whether or not the layout initially provided by the exhibition setup & management contractor has changed.
- Check on the progress of your stand construction. Is everything going according to plan? Reconfirm the contractor’s scope of work. Confirm, too, that your stand will not violate any trade show restrictions.
- Choose your brand representatives. Who will represent you at the event? Consider this carefully; your staff will be brand ambassadors, generating leads and building relationships on the company’s behalf.
- Make travel and accommodation arrangements for your staff. Book their airplane/train/bus tickets and hotel accommodation. Arrange their visas, if needed.
- Prepare your staff’s business cards. If your personnel don’t have business cards, have them made now.
- Test your products. If showing products at the trade show, test them to ensure they work as they should.
- Make freight arrangements. Make shipping arrangements for the products and the bulky branding and marketing materials you’ll need at the event. Note the shipping timelines. If your cargo will take at least a month to arrive at its destination, ship your products and materials at least two months before you need them to arrive. Moreover, arrange for cargo pickup and storage at the other end.
- Delegate work and train your staff. Brief your staff in detail about where they need to be, what they need to do, and accomplish during the event. Give them individual assignments.
- Print your staff manual. This must include all your show SOPs.
- Start scheduling meetings with promising contacts and leads. Allot each promising contact at least 15 minutes of face time during the event.
- Create a pre-show checklist of exhibit essentials. This includes your exhibition stand, marketing and branding materials, products, equipment, staff, etc.
1-2 Weeks Before the Exhibition
Cross your t’s and dot your i’s.
- Check on your stand. Visit your exhibition stand contractor’s showroom or workshop to see your stand in person. Request last-minute adjustments.
- Make sure everything that must be at the trade show is on its way. Track your cargo (products and materials). Have they arrived? Are they now in the care of someone you trust and waiting for deployment at the exhibition venue?
- Tick items off your checklist. Check off the items you’ve taken care of and made arrangements for.
1 Day to 1 Week Before the Exhibition
One day to 1 week before the trade show opens, visit the exhibition venue.
- Check on your stand, and put up your last-minute decorations and branding enhancements.
- Check your electrical outlets, lights, and audio-visual equipment to see if everything works according to expectations.
- Rehearse product demos, if any, to ensure everything will go as planned.
- Set up your branding and marketing materials, including your standees, banners, brochures, flyers, postcards, and other branding and marketing materials.
Become Trade Show-Ready
There you have it — our 12-month exhibition timeline planning guide. Follow it so you can be ready to show up and stand out on trade show day.
Feel free to adjust the timeline according to your needs. Don’t forget that crashing and fast-tracking are your friends if your schedule analysis indicates you don’t have nine months till exhibition day.
ArabExpo is an experienced exhibition stand contractor in the Middle East. You can rent a marquee tent or a stand from us, hire us to design your shell-scheme, traditional, or upgraded booth, or get us to build you a bespoke stand from scratch. Contact us for samples of our work, and let’s discuss how our exhibition stands can ensure trade show success.
