If you want to improve your golf game watch and learn from Tiger Wood as he drives, pitches and putts. Re-run each swing in slow motion and when you are ready practice…. practice…. practice. While the chances of you or I ever being as good as the master is next to zero, the chances of improving our game, even a little bit, is pretty good.
Modeling the techniques of those who excel at what they do applies to all pursuits. Let’s say you want to improve your exhibit. Find to a guru then watch and learn. The problem is that that amongst organizations that choose exhibit marketing there is no one superstar. Many are pretty good, but those who consistently tower above the rest, year after year, are hard to find. Does this mean improving your exhibit is a lost cause - not at all? In fact watching what other people do – both the good and the not so good – can be a fantastic method of gathering information that will make a powerful difference in your exhibit program.
Where you start is by searching out those places where company’s and organizations like yours exhibit; trade shows, special events, malls, lobbies, or conferences. Then once you have identified a few likely prospects arrange to take a few hours away from the office to attend. Begin looking at exhibits from an exhibitor’s perspective. This is not as easy as it sounds. Go back to the basics and separate the theatrics of what you observe from the substance. The goal of a display is to attract attention; the right attention. Attracting the right attention then becomes the substance. The theatrics are the tool and techniques you use to accomplish the displays purpose. When you become overwhelmed with cool ideas and interesting technologies at face value the result can often lead you in the wrong direction. Often interesting ideas can be a distraction rather than a benefit so look and learn. A better approach is keeping the substance in focus and as you see interesting ideas weight their benefits against their ability to accomplish its purpose.
Another helpful tip to be vigilant. If you find one of these messages is running through your head then you are missing the point of your visit;
• That company obviously has lots of money and we don’t,
• They are too big,
• They are too small,
• Their product or service offerings are different than ours.
If any of these thoughts sound familiar then you may be short-circuiting the possibilities of coming away with valuable and useable information. Forget about the differences between the exhibits you see and focus on the similarities. In your case these similarities are found in your reason for being there in the first place – to attract attention.
When you finish seeing all there is to see in exhibits take time to watch the people who work in these exhibits. Stop, visit and engage in a face-to-face conversation. When its over ask yourself, is that the experience I want my customers to have when they visit my display? More importantly, ask, how do you feel about the interaction. Then ask what could I have done better or in the case where you were treated well, what did I learn from this person.
What all the observations help you with is what I call your “expo eyes,” With expo eyes you are now opening up the possibilities of improvement that you never thought possible. When you can’t look to one spectacular example of exhibit excellence, look to them all. Both the good and bad have valuable lessons for you.
| Barry Siskind - |
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Barry Siskind is President of International Training and Management Company, a Toronto based consulting firm specializing in helping exhibitors achieve top performance at their trade and consumer shows. He is the author of The Power of Exhibit Marketing. Each year Barry travels throughout the world helping exhibitors improve their return on the show investment. To get more information visit his website at www.siskindtraining.com. Read More >> |
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Keep your Display Simple; Really Simple
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