To exhibit or not exhibit? To go or not to go? To send or not to send? To spend or not to spend?
Attending conferences and exhibiting at conferences have a cost. It’s not just the Exhibit Fee, the registrations, the Hotel, and travel, but the cost of personnel out of the office, or the investment of a company’s people at said event over the next best opportunity. Before committing to an event, we get our clients the information that helps make an informed decision.
- Who’s signed up?
- Who signed up last year?
- Who’s exhibiting?
- Who exhibited last year?
- Event costs, associated costs, data, etc.
Construct Marketing’s database of construction industry events and experiences with different events, associations and event providers across our historical client base is frequently the basis for decisions to go or not to go. Many clients can realize valuable intelligence from tracking all of its events and accumulating insights and measurements from experiences year to year.
Can you max ROI at this event? Some internal questions might help make a better decision…
- Does your collateral support the event program strategy? Sales, Marketing, Business Development, and Management are aligned on this?
- Are you picking opportunities piecemeal? “Hey, this conference in Quebec sounds Great” vs. “Ok 12 events over the next 18 months is realistic and this schedule of events overlays our vertical and horizontal business development strategy.”
- Is this event in the company’s market priority area?
- Any history to reference on the event? If you’ve been in business for any time, you might have useful information from past attendance.
- Are you just going to check it out? Maybe just attend as an individual this year and measure.
These questions might help tune in your exhibit strategy. A little prep work before and some homework and marketing follow-up after might help reap what you sow. A little support from Construct Marketing might make sure you’re in the exhibit ready when that lead walks by instead of in the hotel business center try to find your box of materials.
So, to exhibit or not to exhibit? To attend or not to attend? So to spend or not to spend? Whatever your decision, treat your investment of time, personnel, and resources carefully.