Avoid Tradeshow Problems by Preparing For Them

"Sometimes the smallest mistake can take what was going to be a great tradeshow appearance and turn it into a disaster. The problem is you’re going to be away from your company, away from home, and without all the resources you would normally have access to.

This means any problem is going to leave you scrambling to figure out how to fix it with the limited resources you have on hand, and if you weren’t prepared, you aren’t likely to have very many resources at your disposal.

But even some of the worst mistakes can be contained if a little preparation is taken to handle any crisis that might come up.

The first thing to do is make sure that the people you’re taking are up to the task and reliable. When the pressure hits you can’t have anyone falling apart. Talk to them beforehand and let them know that you’re relying on them, so they’ll know what kind of responsibilities they’ll have.

Next, take the time to research the different companies close by the tradeshow that you can use if you need to. Printing companies should definitely be on your list, because one of the biggest mistakes you’ll find people making is leaving behind material. That means they’ll need to get some quick poster printing or brochure printing taken care of.

If you leave behind flyers or even worse, business cards, your tradeshow is going to suffer a lot because of it. But if you took the time to find out a good local printing company and made sure to bring all the information on your material, you can easily hand them a file with all the info they’ll need to quickly get your color printing done and save you from being without.

When something does go wrong, be sure to keep things coordinated. It works best if a single person, which might or might not be you, is set to take charge in the case of an emergency. You’ll avoid the chaos of figuring out who should do what, and everyone can know who to look to in order to get their orders on what to do.

And lastly, be sure to take action as soon as possible to solve the problems. This seems like the most obvious, but often when things go wrong people can be distracted, and sit around too long trying to figure out what to do rather than doing it.

Don’t let inaction compound your problems until so much time has passed you don’t have enough time to fix things.

Having a good team with you and having done the proper steps to prepare will ensure that even when the unexpected occurs, you’ll be in a prime position to cover the damage and fix the problem before it gets out of hand."