Know-How Exchange : Strategy

without making all of my trade show producing friends mad, I suggest this.. Before attending a trade show I would speak directly to a few non-competing companies to get their impression of the show. some are good, some are bad... The statistics of the show often do not tell the whole tale.

If you check with tradeshow orgs, they'll tell you 90% of all trade show leads are not followed up on. Its all in the execution-- not just following up on leads, but preselling.

I've worked shows that had very low attendance-- and they've been wonderful for me. Trade shows are only a vehicle, they don't sell-- people sell.

Although I agree with the above posters, you probably still want to do some research in addition to talking to others. We put our tradeshow analysis in an excel format (though you could use a database like Access if you want to get fancier). Here are some of the things we track:

Number attendees (excluding exhibitors and sponsors)
Press attendance - are there press, how many, what type
Types of attendees (titles, demographic info)
Are our competitors exhibiting
Are our partners exhbiting
Cost of exhibiting/sponsorship
Estimated drayage cost
Estimated travel costs
Product we would show

And of course over time, you can collect feedback from your own staff, actual costs, actual leads captured/closed from the show, etc.

We will often audit a show before exhibiting -- we send one person as an attendee to get a feel for the show.