Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Ideas For Tradeshow - Engineering Company

Posted by Anonymous on 7/18/2011 at 12:09 AM ET 125 Points
Dear forum members and adept question solvers - we need your help!

Our Heavy Engineering company will attend a reliability and maintenance conference in August this year. Our booth is a pathetic 2x2 meters, (as are all booths at the conference). Our objectives are to increase awareness of our company, highlight our engineering capabilities, and establish valuable business relationships with conference attendees.

At other trade shows we have attended in the past we have had a plasma screen with video clips of our previous projects running in the background. We also have given away an expensive bottle of scotch (or similar) to those that put their business card in a draw. This has been sufficient, but a little boring to be honest.

I'm looking for ideas that will quickly appeal to middle aged men (this will be the typical description of the conference attendees). I envisage a game or display that not only interests the attendees, but also leads them to engage in conversation with our stand holder.

I want to move away from the business card draw idea as this does not provide sufficient background information, or personal interaction with potential customers and we are not interested in cold calling attendees post-conference.

I have requested a list of attendees at the conference - this is yet to be confirmed.

I look forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions.

Ps. - Girls as trade stand eye-candy are not an option!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 7/18/2011 at 7:53 AM Accepted
    Can you tell us more about your company itself to see if we can generate some specific ideas around it for a booth activity? Where you work, what you do, your specialties, and who your ideal customers is?

    Is there something new/special that your company does that's noteworthy for the attendees, or is your presence simply for general awareness?
  • Posted by Norwood on 7/18/2011 at 12:53 PM Accepted
    I agree w/ Jay above, if you can give us more info about what exactly your company does and how people use your product we may be able to come up with some ideas.

    Depending on the components you provide, you could do something with your product that will attract people Could be creating a sculpture with the parts you sell, a contraption of some sorts, or something else that will draw people to your booth.

    A 2x2 booth space doesn't give you much.... what I have used in the past with great success was a magician. You can hire someone to be there for the duration of the expo or only for a couple hours (it will depend on how long the conference is, etc.) and won't cost too much. The good thing is that a good magician will be able to attract people to the booth, keep them engaged for a few minutes giving the booth staff some time to talk to them. Also, the magician can talk about your company while doing the magic trick (when done well, people do remember who you are and it doesn't sound 'rehearsed').
  • Posted on 7/18/2011 at 5:18 PM Author
    Thanks for your feedback so far.

    To give you more information - Our company deals manufactures and also refurbishes equipment for industries such as: power generation, marine, defence, food processing, pulp and paper and more.
    We have a large range of engineering services including: heavy fitting and fabrication, CNC machining, balancing, heat treatment, design and draughting and project management.

    Our customer base is here in New Zealand and also in the South East Asia and the Pacific. The types of people at the conference are mainly engineers who work for power generation companies, food processing companies such as dairy factories, pulp and paper mills.

    We are not doing anything new or extra special at the conference, i.e showing off a new product or technique. We simply want to let conference attendees know we are good at what we do and that we provide innovative ways to improve the life and efficiency of their equipment.

    As the conference is a maintenance and reliability conference, I would like to base our exhibit around this. I.e by showing that regular maintenance improves the efficiency and lifespan of equipment.

    Thanks for your idea of the magician. I''d prefer the entertainer doesn''t talk to the attendees about our company, as the technical engineering discussions (our competitive advantage or IP) should be had by members of our organisation. I''ve had another suggestion since posting this of a fishing simulator machine - where you choose the species of fish you''d like to catch and the machine simulates landing the fish. There is also a time trial for reeling in a fish. What are your thoughts on this?

    Thanks for your help so far.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 7/18/2011 at 6:53 PM Accepted
    "Showing that regular maintenance improves the efficiency and lifespan of equipment" isn't remarkable enough of a message to have people want to talk with your staff. So, either you need something interesting to talk to conference goers (if the event is small, then most everyone will stop and chat - if larger, people will be more selective with their time) or you need something interesting to show the attendees. For example, can you commission an art piece made from the leftover parts from refurbished machines? Or perhaps showcase rolling ball marble machines (alluding to your "lifespan" message)?
  • Posted on 7/18/2011 at 7:55 PM Author
    Thanks Jay Hamilton Roth - I like your idea of the art piece commissioned for left over parts - this could be very effective. I''m not entirely sure what you mean about the rolling marble ball machine - I will look this up.

    You are right- all of the attendees know ( or should know) that regular maintenance improves efficiency and lifespan of equipment, our message is just re-enforcing this statement and reminding attendees that this what we specialise in.
  • Posted by Sally on 7/18/2011 at 8:23 PM Accepted
    What immediately comes to mind is "extreme makeover" (using your before/after pictures with a good presentation - video and music) or "extreme games.".(guys still like their toys, could you develop a computer game which shows on a big screen...have to enter contact information to play?) ..or another thought is a money booth which shows the dollar savings in real currency of your work.

  • Posted by marketbase on 7/19/2011 at 2:59 PM Accepted
    Playing off the previous suggestions, a story could be made within the (admittedly small) booth, perhaps by a multiple shelving/compartmentalized open display as opposed to simple table tops w/"skirts" allowing interactions between engineer/attendees, containing various new vs. damaged machine parts w/replacement costs. An item can be removed from the display and put on the table top for discussion w/tactile observation; an option for the excellent idea of having a piece of art could be to have it photographed with a dramatic colored backgound and enlarged to grab attention for the back wall. Putting costs/prices on the replacement parts (with expected life span of original piece) will support your company''s reason d''etre.
  • Posted on 7/21/2011 at 9:31 PM Author
    Thanks for all your comments - they were very helpful. Here's to an excellent tradeshow event!
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