How Easy Is It To Do Business With You?
Exhibitors we talked to say many shows aren’t easy to work. Here are 10 ways to improve your relationship with exhibitors and enhance customer service.

By Patricia D. Sherman



Juleanne Dawson recalls nervously checking her watch during her company’s sales meeting last summer. At precisely 2 p.m., she hurriedly excused herself and stepped out to make a phone call.

“I’d been assigned a 5-minute window to call the show organizer if I wanted booth space — and I had already reserved the space and filled out all the paperwork. I had to find someone to cover for me in the meeting. The show organizers told me if I didn’t call during those 5 minutes to confirm, the space would go to someone else,” says Dawson, Marketing Services Manager at Bard Access Systems (www.bardaccess.com), a medical devices company in Salt Lake City. She manages more than 20 major national and international shows and several regional shows annually. “Five minutes! As far as they were concerned, it was like I had nothing else to do,” she says.

Thanks to her split-second timing, Dawson got the space she wanted, but months later, she’s still exasperated with the show organizer. “They didn’t treat me like a customer,” she says. 

EXPO interviewed Dawson and eight other exhibitors and two exhibitor association executives to gauge how trade shows work from the exhibitor’s point of view. The exhibitors represented a range of companies from small to very large. They managed from six to 60 national and international shows annually, as well as many regional shows. Their exhibits ranged from two-story mega-booths to tabletop displays. They exhibit in healthcare, technology, food products, financial services and aerospace shows. Most had additional duties, such as meetings and conventions, corporate communications and marketing.

Exhibitors are very clear about one thing: They want show managers to treat them like valued customers. “Sometimes show management and exhibitors are in tune, but other times, managers treat exhibitors not like customers but like a necessary evil to extract money from,” says Steve Schuldenfrei, President of Trade Show Exhibitors Association (TSEA, www.tsea.org), headquartered in Chicago. Schuldenfrei bases this blunt assessment on 25 years’ experience as a show organizer, exhibitor and association executive.

While it’s common for show managers to tell exhibitors they’re working together as partners, Andrew Dudek, CME, Trade Show Manager for Telcordia Technologies (www.telcordia.com), Piscataway, NJ, and current Chairman of the TSEA Board of Directors, rejects that description. “It’s not a partnership. It should be a vendor-customer relationship. My suppliers try to please me, but the attitude of show managers is ‘These are the rules. Take it or leave it.’ I just want to be treated like a customer.”

Exhibitors identified practices that, from their point of view, are frustrating and counter productive and suggested changes they think will improve their relations with show managers — and improve the shows.
 
Issue: Lack of communication
Whether show managers want to think of exhibitors as customers or partners, better communication is basic to making exhibitors feel valued. It’s the top-of-mind subject for exhibitors.

“With razor sharp budget cuts, mergers and consolidations, it’s more important than ever that show management and exhibitors communicate,” says Karen Kingston, Manager of Conventions and Meetings, B. Braun (www.bbraunusa.com), Bethlehem, PA.

Exhibitors identify three ways communication could be improved:

Solution #1: Exhibitors want to see managers on the show floor. Most say they have never met managers of some shows, even shows where they have exhibited for years. “Managers should be on the floor, come to the booths and ask how things are going. A lot of things go on on the floor that should be worked out at the time,” says Kingston, who exhibits in 50 to 60 medical-related shows a year. Exhibitors praise shows that do treat them like customers. Deb Lang, Manager of Exhibits and Events, Wells Dairy (www.bluebunny.com), Le Mars, IA, praises show managers who show they value communication with exhibitors by being on the floor before, during and after shows. She singles out the Food Marketing Institute and the National Grocers Association. “Their show managers come to every booth and thank us for participating.”

On the other hand, Sal Cavallaro, Manager of Marketing Support, United Technologies (www.utc.com), Hartford, CT, chides exhibitors, who often don’t make a conscious effort to get acquainted with show managers, either. He makes sure managers know him by name. “It helps if I have to straighten out a problem later.”

Solution #2: Exhibitors want advisory councils that really work. “If they’re just gripe sessions where nothing happens, they have no value,” says Dudek.  If show management puts together a cross section of exhibitors and meets at the right time — near the end of the show and again midway between shows — the advisory council can provide valuable feedback, says Eric Allen, Executive Vice President of HCEA, which is managed by the Kellen Co. (www.kellencompany.com), an association management company with offices in Altanta.

“Shows with active advisory committees will survive and grow,” says Ann Pennino, CME, Exhibit Manager for Chicago-based Praxair Inc. (www.praxair.com). “Managers have to be willing to listen and change, at least entertain the idea of change.”

Solution #3: Exhibitors want accurate information. Ideally, they want independent audits, but even if smaller shows can’t justify the expense, the information should be reliable and complete enough to justify costs and help exhibitors make informed decisions. Exhibitors are especially cynical about inflated numbers — which might include spouses, guests, media, interns, students, staff and, as several exhibitors said, pedestrians passing through the hall — to cover the fact that the number of qualified buyers is declining. “When they inflate the numbers, they shoot themselves in the foot. They should just come clean. They’re not kidding anybody. Exhibitors know from the foot traffic when the numbers aren’t accurate,” Schuldenfrei says. “Pretty soon, you don’t believe anybody’s numbers.”

Exhibitors also want demographic data before and after the show. “I want pre-show registered attendee lists with companies and titles,” says Harris Schanhaut, Manager of Events Marketing, American Express (www.americanexpress.com), New York. “I don’t have to have the complete contact information, but I want enough information to decide who to send and what kind of customer events to plan.” 

“I love the shows that provide a complete breakdown right after the show,” says Kingston. For providing accurate and timely information, she praises the American Society of Anesthesiology and the American Association of Critical Care Nursing, among others.         
  
Issue: Booth assignment practices
From the exhibitor’s perspective, the booth assignment process for many shows appears to be a virtual black box. They understand show managers are balancing the demands of large and small and new and long-time exhibitors and, of course, managers have to make a profit. Exhibitors accept that there’s no magic process that will leave everybody completely satisfied. But there are three things show managers could do to improve trust in the process:

Solution #4: Make it clear. “Why does the booth assignment process have to be so mysterious?” asks Audrey Waidelich, Marketing Manager of Heat and Control Inc. (www.heatandcontrol.com), Hayward, CA. She describes the baffling booth gridlock at a poultry show she has attended for years. “No matter how bad the booth location is, you can’t move. Nobody ever moves. Nobody gets the space they want. Nobody can get bigger. It hurts the exhibitors, and it hurts the show. Something’s going on with the show management, but we can’t figure out what it is.”

Solution #5: Make it fair. “We’re not thrilled with random selection,” says Schanhaut, who manages about 36 large national and international shows a year. Although show managers may find this method easier for themselves, exhibitors consider it the least fair. Exhibitors would rather see a system of balanced priorities that isn’t riddled with exceptions.

The first-come-first-served principle should count for a lot. “If we sign up for next year’s space at this year’s show, we ought to have priority getting the space we want and moving up when there’s an opening,” says Lang, who supervises six national shows annually, as well as regional shows. Conversely, she says, some managers hold back good spaces and give them to new exhibitors. “With some shows, the longer you wait, the better your space. That doesn’t seem fair.”

Solution #6: Respect loyalty. Reward for longevity and investment in the show seems fair, too, even to smaller exhibitors. “Show managers ought to have respect for loyalty. Exhibitors should get priority points for sponsorships and years in the show,” says Schanhaut. Lang points out that some show managers favor new exhibitors by giving them larger booth space. “That’s unfair to people who’ve been with you for years.” No system can be completely fair, she says, but show managers should establish a policy, state it clearly and stick with it.    

Issue: Scheduling
Exhibitors say scheduling rules and practices can be as opaque and irritating as booth selection. Two things in particular bother them:

Solution #7: More flexibility with space reservations. “Some sign-up periods for priority space are just unreal. In many cases, we’re required to sign up for next year before the show is even over. My management wants to see this year’s results before signing up for next year. But if I wait even a few days, I could be penalized,” says Pennino.

Furthermore, “many shows require up to 50 percent up front when you reserve space,” says Dudek, which can be a hardship for smaller companies with tight cash flow. One partial solution, he says, is to bill in 30 days, after the exhibitor has had time to evaluate the show. If shows do require payment for next year’s booth at this year’s show, they should at least accept credit cards, Pennino adds. “Most exhibitors would be willing to pay two or three percent extra for the convenience.”   

Solution #8: Minimize weekend set-up times. Schanhaut voices a common complaint from exhibitors: Shows that start with half-days on Sunday. “That forces us to set up on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning when we have to pay contractors time and a half or double time. The overall set-up cost can kill a show for us. Change the show time to Tuesday through Thursday. Then we’d have Monday and Tuesday morning to set up.”   

Issue: Ineffective use of technology
Many show managers, exhibitors say, are not keeping up with technology and even when they do, they don’t bother to make it user friendly.

Solution #9: Use technology to enhance convenience. Michael Lynn is Director of Meetings, Communications and Exhibits for New York-based L-3Com (www.L-3com.com), a company that provides communications systems to the government and telecom firms. Lynn thinks show managers should be looking at the most successful technology-forward shows for ideas. He’s especially impressed by the technology-driven convenience of the Asian Aerospace Show in Singapore where his company exhibited in February. “All the manuals and forms were on the Web site, and I could fill them out online. They sent me e-mail reminders before each deadline. I submitted staff photos online and secure badges were ready to go when we got there. They let me link my palm device and download data so I could check it anytime I wanted. They saved exhibitors a lot of paper shuffling and time wasted standing in line.” He strongly urges show managers to invest in similar software. Despite the initial cost, “it would be a win-win for everyone,” he says.

Schanhaut says he would be willing to pay more for a sophisticated data-capture system that he could download quickly to his laptop at the show. Small exhibitors who might not want the extra expense, could opt out, he says.

Solution #10: Keep it simple. But moving to online materials has a downside if they’re not user friendly, says Waidelech. Some take a long time to load, don’t print easily and bury important information. It’s harder for exhibitors to use them if deadlines and contact information are spread throughout the manual. “It should start with one page listing everything in chronological order so I can print it out and pin it to my wall,” says Schanhaut.

Moving online is not a hit with everyone. “I’m passionate about paper manuals,” says Pennino. “I don’t have computer access all the time. I want to carry the manual with me and read it on the plane or where I can. Printing the manual isn’t necessarily simple. If it comes as a PDF file, I’ve had to open and print each page separately. It takes hours. That’s alright, I guess, if you only do one or two shows a year, but I do at least 30. Give me a paper option.”