Upping your international numbers is a great way to grow your shows, particularly in a mature market. What you want and are willing to invest determines the roadmap to boost foreign participation. Here are a few tactical questions to start the process:

How many international visitors and exhibitors do you have and what percentage are they of the overall event?
What are your organization’s goals? More sales? Have a more global presence? Better retention rates? Do you track those rates? (Hint: the last two questions are worth the price of admission…)

What is your organization’s resource commitment?
There are three main areas here: time, money and in-house personnel.

Time: It takes a minimum commitment of three years to see results of an international exhibitor sales program. 2 years for international attendees. You have to be in it for the long haul. Yes, you will see some results in years 1 & 2, but 3 is where the investment pays off.

Money: This is an investment, not a cost. Plan on spending some bucks on promotion, marketing, advertising and travel. Amortize it over three years; realizing year one will have the most spent with the least return.

In-House personnel and level of international experience: Who within your organization is familiar with international relations? Are they director level or higher? Speak more than one language? (Gibberish does not count!) Have they traveled further than Canada or Mexico on vacation, and have more than two stamps in their passport(s)?

A quick note here about international relationships—the quickest way to ruin a new one before it begins is to send in a junior associate or salesperson as the initial contact. It is seen as an insult—it appears your organization doesn’t care enough to send top brass—and if you don’t care, why should they?

Additionally, our international friends have very long institutional memories and one careless misstep can take years to repair. Make sure whoever you send in understands this! As someone who has had to go in after the fact and do damage control, trust me, it’s not an easy fix!!!

Boosting your international exhibitor and visitor numbers can’t be done on a wing, a prayer or for free! With the right kind of planning, resource allocation and patience, your show’s international growth can become a reality.