Trade shows represent an excellent opportunity for companies and other entities to meet with potential clients and customers. Trade shows generally involve the movement of products or services from one individual or organization to another, often at no cost. Economists call such a transaction as a marketplace or network that enables trade to take place. An economic definition of trade shows is the movement of trade between buyers and sellers.
Conventional Trade Show activities normally include exhibit booths, demonstrations, sales promos and promotional activities. These activities allow participants to form relationships, exchange information and develop marketing plans. A trade show can be a special event, a series of consecutive events, a single day event, a conference or a combination of all these activities. Usually, conventions have an exhibition hall where most trade show events take place.
Convention exhibits are usually set up inside the convention hall in a separate room. The exhibits consist mainly of the booths of the participating companies and other exhibitors. In addition, some trade show booths offer additional services to make the display more attractive to visitors. The booths of some companies use lighting to illuminate the displays, audio and video equipment and high-tech computer displays. Most of these exhibit features special portable electronic displays (PEDs) that make the display much more attractive.
Convention centers provide easy access to business exhibits, trade shows and other events. The majority of convention centers have convention centre desks that enable booth attendants to easily set up the booths and assist exhibitors. The majority of such desks also accommodate a printer and scanner, which make it possible for exhibitors to create a catalog of their items for sale. Convention centres also provide a designated staff to help visitors with questions. Such staffs are well trained to assist with questions related to a specific product or service.
Some companies arrange to bring their staff to the event, so that they can provide trade show staff training and other services. This increases the number of visitors at the convention centers, but it may increase the company’s costs. When companies increase the number of booth attendants at a trade show, they may also need to provide more staffing help to cover any time that the booth is not being staffed. In this case, they must either reduce the size of the booth or reduce the amount of staffing needed to cover the booth when it is not running.
Some companies choose to rent their exhibit space rather than purchasing it. They do this because it allows them to control the number of visitors to their exhibit and to set up the exhibit as they see fit. The company can increase or decrease the number of displays as often as it wishes. It can also change the displays on an occasional basis. However, renting means that there is no guarantee that the exhibit will sell anything. Companies that rent booths usually provide display accessories such as banners, table covers and tables and seating for added attraction to the space rental.