Name: ESPN: Budget Tips for Trade Shows
Uploaded: 2025-02-20T18:36:07.013Z
Duration: 10 min 16 s
Description: ESPN: Budget Tips for Trade Shows

Transcript for "ESPN: Budget Tips for Trade Shows": Okay. Alright. Hello, everybody. We'll give everyone a couple seconds while they pop in. Welcome. Welcome. Hope you guys are ready for some trade show budget tips. So my name is Megan. I am an event manager with Gregory Events. I've worked with Lisa and her team for about four years now. And this is Elwood. He heard that we were gonna be on camera today, so he wanted to say hello. He also helps answer emails. So if you get any communications from me, he's probably also involved. And then with me today is Taryn. She is also part of the Gregory events team. I'll let you introduce yourself, Taryn. Hi, everyone. Yep. My name is Taryn, and thanks for coming to our presentation today. In I've worked for Gregory events for a couple years now, but in my previous roles, I worked at small series a and b startups, and I had to be scrappy. We had little resources and big dreams, and, here are some of the things we did to maximize our budget and cut corners. If you're a new event manager, I hope that these these are helpful tips, that save you time and money. If you're a seasoned trade show planner, then throw your favorite tips into the chat. I hope to just start to get the ball rolling and have you think about different ways you can save. Let's generate a list that's way bigger than just five to share after the event. Alright. Let's get started with number one. Little bit obvious one here, choose the right shows. Not all trade shows are worth the money, for your particular company. Let's say you can't afford shows like re Invent or Gartner. Who can? Great. But it it can be a tough entry point when you don't know what your what ROI you're gonna get from the event. So if you can, try smaller shows like the AWS roadshows or maybe a Gartner webinar to ensure that you're getting the right audience first. Speaking of roadshows, you may try one or two multi city events, and then you love them. And so the next year, you wanna do 10 of them across the whole country or world. And all 10 of those are the same price as one big show. So kind of measuring that. If list building is important to you and you're being measured on the number of leads you're bringing in or MQLs, depending on how your company defines MQLs. Then look for shows that provide the full lead list without having to worry about scanning. That might be best for you and look out for those opportunities and all of the different prospectuses. Bigger shows are not always better, so try and go for shows that are in your specific niche. Of course, you wanna target decision makers, but also don't forget about employees who have different, who have influence over, what they purchase as well. For example, developers. At smaller companies, they can really dictate what software they get to use. And virtual events are here to stay. Like this show, it is far too convenient to just join from your house and get value valuable information. So mix your virtual, mix your events virtual and in person. And if you again, if you're in the list building stage, look for those virtual events that can give you a big lead list. And number two to add to that. Yeah. I I something I'm seeing a lot this year is in addition to roadshows or things like the AWS summits versus re Invent, explore dinners like a lot. There's a lot of companies that do hosted dinners, and they will help target your ICP and get accounts directly from your specific list. So, they're a what a much smaller investment than an actual trade show. They're one night, but they're a really effective way to just go straight to the people that you want. And then they usually have bigger events that you can sponsor as well as, like, regional summits or even national summits, but they're a really good entryway, to test out a program as well. Yes. Awesome. Number two, buy, don't rent. Buy the TV or the monitors. New TVs are $300 opposed to thousands that some exhibitors, services companies will have you rent them for at the trade shows. New TVs are super light. I can hold like a 50 inches TV by myself. Order yourself one of those great folding trolleys, and buy your own TV, buy your own stand. Then all you need is power, which usually comes with the booth anyway. You want the TV on the back wall? I've had exhibitor services mount help me mount the TV, and that that I bought. So see if that's an option. But again, you can, like, buy just buy your own stand. Same goes for iPads for iPad stands. And then you're also kind of building your toolkit for future shows that you can use moving forward. Speaking of back walls, do you have to buy a turnkey booth? Can you bring your own back wall? Sometimes it's even cheaper to order a new back wall, for a show in a different city than ship the old one, and chances are your branding or your messaging changed since the last show anyway. Use all of these items for future events or give them away as raffle items. People love iPads, but those are things you can keep. I can't tell you how surprised and delighted people have been to take home a 50 inch TV. I've done this numerous times. You give away all the Legos and then you say, and now, wait, we have a bonus. Who wants this 50 inch TV? And people are stoked. Or give it to that exhibitor services person who's been super helpful to you the whole show. And just to echo some comments that have come in in the chat, like, if you're buying a $300 TV and just using it for that show, you can almost always leave it and let the exhibitor services people know, like, hey. This is a donation. Give it to one of the people that's helping disassemble the booths. Like, there's goodbye, Owen. There's always someone around that will want that TV. It's not gonna get thrown away, so don't feel like you have to ship it back or anything like that. Like, someone will take it. Yes. Or somebody or even a team member that lives in that city. So so, yeah, you can raffle it, give it away, anything like that. And there are so many great deals on TVs all the time. Alright. Number three, Amazon is your friend. Buy booth supplies online instead of through vendors, kind of the same as the TV, cables, adapters, brochure stands, the swag holders, then ship it directly to your hotel to save on baggage fees and any event receiving fees. You can use you can usually ship it several days before, if not a week before they'll receive it for you. Just check on if there are any charges. If there are ever any hotel charges, they're usually really minimal. Most often it's free. Take it up to your hotel, take everything out of the boxes, assemble them in your hotel room, load up your little trolley, and head to the event the next day. Then also you're, yeah, you're building that that toolkit that you can, bring with you to future events. Then you also wanna save on time. Right? So for things you forgot, DoorDash is also your friend for last minute batteries, charger cords, all the things. Alright. Number four. And this, kind of can be kind of like the dinners and things that you were mentioning as well, Megan. Search for MPO hidden gems. Scour that prospectus. MPOs can be a great stand alone item or a compliment to your booth. Some examples are like lounges. Lounges usually have a way bigger footprint than a booth, and sometimes they're cheaper than a booth. It just depends on the individual event. T shirt printing booths. You may be able to get it right next to your main booth, so it seems like you have a way bigger footprint. Photo ops. There's there's so many different, dinners. There's so many different things that you can sponsor, that that can really make a bigger impact, and sometimes they're a lot lower dollar than you would expect. So be early. Mark on your calendars when that prospectus comes out, for the most important events of the year especially. Other people are looking to, so get in and find those little hidden gems early. Another thing to look for, speaking opportunities. Get your company in front of as many people as possible. Seek out conferences that give you speaking slots even if it's just five minutes. Makes a big difference. Alright. Alright. Looks like we got time for one more. And we have number five. BBFFs with your finance team. Especially in my niche tech companies, finance teams are changing all the time, and sometimes they don't plan for travel and expense. I just talked to a client who said that they, had an extra 60 ks in their budget this year because they talked to finance and finance had already planned for all the TNE. So be friends with your finance team, track all of your expenses, little things really add up, and your finance team will thank you later. And they can even help maybe help you negotiate with pricing, but also get those competitive quotes. These are just five tips that we have come up with. I'm sure you all have so many more and we have so many great event professionals in the audience today. Add those to the chat now and let's compile a bigger list for everyone to share. Yeah. You guys are throwing some really good ones in there. And I think kind of the overarching theme of our tips and everything you guys are putting in the chat is, like, always ask. I have gotten to the point where there is no stupid question, and I have been really surprised by, you know, can I swap out this included furniture with my turnkey for something that I want? And sometimes they say yes, which saves me $2,000, so always ask. Thank you guys for engaging in the chat. Thank you, Taryn, for helping put this together. Our next session now is a sales or no sales mastering trade show follow-up strategies with, Oscar and Adriana. We'll see you there.