The Hair Helper showcased at Pulse
We’ve recently attended Pulse in London Olympia. We had a great time, and learnt A LOT! We’ve also had some good leads, which we hope to share with you in the near future. For now, we thought we’d share some of the little lessons we learnt along the way.
Take time to be silly!
(This was during set-up…probably wouldn’t be silly in front of potential buyers)
Everything costs EXTRA
Everything costs EXTRALighting, electrical points, painting your stand, the list goes on. In an ideal world we would have had lighting, but it was simply not in our budget to do so. In hind sight, and learning from fellow exhibitors, we should have looked into the possibility of buying our own spotlights – an investment if you plan to do more than one show. Buying your own actually works out cheaper, and then all you will need to arrange with the event co-ordinators is a plug point.
Negotiate where you can – even if they knock £5 off
Having a stand can be an expensive outlay, especially for a start up. This of course can be worth it as you’re getting exposure to potential clients. Saying that, always ask if that is their best price, and take it from there.
Take food and drinks
While our venue had a great selection of small cafe’s to keep everyone fed and well watered, they can be a costly affair. You also want to be on your stand talking to potential customers, so keep some food and drink to hand so that you don’t have to leave your stand unattended.
Know your marketplace
Check out pictures of previous shows that they’ve had to get a feel for what the stands will look like, and how people have dressed/accessorised their stands. This will help you to get an idea of how to dress your stand ie. We decided to get canvases done instead of a banner to showcase our product as it was a gift ware show and we wanted our stand to look as chic as possible on a shoe string budget.
Try and take someone with you
Who doesn’t like a bit of company? These shows, can be exhausting. You are mostly on your feet and interacting with people all day. It’s great to have someone along side you to talk to any additional traffic, give out business cards/flyers, and do coffee runs (thanks Emma!)…or watch your stand if you need to pop to the loo! If you have managed to bring someone along, take a break for a couple of minutes to stretch your legs, get some fresh air, and have a walk around.
Do walk around
Talk to your fellow exhibitors. Tell them if you like their products. If you see something that could work well for you for future tradeshows, ask where they sourced them. It’s also good to keep an eye out for potential working relationships and other people that could be good for collaborating. We certainly found our fellow exhibitors to be very friendly and happy to share information.
