Definitive Guide to Event Marketing

Snapshot
Eileen Fridkin
President, Tradeshow Creatives
Eileen has been
a talent agent,
scriptwriter and
producer of
tradeshow
marketing ideas
for over 30 years.
Among her clients
(many of whom
have been clients for over 20 years)
are multiple divisions of Sony, Toshiba
Medical, Pioneer USA, Marketo, Kraft,
Fox, and Ford. Her specialties are
technical presentations and highquality
tradeshow talent. She has
won national awards for both exhibit
concepts and video production for
her tradeshow clients.
#DG2EM
What are some “don’ts”
that you have seen on the
exhibit floor?
1. Don’t feature too many gimmicky
things. Gimmicks might draw attention,
but they more likely distract from your
actual message. People tend to
remember the gimmick vs. what your
company does. (I recall a company
hiring the Dallas cheerleaders for their
exhibit, and nobody had any clue who
the company was or what they sold –
they just called them “the Dallas
cheerleaders booth”.)
2. Make sure your booth and staff are
organized. Everyone should be clear
on their position and purpose, and be
aware that they should go out there as
a team. If an attendee needs help and
it’s not a particular salesperson’s
territory, the sales rep should still help
that person as if it were her own territory.
Remember, attendees see you as one
company, not as a bunch of individuals.
3. Never use poor-quality visuals or
rent cheap sound systems for a live
presentation. This really leaves a bad
impression. Same goes for your exhibit.
If need be, go with smaller exhibits that
are of higher quality rather than large
exhibits that are poorly done. Remember
the old adage: quality over quantity.
4. If you are on the floor, do not act like
you are on break. It’s extremely
common to see staff with water bottles
in hand, munching on snacks and
chatting away. If attendees see your
booth staff chatting with each other
and eating lunch, they might not feel
comfortable approaching you to speak.
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5. Don’t staff your booth with an overtly
sexy team of booth assistants. It is a
distraction from your main message
and it tends to make it look like you
don’t have something viable to sell.
Attractive, warm and friendly people
are a good idea, however, a bunch of
“hot babes” from a video game are not.
(The exception: you’re in the video
game or auto sound business, two
industries where it may make sense
to feature hot booth babes.)