Trade Show Budget - You Are Over By How Much???

You did it! You just returned from a very successful trade show out of town and you are flying high from the success. Your booth had lots of traffic and you and your staff had generated a lot of leads, good quality leads. Now that you are back in the office, you are ready to follow through and start selling.

All the planning has paid off. You spent a lot of time before the trade show budgeting so that you could have a great return on your investment, and things were looking great, until you got the final bill. You are over budget by how much??? How could that be, you planned it out carefully. Could the bill be wrong?

Unfortunately you may have been over billed. When you planned your budget, you accounted for the booth space, your exhibit display and your marketing materials. You most likely even budgeted for your travel and hotel arrangements. These are easier to budget because there is a sense of control; if that flight is too much, you can check another airline, if that hotel is too much, there are many other options. When it comes to show services many think they are limited to only one option, the show’s on-site labor, BUT in fact this is not the case. You have the option of hiring an independent contractor to handle the logistics of your booth as well as the shipping and installation. In many areas there are unions involved so you are bound to use the exhibit halls service for some aspects but they could be minimal with good pre-show preparation and exhibit management.

First, when packing your exhibit, try to pack as much as possible into as few crates as possible. This will help with your drayage fees, they are unavoidable (unless you carry your display in the front door) but can be minimized. Second, when wiring your booth for your monitors and lighting, be sure it is done to code and set to one or two connections. This will help in minimizing the electrician fees; by law the exhibit hall has to have electricians connect the electric to your display and if it is not to code you can pay $75 or more an hour to have it fixed on site. You can also minimize your I & D fees by having your plans out and ready when your shipment arrives to your booth space. This will eliminate extra labor hours that you will be charged for having workers at your space and not working. Keep track of the time each worker is at your location, write down when the electrician arrived and left, if possible have him sign your work order with the time noted. Do the same with the labor for your install, this will be your gauge for when you get that final bill and you will able to see where (if at all) you were overcharged.

These are just a few things that you can do to avoid being overcharged on your show services and have a better handle on your budget. Of course the easiest way to handle all of this is to have an exhibit house that will handle all aspects so you don’t have to. At Nationwide Displays, we will be able to give you the best possible quote for all service with minimal surprises. We know how the system works and with our expert staff and long term relationships we can get the job done right and on budget.