Increasing Visibility Throughout an Event
by Gayden Day, President, Rocket Red
We all know that today's trade show and marketing professionals are challenged with the difficult task of ensuring their exhibit presence communicates the company's brand and achieves specific marketing objectives. It can be a tall order, but can be accomplished by looking at the event as a whole and negotiating exposure on and off the show floor.

Recently, a client came to Rocket Red with the challenge to increase the company's presence throughout the event. We took on the challenge and began looking at all opportunities the show offered including sponsorships, events, speaking sessions, exhibits, partner activities and business meetings.
After careful review of the previous year's results, we recommended that our client leverage the event through a series of sponsorships, speaking sessions, partner activities and a private event targeting top executives on their must-see list.
We negotiated a sponsorship that had not been previously offered. The sponsorship included:

• a corporate identity presence co-branding the event at every turn
• two speaking session opportunities
• an interactive gaming lounge promoting the client's technology and speaking sessions and staffed by professional greeters
• sponsorship of the event's major concert, an exclusive hospitality area, theme signage, multimedia clips in the arena as the crowd gathered and executive presence to welcome the audience and introduce the headline act

What happens when you try to be cool for the sake of being cool?
By Arlo Guthrie, Senior Graphic Designer ProActive, Inc. a Freeman company

After the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games unveiled the brand for the London 2012 games, public outcry was immediate. An online petition to change the logo garnered nearly 50,000 signatures. Graphic designers including some world-famous, called it a waste of money.

Ken Livingston, the Mayor of London, chided, "I wouldn't pay them a penny. Who would go to a firm like that again? I mean, this is a pretty basic thing."

The prevailing sentiment, if the ire of the blogosphere is a trustworthy source: the logo is hideous. While I believe the brand is indeed 100% wrong for the London Olympics, I don't think it's hideous. Far from it - I think it's edgy, cool and provocative.

At least, it would be edgy, cool and rightly provocative if it were in the right context.

What if this logo had nothing to do with the Olympics? Let's say you're the member of a popular rock band called "2012." This logo would look great as a CD cover. It could glow in the different neon colors chosen by the design studio on your stage backdrop. It would be silk-screened huge on neon t-shirts, proudly worn by high-school sophomores. This logo says that your band has an off-beat style and is willing to make any bold statement it can in an effort to irk parents.

Are any of these qualities appropriate for the Olympics?

As Dan Curtis wrote in a recent Face2Face, "People look to your brand image and expect it to live up to what they see." When creating a brand, designers and strategists need to identify who those people are. In the case of the Olympics, those people are young adults and teenagers increasingly disinterested in track and field who would rather watch skateboarding on the X-Games. London 2012 wants a younger audience to be attracted to the Olympics, and rightly so. After all, it states in the Olympic Charter the importance of "educating youth".

Yet, the Olympics represent more than just the excitement of watching sports. Here's what the Olympic Charter states: "The goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced in accordance with Olympism and its values." Does the London 2012 logo and its accompanying animation seem at all "peaceful" to you?

The challenge presented to Wolff Ollins, the branding firm behind this logo, was to create an icon that represents not only youthful exuberance but the promise the Olympics hold for future generations. Not an easy task, but it can be done. A good example would be the (RED) campaign. By pairing popular items like the iPod or Gap clothing with a consistent shade of red and simple yet distinctive typography, the (RED) brand speaks to a youthful, image-conscious audience wanting to make a difference in the world.

In fact, the (RED) brand is exactly the sort of brand consumers want. Getty Images, in their recent MAP Report, refers to this trend as the "Confessional Consumer." More and more, consumers see that you are what you spend. Consumers look for responsibility and noble causes, like recyclable materials, sustainable energy, and fair trade. Toyota's hybrid vehicles and American Apparel's sweatshop-free clothing are good examples of products capitalizing on the increased awareness of social responsibility.

Wolff Ollins had the opportunity to exploit this trend and create a brand for London 2012 that represents the hope and promise that young people seek in a very fragile world. Instead, they delivered an abrasive, trendy, fleeting design that would be better suited for an abrasive, trendy, fleeting rock band.

To paraphrase noted book designer Chip Kidd: art is meant to create problems; design is meant to solve them. Design can - and often should - be surprising, provocative, and even confrontational. However, design must serve a purpose other than asserting its own existence. Design has to incite action or provide purpose where there once was none. Good design requires research, strategy, a clear message, and an understanding of who your audience is or should be.

In other words, good design cannot be cool for the sake of being cool.

Staffing for Exhibiting Success: Your People Make the Difference
By Jefferson Davis, president, Competitive Edge

Often, the difference between a trade show seen as an investment that offers your company a return or simply an expense is the people staffing the exhibit. When you strip away all the lights, sounds, visuals and architecture from the exhibit floor you end up with a focused marketplace where people meet face-to-face to talk and do business. And only your staff can talk and do business.

Effectively working a trade show requires a person to adapt their behaviors and communication skills to the realities of the exhibit environment. Here are eight attributes of a highly-effective exhibit staff:

1. Positive attitude:   has a positive outlook on business and life in general. Likes working trade shows.

2. Extrovert:  not afraid to walk up to a stranger and say hello.

3. Energy:  can stand on their feet and effectively engage and interact with people for five to eight hours per day for two to four days.

    

4. Knowledgeable:   knows your company, your products, the market and the competition.

5. Good questioner:  asks good open-ended questions before talking about your products or services.

6. Great listener:  listens with their eyes and their ears. Hears not just the words, but the meaning and intent behind the words.

7. Concise communicator:  can deliver your company story and your product/service points in a concise, persuasive and interactive manner.

8. Closing mentality:  understands that the outcome of a qualified in-booth interaction is to get the visitor to commit to a next step action.

You should rate each of your booth staffers on these eight attributes. If they are deficient in three or more areas, you should provide some form of exhibit staff training to bridge the gap. As an alternative, you might consider renting temporary booth staff to assist.

Once you've got the right people for your exhibit, you must prepare them for every show. Here are seven keys to effectively preparing your staff for success:

• Staff appropriately: two to three staffers per 10x10 space is about the maximum. Any more and your booth is too crowded with your people, leaving little or no room for visitors.
• Staff mix: If possible, have a mix of sales, technical, customer service and management. Attendees often want to talk to employees with different job functions within your company.
• Prepare a schedule: Assign each person a three to four hour shift on specific show days and be sure to enforce the schedule.
• Always conduct a pre-show meeting: get your team together the day prior to the show to review roles and goals, company and product messages, lead and sales capture processes and booth duty schedules. Always do a walk through of the booth.
• Set interaction, lead or sales goals: ask your staff to focus on and be accountable for at least four visitor interactions per hour and one qualified lead or sales order per hour.
• Reward performance: to create excitement and build a sense of team spirit consider creating team and individual contests for achieving goals. The rewards don't have to be expensive. Use gift cards, send flowers home to their significant other, give casino chips or even a little cash.
• Seek feedback: at the end of the show give your booth staff a short survey to complete. Ask them what they liked and didn't like about the exhibit. Ask their opinion for how you might create a more effective exhibit for the next show.

Learn about all the great things to see and do in New Orleans from a Native - Bonnie Helmker, Freeman New Orleans General Manager.

We asked Bonnie some questions about New Orleans that we hope will help new exhibitors and visitors with their travel plans.

Here is what Bonnie had to say:

American Business Media's Face-to-Face Report:
All the Event News Fit to Print

Article courtesy of American Business Media
Events are a rapidly growing, critical part of today's integrated media environment. More than 60% of American Business Media member companies are active in the business of events, which account for more than 36% of annual member revenue, or $11.3 billion dollars each year.

In response to this rapidly growing and important segment of the business media industry, ABM and its Events Council have introduced the Face-to-Face Report, a monthly e-newsletter covering the latest news, research, government issues and analyses affecting the world of events, trade shows, conferences, seminars and more. As part of our commitment to enhance the knowledge and best practices of this rapidly growing field, the Face-to-Face Report will also feature guest columnists and insights from leaders of business media events. To subscribe the Face-to-Face Report, just send your name, title and e-mail address to info@abmmail.com