Post Link: Cutting Trade Show Costs Part 3: During & After the Show

Cutting Trade Show Costs Part 3: During & After the Show

This blog post comes from guest contributor Mel White, of Classic Exhibits.

Welcome to Part 3 of our Cutting Trade Show Costs series! In this article, I’ll be sharing seventips to save money during and after after the show.

To see money-saving tips on your trade show design, check out Part 1, and check out Part 2 foradvice on saving money using smart pre-show planning.

How to Lower Your Trade Show Budget & CutCosts During and After the Show

1. Ship Smaller Packages to Your Hotel

You’re going to forget something. It happens. However, shipping small packages to the showfacility can increase your drayage bill dramatically. Instead, ship those packages to your hoteland carry the items onto the trade show floor.

While there may be a small hotel service fee, it will ultimately be less expensive than shipping it

directly to the show. Plus, it’s less likely to get lost. If you’ve ever tried to track down a smallpackage at a convention center, you know the frustration of wandering through a dock withhundreds of crates, cases, and packages.

2. Communicate with Your EAC

You may be familiar with trade show labor––service staff provided by the show contractor tohelp set up your booth––but you may not be familiar with Exhibit Appointed Contractors, orEAC’s. These are independent companies that have the right to provide labor services within aconvention center.

Working with an EAC offers multiple benefits. While you may not save a lot of money in a one-off situation, you will eventually save money in the long run by contracting with an EAC. Theyare invested in keeping your business and make accommodations that you won’t get from theregular labor pool, because they’re goal is to keep you as a client for multiple shows.

An EAC wants you to communicate with them before the show by sending them your setupinstructions, photos, and other details. This allows them to plan, and planning always savesmoney. If you have a lasting relationship with a particular EAC, they will understand andremember how your booth is assembled each year, and correct problems quickly andeffectively. It will ultimately speed up the process and save you hours of labor.

3. Hire a Supervisor from Your Exhibit House

If an exhibit house offers to send a supervisor to the show for a fee, you may want to considerit. They are familiar with the assembly of the booth, saving you time and labor costs duringsetup and dismantle. If there is a problem, that person is the direct path to a solution, whetherlocally or from the exhibit house.

It may not make sense for a smaller inline, but it’s usually a good idea for larger, more complexbooths, especially the first time the exhibit is assembled on the show site. Given a choice,would you rather supervise the assembly of your booth or devote your time to all the otherresponsibilities necessary to ensuring your show is a success?

4. Watch Setup and Dismantle Times

In most cases, there is a four-hour minimum for trade show labor. Pay attention to thatminimum. Exhibitors get skittish about overtime (and should). However, there are times whenyou can complete I&D with just an hour of overtime. That overtime will be less expensive thanscheduling labor for four hours the next day.

Minimums also matter when scheduling how many laborers you need in the a booth. Threeworkers working on straight time is less expensive than two workers working straight-time andovertime. While it’s not always an exact science, it should be a planned decision, not one thathappens by chance.

5. Dismantle Supervision

It’s the end of the show, and you’re exhausted. The last thing you want to do is dismantle yourbooth. But having someone stay with the booth to oversee the dismantling process can becritical.

That person can supervise the disassembly and monitor that the booth gets packed and labeledcorrectly. Even if it means one more night at a hotel or a couple more meals, that person isinvaluable to ensuring your boothisn’t damaged and is ready for the next trade show.

The number one cause of damage isn’t assembly. It’s careless disassembly and packaging. Inthe chaos after the show, it’s not unusual for parts and pieces to get lost or sadly, stolen. Beingthere minimizes those surprises.

6. Pre-arrange Return Shipping

Exhibitors focus so much attention on getting their exhibit to the trade show they often forget toarrange return shipping. The last thing you need is the added stress of scrambling to arrangefor freight after three exhausting days on the show floor.

In a desperate situation like this, that exhibitor might turn to the show contractor and ask themto ship it, which is always significantly more expensive. If they forget to make thosearrangements at all, the show contractor will have to force-ship their freight back to them. Thiscan equal a down payment to a house––a massive hit to your bottom line. Always be sure topre-arrange for return shipping.

7. Store the Booth Locally

This applies to people with active trade show schedules in the same city. Rather than havingthe booth shipped back to the main office every single time, look at having the booth storedlocally in that city. It can be stored at a local or regional exhibit house, or with a transportationcarrier, who can store the booth for a nominal fee.

In fact, the storage fees may be less than what you would have paid to ship the booth to andfrom the show each time. Check with your Exhibit Appointed Contractor. They often havesuggestions on storage options in convention-centric cities like Orlando, Las Vegas, andChicago.

Questions about any of the cost-cutting suggestions here, your trade show budget, or abouttrade shows in general? Let us know in the comments.

Author Bio:

Mel White is the VP of Marketing and Business Development at Classic Exhibits Inc., amanufacturer of exhibits, engineered aluminum extrusions, and rental solutions. For over twentyyears, Mel has worked with exhibit manufacturers, distributors, and end-users to develop newproducts, refine their branding, and sharpen their trade show marketing.Post originally located at: https://www.handshake.com/blog/trade-show-budget-cutting-costs/

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