Interop New York 2008 is the leading business technology event in the United States. Scheduled for September 15 – 19 at the Javits Convention Center, Interop is being billed as the “Big Apple Show”. With keynote speeches by SalesForce CEO Marc Benioff, Novell CEO Ronald Hovsepian, Cisco VP Marie Hattar and more, Interop has slated an all-star schedule that will draw a wide range of attendees from the world of business technology.

Covering topics from cloud computing to green IT to network security, the conference will play host to 250 exhibitors and thousands of visitors and attendees. The Mobile Business Expo will take place in conjunction with Interop, and will focus on issues of business agility and web-based management of company data. Given that our company data here at MODdisplays is situated almost entirely in the cloud, the Mobile Business Expo definitely peaked our interest. Our technical staff are always looking for ways to better manage our data to increase flexibility and productivity, because in doing so we can bring more value to our clients.

MODdisplays also finds itself connected with the Mobile Business Expo in other ways. Thanks to our multimedia-friendly, custom-looking lines of trade show booth systems, we match up well with the profile of the exhibitors who will be showing their stuff at Interop 2008, which works out well for our company and our clients. At a trade show designed to promote business agility through technology, what better way to show off your products/services than with a highly portable, technology-friendly trade show exhibit?

For more information, contact MODdisplays at 877.MOD.EXPO or email sales@moddisplays.com.

From July 28 – July 31, TS2 2008 will take place in Hall D at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. TS2 2008 is a premier event for exhibition industry professionals who are interested in the latest event marketing products and cutting edge trade show exhibit design. The event is typically well attended by display retailers, trade show marketing professionals, and meeting planning specialists.

MODdisplays is always interested in keeping up to date with the latest trends in exhibiting, and our staff has been closely monitoring the event in the hopes that a few exciting products will emerge from the pack. We devote an enormous amount of energy as a company toward the research and development of new products because we understand how important it is for exhibitors to stand out at a trade show instead of blending into the crowd.

If you’re in the neighborhood, drop in on TS2 this week and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

In an effort to further distance MODdisplays from its competitors, the prices of our literature holders have been drastically reduced. Distributing literature at events and expos is an important part of any trade show marketing program, and using a literature stand that matches the overall feel of your trade show exhibit is an easy way to get your promotional material into the hands of visitors and attendees.

We offer the widest variety of literature stands found on the market, and we’ve just reduced our already low prices. We offer many literature racks that are designed to work with specific display systems. Our Exhibit One Literature Holders are designed to work well with every Exhibit One display we sell by using the same look and feel found with the rest of the exhibit.

If you’re looking to purchase a literature holder, shop our wide selection and experience our great savings. For more information about any of our products, contact us today!

You can increase your company’s visibility at a trade show by sponsoring a speaker for the event at which you are exhibiting. Sponsoring a speaker should constitute more than simply shelling out some cash to have your name announced along with the speaker, it should be well integrated into the rest of your trade show marketing program. Given the amount of money you’ll likely be spending to sponsor a speaker at your next event, you will definitely need to make sure you take advantage of the opportunity in every possible way. This post will help you make the most of your trade show speaker without overwhelming the audience with annoying branding messages.

If you’re going to sponsor a speaker, you need to get visitors and attendees excited about attending the speech. It is not unusual for the speech to be the most uninteresting part of an event, but sending out pre-show mailers and marketing literature will help you attract attention to the speech.

It is also important to educate the speaker about the products and/or services your company offers, and ask him/her to incorporate your company into the speech in some way. Be careful not to insist that the speaker use specific phrases, as this is a big turn off, but let them know your main marketing bullet points and they will probably find some way to slip them into the speech. Having a speaker talk directly about your company and your products can be especially powerful if the person is well-known and well-respected within your industry.

If the speaker is an important voice in your industry, people will want to talk with the speaker before and after the speech. Arrange for the speaker to be in your exhibit space during peak trade show hours before the speech is given, and be certain to mention that they will be there in your pre-show mailers. Also, arrange for the “question and answer time” that inevitably follows speeches to take place within your trade show booth. This will attract a good deal of attention to your exhibit space and will lend credibility to your branding efforts.

Sponsoring a trade show speaker can be a great boost to your trade show marketing program, but only when it is integrated into your overall exhibiting strategy.

If you want to be able to measure your success at a trade show, you need to set goals for your exhibit marketing campaign. Without measurable goals, it will be impossible for you to know the return on your investment. Some examples of practical goals include:

1. Generate 25 sales from the leads you gather at your show.
2. Spend less than $150 per square foot at your next expo.
3. Hand out at least 5,000 brochures on the first day of your conference.

With simple goals in place, it’s really easy to know how well you’re doing. It also gives your booth staffers something to strive for, which generally will increase productivity.

Have you ever wondered what to wear when you exhibit at a trade show? When you step out on to the trade show floor, you’ll see a wide variety of theories on this subject manifest themselves. It will be immediately apparent that some exhibitors put no thought at all into how they present themselves at a trade show, and those exhibitors are inevitably less successful. So what can you do to make a good impression on visitors?

Start by thinking carefully about the types of products you sell. If you sell children’s toys, wearing a suit and tie might not attract the type of visitors you are looking for. You appearance will reflect what you think about the company you work for, so put yourself in the shoes of your attendee and think about how they might expect you to dress based on the products and/or services you sell.

It is also important that all of your booth staffers dress uniformly. This does not mean that you necessarily need to wear a uniform (personally I think that wearing matching polo shirts is a horrible idea for trade shows), but it does need to be readily apparent that you all work for the same company. Your trade show booth staffers need to be an extension of your display, and the consistent marketing theme you have created for your booth should flow through them as well.

Typically I recommend that exhibitors dress professionally, but not formally. A suit and tie can scare off potential clients, but you want to be as close to that as you can possibly be in order to legitimize your company.

If you’re planning to invest thousands of dollars into your trade show marketing program, you should focus intently on training your booth staffers to know how to act within the trade show environment. Even if you use the best trade show display with the best promotional products on the entire exhibit floor, your booth staffers can ruin all of your hard work with their inappropriate behavior. The following is a list of some common mistakes made by exhibiting professionals that should be avoided at all costs:

• Eating in your exhibit space.
• Smoking in your exhibit space.
• Drinking excessively in your exhibit space.
• Leaving your exhibit unattended (even for a few minutes).
• Standing with your back to the aisle.
• Chatting with other booth staffers in such a way that potential clients feel as though they are interrupting.
• Talking on your cell phone.
• Wearing new or uncomfortable shoes (you will be standing/walking all day).
• Talking negatively about other exhibitors or attendees.
• Swearing or using profanity.
• Complaining about having to work the trade show.
• Eating foods at lunch that could give you bad breath.
• Leaning on exhibit furniture or accessories.
• Blocking access points for potential clients.
• Raising your voice (whether in anger or to call out to someone who is far away).
• Speaking negatively about your company.

In general, these mistakes are pretty easy to spot and should be even easier to avoid. Chances are that you’ve had some experience with a booth staffer who has made you uncomfortable or caused you to lose interest in a potential business deal, so think carefully about what caused that negative experience and avoid it at all costs.

Pre-show mailings used to be sent primarily by snail mail, but marketing emails are becoming more and more common. Using email marketing is a great way to give attendees an early glimpse of the products or services you will be showcasing at an upcoming event, and pre-show mailers are proven to increase traffic at trade shows. So how can you make sure that your emails get through to your target audience without being deleted or caught up in spam filters? I’ve learned a few tips and tricks to improve your email marketing campaigns, and here they are:

1.  Choose the right day to send your pre-show mailers. Emails that are sent on Sunday, Monday, Friday, or Saturday are 2x more likely to be deleted than emails sent on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. You can immediately double your success rate by picking the middle of the week.
2. Choose the right time of day to send your pre-show mailers. The best times of day to send pre-show mailers are mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Your target audience members are more likely to delete your email if they just arrived at work or are about to leave. Usually 10AM – 11AM is the time of day that I find to be most successful.
3. Avoid phrases that would lodge an email in your own spam filters. Using the words “free”, “sale”, “buy”, and “shop” are a perfect way to get caught by the spam filters. Instead, try words like “browse”, “learn”, and “visit”, as these words are much less likely to get caught in the spam filters.
4. Never send an email unless the recipient opted to receive emails from companies like yours. Being reported as a spammer is the last thing you want to happen to your company or your domain name. Technically, you are spamming whenever you send an email to an address that did not opt to receive emails from companies like your own. No one likes junk mail, so don’t add to the problem by spamming your potential clients’ mailbox.
5. Send multiple emails with the same subject line. If you plan to do multiple pre-show mailings, make sure that the subject line remains the same with every email you send. Doing this will build your brand recognition and help to connect the emails you send in the mind of attendees. If your brand is already recognizable before the trade show begins, half the battle has already been won.

In general, pre-show mailings are a great way to increase your ROI at trade shows, but be sure to follow these basic tips to avoid problems with deliverability.

When exhibiting in smaller spaces, such as ten by tens or smaller, tables are usually provided by the show coordinators. These folding tables can be a great addition to your exhibit or your worst enemy, without you even realizing it. Look at your situation carefully and make wise exhibiting decisions.

If you are exhibiting with a table top display, clearly the table offers the ideal place to put your display and literature. The table then offers you a great place to add a large identifying company logo and slogans. Think ahead and look into purchasing a custom table cover with your company logo on it. And since they start under $200 with a logo, you are getting your company identity in the eyes of countless potential clients for a really low cost.

The table becomes the enemy of the exhibitor when you put the table right in the front of your booth space and stand behind it. Even if you have the custom cover, the placement of the table and your sales staff is basically saying to potential customers, “ya, we know who we are but don’t talk to us.” It sounds funny, but it is true. It is the same as a neighbor putting up a fence in their front yard. No matter how nice the fence is or how nice the neighbor, the message is the same, don’t step onto my space; and when you are at a show that is exactly what you want people to do.

We could go on to express every possible scenario of using the table and whether that set up is a good use or not, but the principles are the same. Ask yourself what message you are expressing to the attendees of the show and do you look professional. And don’t be afraid to come to the conclusion that you don’t want to use the table at all; fold it up and give it to the show personnel or stick it behind your booth. When in doubt, feel free to contact us and run your idea by our experienced sales staff.

MODdisplays does not offer any promotional products to our clients, but we understand that using them well can be a key to your company’s trade show success. Since promotional products are not my area of expertise, I’ll speak from my own experience about what works for me when I attend a trade show. Promotional product experts: feel free to give your input on anything I write here.

The most important thing you can do is to differentiate your promotion from the other trade show giveaways being distributed. If you’re giving away a pen, Frisbee, stress ball, or key chain, it’s safe to say that your promotional giveaway probably won’t make a big impact on a typical attendee. These products still offer your company some value, because most visitors or attendees won’t immediately throw them away. If you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck, these items probably won’t help you stand out.

Aside from being different, there are a few other general rules of thumb I would adhere to:

• Relate the promotional giveaway to your product. (Example: If you are a cell phone retailer and you must give away a stress ball, at least make it take on the shape of a cell phone.)
• Try to think of something that your client will actually use (this is why pens are so popular, because it seems like you can never have enough pens). If you can give your potential clients something really useful, they will remember you longer and they won’t throw it away immediately.
• Hand out your promotional items to potential clients directly. Setting up baskets on a table encourages freeloading. If you leave your promotional items with a “take one” sign hanging in front, your competitors will take as many as they can to sabotage your trade show.

Another great strategy is to give away something that is more valuable, but carefully select who you give the product to. This works best if you sell high-end products, and you only need a few clients to maintain good business. Try giving your valued clients and prospective clients an inscribed iPod Shuffle. Shuffles only cost around $70, and you can have them inscribed with your company’s brand for free. You can bet your prospective clients won’t throw away a $70 music player.

Every trade show is different, and every potential client is different. Carefully analyze your situation and it won’t be hard to select a promotional giveaway that your potential clients will love.