Organising a Trade Show: The Essential Checklist

Trade shows are the perfect opportunity for businesses to showcase new products, share information about their services, and market themselves to new and existing audiences.

But, they also take a whole lot of planning to pull them off successfully. From pre-trade show decisions like booth design and floor plans, to finding sponsors and reaching out to vendors, there’s a lot you need to consider as a trade show organiser.

To make your life easier, the team at Exhibition Centre Liverpool have picked out some of the most important aspects you need to consider when planning a trade show – and even included some practical tips and advice you can use in the future.

What is a trade show?

We’ve already touched on this, but trade shows are primarily a marketing tool to help a business show prospective customers what they’re all about. This is especially useful for companies with alternative services where reaching out to people directly can make a difference; or for businesses that sit within an industry to come together with their target audiences.

At a more granular level, trade shows are made up of multiple booths and exhibitions which are presented by vendors to visitors. Using innovative booth design, presentations, and demonstrations, businesses can connect with attendees, providing a valuable marketing opportunity.

Note: visitors of a trade show are typically those interested in what is on display, and more likely to buy/invest in the services on offer. This means trade shows can be an incredibly lucrative opportunity for vendors.

Tips for organising a trade show

Hosting a trade show is a labour of love, because there are a lot of moving parts and elements that you need to organise to make sure your visitors (and vendors) have a positive experience.

Explore our range of tips and advice below to make sure you’re ticking off the essentials from your trade show checklist.

Start planning early

You want your trade show to be a memorable event for all the right reasons – and the best way to do this is to start planning early. The longer you have before the big day, the more time you have to get everything in place. Plus, you’ll have more time to manage your budget and expenses.

Top tip: planning early also gives you a buffer of time to resolve any unexpected issues or find alternatives before the big day.

As part of your trade show planning strategy, you should consider looking into the following topics as part of ‘phase one’.

Choose a location

You can’t hold a trade show without a venue – so picking a location is one of the first things you should do. By touring prospective venues early, you’ll have the chance to:

Choose from a wider range of venues.
Have more time to make a decision.
Be more likely to get your first choice venue.
Get assistance from experienced venue staff for the rest of your trade show planning.
Use venue layout to influence and adapt your floor plan.

Top tip: when you’re choosing a location for your trade show, don’t just think about what they can offer you. For example, our Venue is an obvious highlight – but we’re also perfectly placed in the heart of Liverpool to offer visitors access to one of the best cities in the world.

Create a marketing strategy

It seems obvious to say, but any marketing strategies for your trade show should be in place well before the event is due to take place. This gives you the maximum amount of time to spread awareness to potential attendees and allow people to sign up/ buy tickets.

Make sure you consider your audience when dividing up your marketing budget and priorities. For example, trade shows with younger audiences will benefit more from targeted online advertising via social media than older demographics. Alternatively, if you’re aiming to attract professionals or businesses, you might want to consider direct outreach and email invitations.

Top tip: your venue may be able to help you with marketing. Our in-house consumer Marketing Services team are experienced in promoting events, and can help you with customer reach, regional and local contacts, and more to boost awareness of your exhibition.

Decide on vendors

Vendors are at the heart of your trade show, so you should try to decide on who you would like to present at your exhibition early. This allows you to create and send out vendor information packs early, and confirm attendance well in advance of the day.

You also need to make sure the vendors you choose match with the type of trade show you’re hosting. For example, wedding trade fairs are open to a broad range of businesses in the industry, including photographers, dressmakers and retailers, bakers, and much more. However, a cleaning service would likely be out of place at this kind of trade show.

Top tip: trade show themes don’t have to be limited by a shared industry – there’s been a rise in Black-owned business expos, small business shows, and entrepreneurial exhibitions.

Find sponsors

Finding sponsors is a key part of organising a trade show – especially if you’re a newer or smaller business, or part of a less well-known industry.

From a financial perspective, sponsors help to pad out your budget, and offer you opportunities to grow and develop with their support. With the aid of sponsorships, you may even have access to different technology or resources to help improve your overall trade show experience.

Other benefits of working with sponsors include:

Providing authority to your brand: for newer or smaller businesses, having a well-known and established business as a sponsor can improve your reputation within the industry.
Offering planning assistance: the right sponsors may be able to offer you planning advice and help with your trade show. Or, you may get more logistical support, like transporting goods and working on a larger scale.
Widen your prospective customer base: influencers or larger sponsors already have a loyal customer base, part of which could be transferred to you during the trade show.

Top tip: offer sponsors a free booth as part of your arrangement. This gives them an official platform on the day to reach out to your visitors.

When you’re choosing a sponsor, you should consider the following:

Shortlist candidates who align with your brand: make sure that you choose a sponsor that matches your brand values and image. A disconnect between sponsor and vendor may impact how people see your trade show, or affect visitor numbers.
Reach out to existing sponsors in the industry: businesses who already work as sponsors may be more likely to work with your trade show. Their experience may also come in handy when it comes to organising your event.
Be specific with your needs: are you looking for a sponsor to help you financially, or one who can assist with promoting your trade show? Be specific with what you want/need a sponsor to achieve on your behalf, as this will make any communication much clearer.

Finalise trade show design

Once you’ve secured the funding, the location, and the logistical matters that will make your trade show happen, it’s time to get creative. Trade show design is what will really make your exhibition stand out, so you should take plenty of time to make sure each element is projecting the image (and experience) that you want visitors to have.

One of the first steps to confirm is your floor plan. At the most basic level, your layout should be fairly intuitive, as this allows visitors to easily navigate the area and find the trade show booths that interest them.

You may also want to consider using zoning to make your trade show more navigable. For example, using our wedding trade show idea from above, dress retailers would sit in one area, whilst catering would be in another. Or, you could zone by season, style of wedding etc to help visitors orient themselves within the floor plan and find the right businesses for their needs.

Top tip: make sure you consider accessibility when designing a trade show layout. Learn more about organising Accessible Entertainment with Exhibition Centre Liverpool.

Trade show booths

Trade shows are all about the booth. This is where vendors can get creative, showcase their brand, and attract potential customers. As a trade show organiser, you need to make sure there is plenty of space per booth for businesses to put up displays, bring in products, or use the area in a way that reflects their brand interests.

Modular trade show booths allow you to adapt and change your floor plan to meet the needs of any exhibition you’re planning to organise – allowing you to create separate spaces per vendor.

Top tip: trade show booth construction can be an existing service at your venue. This will cut down on the logistical demand of your trade show, so make sure you discuss the option with your chosen venue to see how they can help you.

Trade show displays

Vendors may want to use a range of traditional print and new digital media in their trade show displays, so you should always make sure you have the necessary equipment for them to use. Whether they’re using the latest AR technology to showcase their products in an innovative and exciting way, or need screens for interactive games and shows, make sure you can offer vendors the technology they need for their trade show display.

Top tip: your choice of venue will be integral to ensuring you have the right technology for your trade show vendors. At Exhibition Centre Liverpool, we have a wide range of Production Services including video production and AV equipment for hire that you can use to make any trade show displays stand out.

After the trade show

Trade show management and organisation doesn’t end once everything has been packed up and put away. There are still some tasks you’ll need to complete to make sure you’ve made the most of the opportunity.

Follow up with vendors

Firstly, you should always contact any vendors shortly after the end of your trade show. Not only is this polite and professional, but it can give you an insight into how your trade show was received – and any areas that need improvement for your next exhibition.

Asking for feedback is a proactive way to generate relationships with vendors, discover the positives and negatives of your event, and collate usable data for the future.

Top tip: allow approximately a week or so to allow vendors to decompress and analyse the experience from their perspective before contacting for information and feedback. However, a note of appreciation can be sent much closer to the end of the event.

Analyse the data

Alongside potential financial prospects, trade shows are a great way to collect data about different markets and how visitors approach an industry.

Once your event has finished, you should always take time to analyse the data you’ve collected and see how this may influence any trade shows you wish to hold in the future. Feedback forms help you understand which elements of your trade show worked well (or not so well), whilst first-party data from visitors helps develop your understanding of potential target audiences and how they engage with events like yours.

Choose Exhibition Centre Liverpool for your next trade show

Trade shows can be hugely rewarding, both financially and as the culmination of months of careful planning. Make sure you get the support you need throughout this process when you choose Exhibition Centre Liverpool as your trade show venue. Get help from our fantastic Event Management team today and get the most out of their experience with our venue, planning events, and more.

Don’t forget to explore the Exhibition Centre Liverpool Resource hub either, with plenty of advice and knowledge for you to draw upon.

A Guide to Putting on Accessible Exhibitions | Creative Exhibitions: Exploring Innovative Uses of Exhibition Spaces | Exhibition Planning: The Ultimate How-To Guide

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