How to Choose the Ideal Trade Show for Your Business

Trade shows are undoubtedly the perfect places for growing your business since they offer the opportunity to network with useful people and to get to know better the new products or services in your business sector. No matter you are a customer or an exhibitor, trade shows will deliver new beginnings and opportunities for your business. So I think there’s no need to discuss about the benefits of attending or exhibiting at a trade show. However, you may still have questions about how to choose the right trade show to attend because you probably wouldn’t want your time and your money to be wasted. If you are attending a trade show, it should worth it, shouldn’t it? So if you aim to pinpoint and pick the most ideal trade show for your business, you are in the right place. After reading this post, I believe you will be able to pick the best one for you among thousands of trade shows.

Identify Your Aims

The first step to take before deciding which trade show to attend is identifying your aim. However, when determining your aim, try not to be too be ambiguous or too general. Think deeply and be clearer. For example “to network with people” is way too general. Instead, you can think about learning more about the latest technologies in my sector”, as a more specific aim. After you write down your objectives, you can take the second step.

Identify Your Budget

Related to your sector, and your vision, you might need to compare your budget and the objectives that you have just stated. If your budget is limited, you can just discard the large-scale events since you can’t afford it. However, always bear in mind that even if you exceed your limit a bit, it can return you as increased sales in a near future. So determining your budget is a delicate issue that you need to pay more attention. Do your sums more carefully and try to stay in the frame your budget to avoid unpredictable loss.

B2B or Consumer Shows

Once you have identified your aims, you can discard more events according to your needs. If your aim is to make new customers, you need to prefer consumer shows but B2B shows would just be a waste of time. B2B shows are only good for making new business connections - if it is one of your objectives, of course.

Regional or International

This is another parting ways point and it is again related to our objectives. If it is one of your aims, and if you have enough budget to do it, you can go international. But if you don’t have appropriate resources and if you won’t be able to conduct your business from a distance, international trade fairs is not what you need. Then go for the local ones to expand your sales nationwide.

Contact the Relevant Trade Associations

For learning more about the events, or be informed about which events are being held related to your sector, you can just search on Eventegg among thousands of events or consult the relevant trade associations. Your local chamber of commerce can also help you to find the best event to attend for your business. 

Make a Thorough Research

Before you make a final decision on which event to attend, make sure you make a thorough research about the event. Find more about the history of it, how many people attended the last one, how many exhibitors were there or how the event contributed the attendees for expanding their business. Take a look at the fact & figures chart. Never attend an event by just reading their topic list.

Who will You Meet

The last but never the least step is learning more about the audience. No matter you are an exhibitor or a customer, the target audience of the event matters. Again, knowing about their profession is not enough. Their business activity or spending power in the sector for example is highly important and the organizer of the event can provide you with this kind of information. Before you make your final decision, ask the event organizer about this issue. And compare the profile to yourself or to your ideal customer profile and of course the key objectives that you identify at the first step.