There’s no denying the value of trade shows. According to current event trends, trade shows are the second most effective marketing tactic for generating leads, which makes sense when you consider that 81% of trade show attendees have buying authority.
Organizations are all in on the power of trade shows, as demonstrated by the consistent growth in the global exhibition market, which is set to increase from $65.2 billion to $88.6 billion between 2020-2026—a CAGR of 5.3%.
Of course, trade show planning requires meticulous attention to detail and strategic execution. There are many moving parts to coordinate, but with the right approach and the support of quality trade show solutions, you can streamline the planning process and ensure you’re meeting your trade show ROI goals.
How to plan a trade show: 15 steps
Ready to start building your trade show strategy? Follow these steps to organize a trade show that meets and exceeds the expectations of your organization, exhibitors, and attendees.
Step 1: Define your event objectives
Discuss what you aim to achieve at the trade show. Are you aiming to generate leads and drive sales, increase brand awareness, broaden your professional network, or promote a new product? Establishing your list of goals will help you set key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you make informed decisions throughout the planning process and track your progress toward meeting your goals.
As you get clear on your own event goals, you’ll also need to consider the goals of your exhibitors, sponsors, and attendees. Each group and individual will have their own reasons for attending your trade show, and you need to make sure they gain as much as possible from participating.
Step 2: Establish your trade show budget
Your trade show budget is a critical piece of the planning puzzle. You’ll need to consider many elements in your budget, from the venue and catering to your own booth setup and staffing.
Step 3: Research current industry trends
Conduct a thorough analysis of the industry, your target audience, and your competitors. Understand the latest event trends, pain points, and needs of your attendees and exhibitors. This information will inform your event strategy and help you differentiate your trade show from the competition.
This means considering different conference themes, taking the pulse of the industry to understand what’s important to your attendees, and perhaps evaluating event feedback from prior events to gain insight into what types of content, topics, or exhibitors might be best suited to your trade show.
Step 4: Select your venue and event date(s)
Choosing a suitable venue is always a challenge—and an expensive one to get wrong. Given everything you must consider, including your event's size and target audience, desired location, accessibility needs, available amenities, and budget constraints, it’s worth using venue sourcing tools to streamline the venue selection and contract negotiation processes.
If possible, keep your event dates flexible as you source venues—this can help you save money, negotiate better rates, and open up venue options that might not be available on specific dates.
Step 5: Book your vendors
Once you’ve solidified your venue, you can begin searching for any additional event vendors you might need. It’s important to consider which amenities and services are included in your venue contract already, those that are non-negotiable, and those that you’ll need to source yourself.
Step 6: Develop a marketing strategy
Trade shows are really all about marketing. The whole point of the event is to market your own brand, as well as those of your sponsors and exhibitors, and create networking opportunities that lead to valuable professional relationships.
So, you’ll not only need to craft an event marketing strategy to promote your trade show and attract attendees, you’ll also need to consider your lead generation and follow up marketing strategies. In addition to leveraging email campaigns, social media, targeted advertising, and other marketing channels, consider your event marketing software as part of your broader event tech.
By working within a platform that allows you to combine your event marketing and planning efforts, you’ll be able to seamlessly capture and nurture leads, follow up with attendees using personalized email campaigns, adapt your marketing efforts based on attendee feedback, and more.
Step 7: Craft a compelling content plan
“Content is king” isn’t just a fun expression people throw around—it’s a mantra that holds true for every event. Content is what attracts your attendees and keeps them engaged, proves the value of attending your event, demonstrates your organization’s priorities, generates productive conversations, and leads to innovation.
As you lay out your event content plan, consider every aspect of your event that we’ve covered already, including industry trends, social sentiment and how your content will impact your attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors.
When it’s time to really start selecting and working with your speakers, managing abstracts, and providing feedback on content submissions, consider using speaker management software to help streamline the process.
Step 8: Invite sponsors and exhibitors
Exhibitors and sponsors are the lifeblood of any trade show. Next to your content and speakers, attendees will be most interested in attending your event based on the exhibitors and sponsors you’re able to attract.
Once you’ve secured sponsorships and attracted exhibitors, you’ll need to manage those partnerships and maintain communication throughout the planning process. Here again, tech can help. With exhibitor management software, you can easily share necessary event details, exhibitor guidelines, information about sponsorship packages, and more.
Step 9: Create an exhibitor floor layout
Now that you’ve begun working with sponsors and exhibitors, you’ll need to focus on developing an efficient and visually appealing exhibit floor layout, complete with areas for sponsor branding and displays. Consider factors such as foot traffic, booth sizes, and exhibitor preferences to maximize the use of available space, and use a trade show booth management tool to help.
Step 10: Design your trade show booth
As you plan your trade show, you can’t overlook your own booth. Think about how to set up a booth at a trade show so that the attendees you want to attract to your booth are likely to stop by. As the trade show organizer, you have an opportunity to really let your brand shine through your booth, and you should take full advantage.
After all, you’ll likely be spending a lot on your event, and you’ll need to prove it was worth it. A large part of your success will depend on how many leads you’re able to generate through conversations at your booth, which means you’ll want a constant stream of interested visitors.
Think of your booth as an opportunity to display the best you have to offer, from product demos, presentations, and quality informational materials to one-on-one conversations with booth staff. Train your booth staff on key talking points, and ensure they’re able to answer any questions that arise. It also doesn’t hurt to have some great swag available to give to booth visitors!
Step 11: Formalize your event safety plan
Event safety is a critical component for any event, from planning for medical emergencies and weather incidents to limiting venue access and keeping all attendees safe as they move through you’re your event.
Use this guide to create a comprehensive event safety plan!
Step 12: Coordinate logistics
Trade show event logistics are complicated. Leverage software to take the stress out of keeping track of:
- Onsite operations and coordination
- Task management
- Scheduling and timelines
- Service orders and contracts
- Vendor, supplier, and staff coordination
- Travel and accommodations
- Onsite registration, check-in, and badging
- Attendee management
- Event safety and security protocols
- Communication with attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, staff, etc.
Step 13: Execute attendee engagement and lead generation strategies
Once the event begins, your marketing and engagement strategies will be instrumental in keeping attendees engaged and optimizing your trade show lead generation. It’s important to balance education and learning opportunities with more entertaining activities, networking opportunities, sales-driven conversations, and moments to relax.
To help your attendees engage with and navigate your event, build a mobile event app with features such as personalized agendas, appointments scheduling, unique profiles that help attendees connect with their peers, push notifications for live updates and reminders, and more.
Step 14: Gather feedback and follow up
As your event is progressing, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to gather real-time attendee feedback using in-session surveys and live polling. Once your event has wrapped, you’ll also want to send out post-event surveys to collect as much feedback as possible from attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors to help you assess the success of your trade show.
Step 15: Analyze ROI and optimize future events
As you follow up with leads and thank your stakeholders and attendees, think about how you can use their feedback and attendee insights to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions about your ongoing marketing efforts and future event planning.
This is your opportunity to conduct an event debrief, outlining everything that went well and anything you could improve upon in future. You can use your event software to supply actionable insights related to your KPIs and prove your event ROI.
How trade show software can help
There are many ways trade show management software can benefit planners and marketers and help them achieve all the necessary steps outlined above.
Trade show software provides comprehensive event management tools to help organizers streamline the entire process. This includes features for:
- Interactive floor maps: Provides the ability to plan ahead. Allows for careful consideration of event layout and design.
- Booth assignments: Automated layout design. Customization based on booth size for optimal presentation.
- Exhibitor management: Useful for registration, onboarding, centralized communication, resource allocation, and lead tracking.
- Content management: Speaker management, content creation, content management and timelines, and coordination for speaker travel and accommodations.
- Scheduling: Simplify session planning, appointment setting, and calendar syncing, and make use of automated reminders.
- Marketing and promotion: Take control of email campaigns, social media integration, personalized nurture campaigns, and custom branding.
- Logistics: Powerful operations management tools, venue resources, travel and accommodations tracking, onsite event management tools, and access to real-time updates.
- Communication: Mobile apps for attendee engagement; direct communication with attendees, exhibitors, speakers, and sponsors; and safety updates during security incidents.
- Analytics and reporting tools: Insights into attendee behaviors, exhibitor performance, marketing engagement metrics, and overall event success.
Remember, trade show success requires innovation and the ability to adapt. Making use of the best available tools allows you to position your brand as an industry leader.
Trade show planning timeline
Planning a successful trade show requires a well-structured timeline. While every trade show is unique, you might follow a timeline similar to the below:
9-12 months out
- Define event objectives
- Determine target audience
- Research current industry trends
- Consider your competition
- Select the venue
- Negotiate contracts
- Develop your marketing strategy
6-9 months out
- Design the floor plan and conceptual booth layouts
- Launch exhibitor registration process
- Begin securing sponsorships
- Secure vendor partners and coordinate logistics
3-6 months out
- Finalize event schedule and programming
- Promote the event and begin driving registration
- Keep exhibitors in the loop
- Develop attendee engagement strategies
0-3 months out
- Finalize operations
- Confirm staffing
- Troubleshoot any foreseeable issues
- Send attendees and exhibitors reminders
- Launch final promotions
- Finalize event security plans
- Fine-tune final preparations
Trade show planning checklist
Who doesn’t love a useful checklist? As you make your way through the trade show planning steps, make sure you’ve covered your bases by referring to this trade show planning checklist.
Pre-event
- Define clear event objectives and KPIs
- Research industry trends and target audience
- Select the venue and negotiate contracts
- Develop a comprehensive marketing strategy
- Launch exhibitor registration and management
- Design the floor plan and booth layouts
- Coordinate logistics
- Secure vendor partners and event staffing
- Promote the event through multiple channels
- Begin to engage attendees and exhibitors
During the event
- Ensure onsite operations run smoothly
- Provide above and beyond attendee and exhibitor support
- Facilitate networking and engagement opportunities
- Gather data and feedback for post-event analysis
Post-event
- Analyze event performance and identify areas for improvement
- Review attendee and exhibitor feedback
- Celebrate successes
- Start planning for the next event
Strategies for successful virtual trade show planning
As event trends continue to evolve, we can’t overlook the role and power of virtual events, including virtual trade shows. While in-person trade shows are the more popular choice in many instances, virtual expos can have a role in your broader event program, offering unique opportunities for planners, exhibitors, and attendees.
One of the most significant challenges of virtual trade shows is keeping attendees engaged in a digital environment. Successful techniques incorporate interactive and gamified elements to enhance attendee experience and keep them actively engaged. A virtual trade show platform can help you achieve a more engaging, entertaining, and fruitful experience for attendees and exhibitors alike.
Your virtual tradeshow should include features such as:
- On-demand content, including recorded sessions and downloadable resources
- Virtual exhibit booths
- Seamless lead capture
- Appointments scheduling
- Networking opportunities and small group breakout sessions
- Live chats, polling, Q&A tools, and surveys
- Data and analytics to help you track the success of your event
Trade show FAQs
How do you prep for a trade show event?
As you prepare for a trade show, make sure you’ve checked every box on your planning to-do list, and ready yourself for all the effort needed to coordinate onsite logistics, communication, relationship building, and other event execution elements.
How long does it take to plan a trade show?
Planning a trade show typically takes between 6 to 12 months depending on the size and scope of the event. Make sure you have plenty of time to develop and execute strategies that will yield the best ROI.
Check out our recommended trade show planning timeline for a breakdown of how long you might need to plan each element of your trade show. By giving yourself a healthy head start, you ensure enough time to check all the necessary boxes and avoid last-minute headaches due to oversights.
How are trade shows organized?
It’s a slow and steady step-by-step process to organize a trade show. The process includes establishing your event goals and budget; researching current trends to determine relevant content; choosing your event dates, venue, and vendors; coordinating sponsors, exhibitors, and booth spaces; marketing and promotion; event logistics; and event analysis.
