PDX Conventions: Making Sure Your Printed Materials Are Ready
When you’ve got a trade show or convention coming up in Portland, you want to be fully prepared. PDX may be your only chance to showcase your company’s vision to a wide variety of potential vendors, partners, or customers, and you want to take full advantage of it.
If you’re not preparing for your next Portland-based convention, you can be sure that your competitors are, and if everyone else seems to be getting all the attention at a trade show, there’s a better than even chance that lack of preparation is the culprit. Here are a few ways to make sure you’re prepared for your next PDX convention, from East Side Printing Company.
Know Your Audience When Preparing and Setting Up Your Portland Exhibit
Before printing the materials that you are going to use to decorate your exhibit, know your audience. Start by figuring out exactly whom you will be advertising to during this show and what will speak to them.
You’ll want some graphics that appeal to a broad audience, of course, just to catch anyone possible, but knowing some specific goals and making a plan with your exhibit setup for meeting those goals can make a big difference, whether you’re in Portland or any other city, for that matter.
Advertise Your Presence Around Portland Before the Trade Show
A lot of people may know about the upcoming Portland convention, but many of your potential partners and customers may not, or may not know you are going to be there. Start your trade show early by printing up some attractive flyers and distributing them a week or two before the event begins.
Get Necessary Permissions
You’ve paid for a certain amount of space in your trade show, but if you’ve got some wide format printed items, they may be a little too wide or too tall for the space you’ve been given. If you’ve got oversized items that might be taller than expected or spill out of your space, make sure the organizers know about it so that you don’t run into problems later.
Take Advantage of Social Media Before the Convention
Use sites like Facebook and Twitter beforehand to let people know about what’s coming up, and then set up some hashtags to alert people as to any promotions, contests or giveaways you’ll be featuring during the day. Geo-target your posts to the Portland metro area, especially if you pay for boosting the posts on social media.
Don’t forget to display your Twitter handle or other social media page information prominently on any printed material and in all of your exhibit graphics.
Create Some Enticing Giveaways
These can be anything from pre-printed T-shirts, to little toys with your company’s brand printed on them, to fun keychains. People love free stuff, and having a bag full of fun little giveaways with your company’s branding on them is a great way to keep people engaged with your brand long after they pass by your booth at the Portland convention.
Have a Strategic Plan for Your Team
Many people go to trade shows by sending their whole team or just a handful of people who are available to go, and then letting the chips fall where they may. You’ll be much more effective if you have a strategy.
Choose one person to supervise booth set up and breakdown, another to be in charge of brushing people towards your booth, and a third to be in charge of any demonstrations you’ll be doing. Match tasks to the strengths of your team members and have a plan in place beforehand for how they are going to execute those tasks to get the maximum effect out of your PDX experience.
A Great Trade Show Starts With Preparation
If you’re going to Portland anytime soon, you can’t expect to just show up and get everything you want out of your next trade show event. You need to go in with clear goals, a clear plan for executing those goals, and the right staff, graphics, printed material and supplemental materials to make it happen.
Trade show experiences are almost always fun, but for a truly rewarding experience that can really boost your business, preparation is key. So when you’re ready to get in touch with a local printer for high quality trade show materials – from signage, to tri-fold brochures, to business cards and more – get in touch with East Side Printing. We’ll even deliver your printed goods to the floor of the trade show!