Welcome to the trade show booth survival guide
Hello!
My name is Matias Valenzuela and I have created this completely free guide guide to lend a hand to anyone who faces the challenge of exhibiting at a fair. Throughout a large number of juicy articles I try to unravel the process of both hiring a stand and controlling its production. Although it is not a course, I believe that it contains a fundamental part of the know-how that I have accumulated during more than 25 years as a designer and builder of stands. I hope this guide helps you avoid mistakes and you can face the assembly of your stand with greater confidence and relaxation. .
You can go through the guide from beginning to end or go to each specific chapter. I'm sure you'll find something to help you.
Before you begin: Would you like to listen to the summary of this article in podcast format?
Here is a link that will be very useful for you to learn the key aspects of what you will see in this post. Be sure to read the post as the information is expanded with photos and diagrams.
Check out why this guide will help you improve your stands, save money and avoid problems:
Chapter 1:
Booth Survival Guide: Become the King of the Trade Show Booth Jungle
Do not waste time, if you already have many fairs behind you, this guide may not be for you. Anyway... I'm sure you'll learn something new by reading these posts. What you can do in any case is share it with your colleagues, surely someone can take advantage of all this know-how and avoid falling into the most common mistakes 🙂
Episode 2:
Turnkey vs. separate contracting
Is it worth hiring the services on your own, or is it always better to hire a turnkey stand and forget about paperwork and problems? in this post I will tell you how many $ you can save, if it is really justified, and what problems can be caused by "not worrying" about the stand until you get to the fair.
Chapter 3:
How to survive the booth builders
You have chosen a supplier because their stands are very beautiful and you have done a project for them at a very good price. What can go wrong? Many things: We help you evaluate suppliers no longer fall into the mirage of photos and renders.
There are many aspects to take into account when deciding on a stand builder for your company. Trust me, I'm a stand builder and I know what I'm talking about 🙂
Chapter 4:
How to survive international fairs
There is a different way of approaching each type of fair in which your company participates. International fairs, with their suppliers and their problems, require special care when hiring. We help you clarify this issue
Chapter 5:
How to choose the space for your stand
You have participated in a fair and a lot of money has been spent, but you have not obtained the potential clients or the results that you expected. Your booth location may be responsible. We explain how to choose it.
Chapter 6:
Modular stands: the new era of modular sustainability
You have participated in a fair with few days of assembly and the result has been disastrous... maybe you should start thinking about modular systems. We explain all the types, their pros and cons.
Chapter 7:
A pocket bible in the finishing stands
The custom-made stand looks very nice from a distance, but from the outside it's better not to look at it. How to get the finishes to be as good as the design you have approved? We explain everything you need to know to understand what finishes you will finally have when the stand is delivered to you.
Chapter 8:
How much does an exhibition stand cost?
This is the million dollar question, especially in these turbulent times of raw material cost overruns. Have you paid too much for your stand? Have you been made a reckless offer? We give you an overview of the prices (yes, real budgets) so that I can better guide you when accepting a quote.
Chapter 9:
Control the stand assembly process and its times
Have you ever participated in a fair and felt that your stand was not moving for a few days? Or maybe the opposite... did they do it too fast and now there's no one to finish it? Both cases may represent that your suppliers are working in other stands that are not yours. We teach you to manage the times of a typical stand, so you know if they are doing things right.
Chapter 10:
Stand lighting: Shine at the fair!
You look at the renders of the project that you have been sold... and it doesn't look much like the booth you just received, what happened? It is quite possible that lighting is responsible for this mismatch. Read this post to learn how to make your stand shine the same in the exhibition as in the renders.
Chapter 11:
All about signage of stands
Why do your booth graphics look so bad? If you have contracted a turnkey stand, there is a first person responsible: the builder. Could you have intervened in the process to prevent this from happening? It is very possible... but for this you need to know what to do and what to demand. I teach you everything you need to know about the graphics of stands for fairs
Chapter 12:
Furniture for fair stands
You have accepted the furniture offered by your turnkey supplier and after 4 days of the fair... your body asks you to do something for the next one. In this post we talk about the best furniture models for your stand and how to ensure that both the image of your stand and your stand benefit from the choice.
Chapter 13:
Master the contracting of services
Have you forgotten to hire a service? Did you miss the deadline and have you paid a surcharge? Your supplier does not help you with the contracting and you are lost? Here we unravel the maze of services, a very useful read before facing this tedious task.
Chapter 14:
How to avoid the worst scenario in a montage
In the worst case: A foreign company has finished badly your stand and you want to claim... is it worth it? An assembler has had an accident at his stand... and the accident involves you or your company. Many things can go wrong if you are not covered. in this post we take a look at what you can do to protect yourself.
Chapter 15:
All about the cost of a trade show
Are you going to participate in a fair and want to know how much it will cost your company? There are many variables to take into account when calculating the cost of a fair. in this post I'll tell you everything you need to know so you don't get scared when the time comes to do the math.
Chapter 16:
How to design a creative stand?
Do you need to design a stand? You have found the correct post. Here we are going to review all the steps that lead you to achieve a stand design, if it is not "groundbreaking" at least "decent" which is saying a lot...if you don't know anything about the subject yet 🙂
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