Why Exhibit – a checklist
Marie 
May 4th, 2017
Prior to deciding which event to attend, you should try to be clear on why you’re attending, what you hope to gain and how you will know if you have succeeded
Many people attend exhibitions with good intentions, aiming to meet people, do business and generate sales. But often their objectives are too vague and either non-measurable or unrealistic.
Broadly, objectives can include:
Sales generation
- Direct sales
- leads
- database building
- registering interest
- current and new relationships
Sales Generation
- confirmations
- incremental or additional business
- referees
- re-vitalise lapsed
Brand building
- Awareness
- positioning
- education
- demonstration
- expansion to new markets
- investors/city
Product launches
- Interest
- prototypes
- design studies
- feedback
- data acquisition
- timing and sales
Market research
- Awareness
- perceptions
- surveys and opinion data
- targets
- budgets and campaign testing
Channel building/support
- Partners
- dealers
- distributors
- agents
- support for current agreements/channels
Media relations
- Press coverage
- editorial and journalist relations
- investors/city
PR
- Audience
- coverage
- profile
- methodology
- VIP profiling
It is important to be specific with your own objectives. For example if your aim is to generate sales, then you can ask questions like:
- Are we targeting new or existing accounts?
- How many sales do we want to make?
- How does the event audience match our target market?
- Are we looking for sales conversions or enquiries at the event?
- What are our timescales?
Setting SMART objectives – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely – will help you identify which events are most likely to help you achieve your aims.
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