Networking no-nos

Large-scale networking events can help you bolster your Rolodex and make connections that can land you a wealth of new contacts, connections and clients.

Coming across as both professional and engaging to those new contacts, however, isn't as simple as it may seem.

It might seem like a lot of pressure, but remembering the things you shouldn't do may help make networking a bit easier. Here are seven of networking's biggest no-no's:

1. Don't arrive late. To make things easier on yourself, time your arrival so you can maximize the interactions you're most interested in having.

"Especially for people who typically shy away from networking, the inclination is to arrive on the later side," Zack said. "The opposite is a much better strategy. Being the first person there, it's calmer, laid back, and people haven't yet settled into groups. You won't feel like there's no one to talk to. More

New Gen B2B Marketing – What a business needs to know to market today. 4 Ways to Use Traditional Marketing Techniques in the Digital World. Read mor

Traditional marketing techniques involving tradeshows, events, direct mail etc. are still very prevalent, and they are heavily used by many companies to market their product and service offerings. While online marketing is gaining a much larger share of the marketers’ budget – it wouldn’t be wise to ignore the traditional marketing techniques that are still very powerful means of getting marketing messages across to targeted decision makers.

Read more:

Create Exhibits with Curb Appeal

Trade shows are by nature quite chaotic. Attendees bustling from booth to booth while exhibitors fight to garner their attention and interest in their companies’ products or services. Studies have shown that a tradeshow display typically has about three seconds to catch the attention and communicate to a potential customer passing by a booth. To makes things even harder, your booth is competing with possibly hundreds of other displays for attendees’ attention. More from Tradeshow Insider's Blog.

Make the Most of Trade Shows

Marketing your business at trade shows can seem like an expensive investment, especially if you look at the costs involved in doing it effectively. However, with some preparation and tips from the experts, you can get a terrific ROI from exhibiting at trade shows and other professional conferences. Full article from Center for Sales Excellence

"Booth babes" fading from tradeshow floors

As more women move into product sales, marketing and executive positions within the construction industry, less women are manning booths at construction trade shows simply based on looks. Full article

Meetings Mean Business

The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy study reveals that the U.S. meetings industry directly supports 1.7 million jobs, $263 billion in spending, a $106 billion contribution to GDP, $60 billion in labor revenue, $14.3 billion in federal tax revenue and $11.3 billion in state and local tax revenue. More on the study conducted by the Convention Industry Council.

5 Ways Zipcast Will Turbo-Charge Your Career

SlideShare is dropping a nifty little creation into the world of webconferencing software today. The company's new product, Zipcast, is a new tool for holding online meetings, and its ease of use and price (free, for many uses) may soon steal users from GoToMeeting and WebEx, the reigning kings of the space.

But that’s not all. Zipcast was born organically into the social online world in which we all live now. Which means it will likely have as profound an effect on how, why, and with whom we communicate as Twitter has.

Zipcast works like your basic webconferencing tool, with one major difference: It’s browser-based. That means no more tricky client software to install. You just create a meeting space online, send out the link, and, presumably, you’re ready to go. More from Fast Company

CEIR Says Exhibitions Show Positive Growth

Signs of economic improvement in the meetings and conventions industry continue to emerge, with the latest being year-end data on the health of the exhibitions industry. The Center for Exhibition Industry Research, which measures year-over-year changes in four key exhibition industry metrics—net square feet, revenue, professional attendance, and number of exhibiting companies—has found an overall increase of 4.1 percent in 2010’s numbers over 2009. Preliminary data for the 2011 CEIR Index report, which will be available in full in April, shows fourth quarter 2010 increases in all metrics over 2009, with the size of the show floor showing the most significant growth:

• Net square feet: up 5.6 percent,
• Professional attendance: up 5.4 percent
• Projected revenue: up 4.2 percent
• Exhibitors: up 2.1 percent
• More from Association Meetings
  

Invitations, E-Cards and Announcements

The Pingg gallery offers the opportunity to create customized invitations, e-cards and announcements for free. Upgrade options cost money, but many are free. Send clients Thank You e-cards for stopping by your booth. Pingg

Make Your Trade Show Booth More Memorable With Great Demos

Product demos are the most important element you can control in your exhibit to create more memorable exhibits.

Here’s why. The top two reasons for remembering exhibits, “Product Interest” and “Well-Known Company” are factors mostly dependent on what your company has done before the show and outside the exhibit hall. So, as the exhibit manager you can have less immediate effect on these two (although you can affect it long-term).

Continue reading, from Let's Talk Trade Shows

How To Shoot A Video For An Exhibition Or Event

If you find a promotional video on an exhibition organiser’s website, what would you like it to say? This is what you need to think about and try to visualize when you are planning and shooting a video for an event or exhibition.

This type of video has to grab potential visitors, conferees and exhibitors and is a vital promotional tool. With the various multimedia and video sites out there, you’d be crazy to pass up this opportunity to shout about your event. However, don’t go into this activity lightly.

The first thing to remember is that people generally switch off to video very quickly – especially when they are viewing it in a business to business environment. If we are viewing footage about an acrobatic greyhound or something that can enhance our own appearance or well being, then we seem to have time for that. Ask us to view something about a conference or exhibition and this is usually a very different story. More from Marketing Review

Eleven Meetings Technology Trends to Watch for 2011

The rate of technology change is increasing. Meetings and tradeshow technology continues to advance with technology products becoming better, cheaper and easier to use. Innovation is bubbling with new options. Here are some of the major meetings and tradeshow technology trends to watch for this coming year. Full Article.

TSEA ANNOUNCES SURVEY TO MEASURE AREAS OF CONCERN IN THE EXHIBIT INDUSTRY

Responses to Drive Topics for 2011 Red Diamond Congress

Chicago, IL – February 8, 2011 - The Trade Show Exhibitors Association (TSEA) announces the launch of a new survey to measure what areas concern its members and the exhibit industry at large. TSEA, comprised of the world’s leading exhibit and event marketers—and show producers, exhibit builders, agencies, and other suppliers that have long supported them—has been openly collaborating to benefit the exhibit ecosystem as a whole. Involvement by TSEA Members and all face-to-face marketing professionals, representing small, mid-size and large businesses, is critical to accurately gauge the current points of distress.

The TSEA’s motto is: You Talk. TSEA listens. Together We Act. Some of the topics covered in this survey include: material handling; booth relocation; cost transparency/consistency; deadline dates; exhibitor appointed contractors; security; registration; convention housing; exhibitor advisory committees; and dedicated show hours. TSEA needs all members of the exhibition industry to talk so together we can all act together.

The inaugural 2010 TSEA Red Diamond Congress in Orlando, Fl. brought together many leading exhibit and event marketers in the industry to directly address key issues that included Labor Practices; Convention Housing Practices; and Third-Party Audits of Trade Show Attendance. The result: consensus on the issues; potential solutions; and a roadmap forward. To view the summary of the Congress White Paper, please visit: www.tsea.org/tsea_rdc2010.

Mark your calendars now for the expanded 2011 Red Diamond Congress, July 31-August 4, 2011, at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando, FL. It will drive even more discussions that will lead to sustainable change as additional industry stakeholders, such as general contractors and show producers, are included in the discussions. The event’s goal is to have a clear call to action and real solutions on the challenges we all are facing. The results of this new study will drive those discussions.

The Trade Show Exhibitors Association (TSEA) has commissioned Exhibit Surveys, Inc., an independent market research and consulting firm in Red Bank, NJ to conduct a survey of its members. The TSEA invites all interested parties to participate in this survey, available at: http://survey.exhibitsurveys.net/default.aspx?uid=31433 so we can shape a mutually beneficial trade show model.

Are You Happy With the ROI From Your Trade Show Efforts?

There are many facets to success at a trade show: The elevator pitch, pre-show marketing, booth setup, etc. (If you don’t have a good elevator pitch, here is a blog that can help you develop yours. “Nailing the 30 Second Elevator Pitch”)

For the sake of this scenario, our fictional vendor is TabletCo. They sell the hottest new Android Tablet for the educational market.

A prospect, Harry, walks up to your TabletCo booth. He loves your product! Harry is excited about using the tablet at the school where he is a History teacher. The school district is large. It is a good opportunity. Some further questioning yields the fact the entire school district wants to have a tablet for each student. Being a conscientious sales rep, you get Harry’s card. You are all set for the follow up…or are you?

This is the disconnect point. Not just in sales at a trade show, but sales in general. Important questions: Full Article

How to Respond to Changing Attendee Priorities

Here’s how exhibitors and event producers have seen attendee behavior change:

• Smaller buying teams, but those that attend have more purchase authority.
• Registering closer to the event.
• Shorter event visits.
• Looking for more content and information.
• More cost conscious, looking for discounts and deals.

More from Expo

How You Can Maximize Your Graphics When Participating In A Trade Show

Graphics has the ability to communicate a lot in the shortest time possible. This is imperative since you have so many people visiting trade shows. People can just pass you by if your graphics do not create an impression, unless you’ve done pre-show promotion to invite them. Therefore, using your graphics to its maximum effectivity is advised so that your potential clients can notice your booth. This page is a good reference for learning how to maiximize your trade show graphics. More from My Traffic Magnet

Las Vegas Convention Center Designated World Trade Center Site

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), producers of the International CES, have signed an agreement that will designate the Las Vegas Convention Center as an official World Trade Center site.

"We are proud to partner with CEA to join the World Trade Center organization and enhance Las Vegas' reputation as the trade show capital of the world," said Rossi Ralenkotter, president/CEO of the LVCVA.

"This partnership will give Las Vegas the opportunity to further promote our brand to business travelers worldwide and reinforce that Las Vegas is a serious place to conduct business."

Through the agreement, CEA will become an official member of the World Trade Centers Association and the LVCVA will be the official representative of the trade center site. More from ConWorld.net

Early 2011 Trade Shows Filled with Increased Attendance, Optimism Says Tradeshow Insight

You can sense a buzz is in the air this year if you had the opportunity to walk a trade show floor these past few weeks. It’s almost electric! For me it started at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas where, according to Exhibit City News, preliminary numbers show more than a 10% increase in attendance and an 8% increase in exhibitors. More from BizBash via Tradeshow Insights.