5 rules for food planning at exhibitions

Exhibitions are expensive, that’s a fact. Yet, have you planned and budgeted ALL details? And by all I mean even the food you will need during the event.

Let’s review the basics and make sure you’re all set for your next event!

Breakfast

Companies need to save money – so do you. Yet, breakfasts isn’t an item you should save money on. Your team and yourself will spend 3 to 5 days standing, chatting, making demos and negotiating. There is no way you could achieve that without a proper breakfast.

Check early on if your hotel provides a breakfast. If it does, is it going to be enough to start your day?

Pick the right breakfast for the right price – !

Lunch

If you have ever attended a fair before, you certainly know that: food in (most) exhibitions is unhealthy and expensive.

You will be eating hot dogs and burgers for twice the market price.

Try and plan ahead a little – locate a few nice places nearby the convention center that could deliver or offer easy pick-up. That might take 5 minutes more to get but you will save a few dollars and allow yourself a nice healthy break – totally worth the effort!

Candies & chocolates

You want to have loads of snacks, chocolates, cookies or candies in your booth.

Prepare a nice bowl and fill it with treats for your visitors – it is always a great way to keep them in your booth a while longer. Try not to use up all your resources too quick and spread the refills across the day.

Oh, by the way: this isn’t for you! That is for visitors only! Not to worry, we have a plan for you as well!

Healthy snacks & water

It might sound a little less exciting than candies & chocolate but that will be a much better deal to keep your energy level up throughout the day!

. Some exhibitions are boiling hot, others are freezing – both ways, you will want to have snacks & water to give you some energy. Since you do not want to waste your time searching for fruits around the convention center during the trade show, plan in advance and arrange budget & details.

Dinners

You eat every night, right? So what’s the big deal?

At trade shows it isn’t uncommon to organize dinners with existing or potential customers to have casual business chats, talk about new collections or discuss future business. Typically, such dinners are quite expensive but worth the price if you can extract some extra business of it.

 

Food is an important part of trade show planning – make it part of your budget to avoid bad surprises!

 

The Exhibitor.