Trade Show Preparation Checklist – 1 week

This series of articles is called “Trade Show Preparation Checklist” and helps you, week after week, to prepare the most important aspects of your booth setup and event organization. We will review everything from booth decoration, promotion, samples, logistics, travel, staff training to leads management. Access your checklist week by week here.

What should I prepare 1 week before my event?

There is only one week left before your trade show and only one thing you should focus on:

Reviewing all details

One week before the exhibition’s kick-off day is no time to organize anything. Everything should have been prepared and arranged already.

It is however the perfect time to review everything and make sure all is ready!

• Floorplan – is everything set for your booth? Carpet, electricity, furniture, decoration, samples placement, lighting, etc? Review your floorplan one last time and make sure nothing’s missing.
• Travel documents – print or send to your phone all your travel documents: plane tickets, hotel vouchers, etc.  Have a map of the way from your hotel to the venue, a transportation plan and a clear idea time table.
• Wifi connection – one more time, verify with the venue that they will provide you with quality WiFi. Avoid any possible bad surprise. Find out more about WiFi at trade shows.
• Marketing collateral – are all your marketing material (flyers, brochures, catalogs, etc.) uploaded or printed and ready to distribute? You don’t want to deal with missing documents at the show, have them ready now!
• Shipment trackers – have your cartons arrived yet? Do you have tracking numbers and emergency phone numbers to get precise information? You don’t want to start a show without products because they got lost or blocked at customs!
• Manpower contact – you have hired an electrician, a booth constructor, maybe some hostesses or promoters. Have a contact list ready with all these people to easily reach out if something goes wrong!
• Meeting calendar – all your meetings should be clearly set and confirmed. It doesn’t cost much however to send a quick reminder to your visitors.
• Budget – your expenses should have all been accounted for by now. Nonetheless, keep your budget sheet available throughout the show as you will have additional expenses to record!
• Follow-up plan – all your email templates should be set and ready to be sent. Review them one last time, make sure it covers all the profiles of people you expect to meet at trade shows.
• Targets – review your targets one last time and make sure all your team members have a clear understanding of what is expected from them.
• Pep talk – only a few days before the start, it is time for you to sit with your team, remind them of their objectives, show them the booth design, schedule and plans. Get them involved and excited, you can’t win without them!

Now connect to your myfairtool account, make sure everything is set as it should be and we wish you the best for your exhibition!

The Exhibitor.