Advent Blog

One of our most valu­able clients recently asked us to help set up a stun­ning 10×20 dis­play for a show in San Diego, and I was assigned to the task.  My mis­sion seemed sim­ple: “Go to San Diego and put up the booth.”  But dur­ing my pre-mission brief­ing, I found that “put up the booth” meant much more than just mak­ing sure the thing is stand­ing upright and dou­ble check­ing to see if lights are plugged in.  Our client had a sharp sense of the aes­thetic and a keen eye for detail.  We felt con­fi­dent we had pro­vided an engag­ing and visu­ally tan­ta­liz­ing booth that reflected her demand­ing tastes, but we still needed to meet her expec­ta­tions for the show. 

I hadn’t served this client before, but my esteemed pre­de­ces­sor cur­ried favor with her by swif­fer­ing the entire booth after setup.  He pol­ished the base plates, cleaned the inside of the poles, and shined every screw until they gleamed like the sur­face of a thou­sand suns. The client loved him for it.   

Exhibitors often get ner­vous before shows.  Your show ser­vice man­ager should break out a metaphor­i­cal swif­fer so that every­thing sur­round­ing set-up sparkles with pro­fes­sion­al­ism and atten­tive­ness. You are then free from this pres­sure and have the con­fi­dent assur­ance that your on the road to trade show suc­cess.  For a clean, smooth, and seam­less expe­ri­ence, look for a show ser­vice provider with this “swif­fer list”:

• Ownership – Your provider should take respon­si­bil­ity for any wrin­kles and delays, and you aren’t both­ered with rou­tine bumps in the road. They should be per­son­ally involved with your suc­cess and thus eager to help in any way possible.
• Demeanor – You need a team that is con­fi­dent, pro­fes­sional, and decisive.
• Knowledge – You need experts who know show times, dates, rules, and reg­u­la­tions as well as your booth.
• Supervision – Your provider should serve as a liai­son between you and the labor, so that you only have to work with one person.
• Organization – Your part­ners should have a plan for the setup and con­tact infor­ma­tion and/or spe­cial instruc­tions to help grease the experience.
• The Booth – An actual, non-metaphorical swif­fer is ok on this one.  Your team should pay atten­tion to all the details, includ­ing cleanliness.