Why Planning Your Trade Show Calendar is Important

Businesses find trade shows to be incredibly important to attend for many reasons. Trade shows are considered a place where companies take an early chance to impress investors, consumers, and members of the media, in order to promote new or upcoming products or services or to advertise a big event coming up.

Many companies only have just one trade show to look forward to, whether it’s for the whole year or just in the foreseeable future. Other companies, however, see the potential in advertising their brand at multiple trade shows throughout the year. Companies can even plan for several trade shows at a time so that they successfully deliver results at one show after another.

If you are a company that loves promoting at trade shows, a trade show calendar is a must-have. You simply get your upcoming shows on the schedule and that way you know how long you’ll need to plan for your company’s very important dates. Trade show calendars, however, have deeper meanings than just that. Keeping track of all your upcoming trade shows gives you plenty of opportunity to make everything go off without a hitch, from your first event until your last.

Here are four good reasons to set up your very own trade show calendar:

Help Prepare For Upcoming Dates

When you have a trade show you are booked for, you would like to be all set for it a month from now, rather than a week from now. Many businesses fail to do this, however, as they give themselves very little time to prepare or forget to prepare until a week before the event takes place. With a trade show calendar, however, you can be reminded of all the trade shows you are scheduled for and when they take place. When you are reminded of how long away these trade shows are, you can plan accordingly so that you have a budget, resources, and the right talent in place.

If you know there is a trade show happening in the near or distant future, it’s important to plan for it now, in order to make your exhibit exactly the way that you want it to. If you have multiple trade shows coming up, you should focus on the earliest one while also setting the plans for the other, so that you can continuously deliver on quality exhibits. Don’t start to think about the next trade show as soon as your first one is over.

Get An Idea Of How Much Promotion You Are Doing

Sometimes, companies are unsure how many trade shows to partake in throughout the year, even though they have products and services that may fit the bill for each trade show they consider. There are some trade shows that companies can’t wait to attend, along with others that might be in their wheelhouse in terms of themes and demographics.

It is possible that companies can either promote too much or not enough when it comes to trade shows. If there is a long gap between trade shows in the year, you may get the idea that you aren’t promoting your business enough to the right people. If there are too many trade shows, it might end up eating away at your budget. In either scenario, however, the best way to know about how often you are scheduling trade shows is with a trade show calendar.

Opportunities To Promote Products And Services

If you have a product or service in the works and need a big way to launch or promote it, you can refer to a trade show calendar to help you plan out your timeline that leads up to the debut of your new product. Choosing the right trade shows can determine when your product or service releases so that you can garner the most attention, so that you can bring your product or service to market with as much momentum as possible. Booking other events around trade shows associated with your new product or service will help to build up hype so that it’s sure to be a success once it launches.

Lock Down Dates Early And Avoid Double-Booking

Besides booking events leading up to a trade show to feature a new product, getting a trade show calendar is like a visual road map where you can also schedule from one trade show to the next. With a trade show calendar, you know which days you are booked and which days you are available for other commitments. When you lock down your dates for trade shows, you can be able to work out other commitments around them in your schedule. You can plan ahead months of meeting and appointments depending on where you are traveling to attend your trade shows, making for the most convenient of schedules you can book. With dates confirmed relatively far in advance, it would be hard for you to double-book other events, unless you weren’t paying close attention.

How Long Should I Plan For Each Trade Show?

As a best practice, you should try to plan each trade show a year in advance, starting with planning your marketing strategy, setting aside a trade show budget, and securing your trade show booth or space at the show itself. Leading up to the event should entail the following:

• Examining Your Booth Size
• Creating Displays
• Designing And Printing Collateral
• Hiring Personnel
• Renting Or Buying Lighting And A/V Equipment
• Arranging Travel And Lodging Expenses
• And Finalizing Your Display Or Promotional Items

Conclusion

Trade show calendars can help you plan trade shows in addition to other events surrounding them. They make for a very easy piece of reference when you are looking to plan your trade show as well as other key events that lead up to it. Companies that work with trade show calendars regularly have yet to miss a beat when it comes to delivering at each show they partake in.

If you would some help with designing and procuring a trade show display for your next event, contact us to see how we can help your display take off with immense success.