Making an Exhibition of Yourself

A day at Hospitality 2011 yesterday at the NEC provided me with some food for thought….


Most exhibitions don’t come cheap, yet it’s surprising just how many businesses fail to maximise their investment from a PR perspective:

Here are ten top tips:

1. Start early - remember deadlines may be months ahead of the actual event

2. Take time to read through the exhibitors’ manual, some are extremely informative and can save you lots of time

3. Find out which magazines are planning show/exhibition preview features and check editorial deadlines (remember ‘copy deadlines’ often refer to advertising deadlines, which will be a lot later than editorial deadlines)

4. Prepare your show preview press release highlighting what you will be exhibiting (ideally something new)

5. Distribute your release, along with a professional high res image

6. Spread the word – tell everyone you’ll be there. Don’t forget regional and social media!

7. Invite key journalists to visit your stand

8. Prepare a press pack for the show – a journalist’s first stop will be the exhibition press lounge, so make sure you have press packs available, summarising who you are and what you’re exhibiting

9. Unless you’ve got something really special to unveil/announce don’t waste your time hosting a press conference at the show – it’s usually better to work with the media one to one

10. Prepare a show follow up release – sing about your success!