 Meeting planner friends are you attending CM&E next week or perhaps IMAX or IBTM later this year or really any other industry trade show? Let's make sure you get ROI out of attending those trade shows this year. Stick around. Hey friends it's Leanne and if you attend any of the trade shows that they host for meeting planners in the meetings industry you know it's gonna be a busy week when you take time out of the office to go and attend the show. Now chances are you understand that there is ROI to be had at these trade show experiences but how do we get the most out of our time away because we know it's going to be a busy time when we get back to the office and try and catch up on emails. So here are some of my best tips and tricks on how to tackle a trade show and then of course how to tackle the notes when we get back to the office. Tip number one plan your route. Often these trade shows are really large and trying to get it all done in two or three days is almost impossible but if you plan your route in advance and save some time on your steps getting to and from different booths you might be able to be a bit more efficient. In fact for some shows I even narrow the focus to one demographic area so that I can really focus in on the the suppliers in that region and then maybe for the next trade show I focus on a different demographic area. So if that works for you you might want to employ that and then you don't feel like you're spreading yourself so thin and running around like a crazed person trying to get everywhere at once. Tip number two take notes. I'm a note taker. I don't know how people who don't take notes retain that information so however you choose to take notes make sure you've got that with you when you're visiting each and every booth. I even sometimes take a stapler and staple that business card right onto the page of notes that I'm taking so then when I get back to the office I can refer the notes to the person that I talked to. So take some great notes when you're on the trade show floor then you'll actually feel like you've accomplished something when you get back to the office. Tip number three business cards. Now you're going to be taking business cards and also collecting business cards but don't let them pile up on the corner of your desk when you get back to the office make sure that they're filed appropriately. Now whether you staple them to your notes like I alluded to earlier or perhaps even take a picture of it and keep them electronically. Both cam card and Evernote work really well for this and if you check out the blog post for this video you'll see links to both of those applications and you can download those on your phone and use them on the go. Tip number four sensible shoes. This is more for the ladies out there but gentlemen make sure you've got good shoes as well and here's the thing this is I'm still learning how to do this we all want to wear beautiful shoes my feet do not fit into beautiful shoes and do an eight-hour trade show I even have my shoes sometimes labeled where I know exactly how many hours I'm going to get out of a pair of shoes before I'm screaming bloody murder so make sure you got your eight to ten hour shoes packed when you're hitting the trade show floor. Tip number five take a water bottle in fact you can even take other things that reduce your use of single-use plastics take your own cutlery I have a spork take a metal straw a T mug whatever it is that'll cut down on some of those single-use products trade shows are notorious for creating waste so let's make sure we all do our part to cut down on that. Tip number six a good night's sleep and sometimes with those networking receptions this one is hard but you want to be fresh and alert when you're on the trade show floor so you ask intelligent questions and you can answer the questions that are being asked of you so make sure you get enough sleep when you're doing a three-day trade show. Tip number seven review your notes as soon as you get home now our inboxes are full our voicemails are full and we want to tackle all the things that we missed but carve out an hour of your day on that very first day back from the trade show and catalog all the notes and all the business cards that you collected. Number one you'll retain the information better but number two then you'll be able to find that information when the time arises so take some time as soon as you get home to get yourself organized. So what strategies do you use to get the most out of your trade show floor experience will you share them with the community here? I hope these tips will help you make better connections on the trade show floor and better relationships as we continue them offline when we're back at the office. For more tips on being productive in the meetings industry hop on over to conferencesource.net and find productivity tips under our categories. And friends if we do cross paths at an upcoming trade show will you please stop and say hi and introduce yourself I would love to meet with you. Good luck at your next show and have a great week everyone. Bye for now.