 Meeting partners, do you have an industry trade show coming up and are you taking some time this week to prepare for the show? For those that take some time, those people tend to have a better return on their investment for both their time and their money invested in the show and I'll show you what I mean. Stick around. Hey friends, it's Leanne and if you're a meeting partner in the meetings industry, chances are you're spending a lot of time on the trade show floor each and every month and it's not just the time spent on the floor, but it's the time preparing for the show. It's the time doing the follow-up after the show and of course there's then there's the investment of getting to the show itself as well as the cost of your booth and it can add up in a big hurry. So today I want to talk about a few things that would help you prepare for the show a little bit better so that hopefully you'll see a bigger ROI on your time and your money investment for being there. Tip number one, set your objectives and your objectives could be as elementary as meeting five new clients or communicating changes about your property or your brand or reconnecting with ten existing clients. Whatever your objectives are, make sure that you write them down and of course follow up after the show to see if you met your objectives. It does help set the tone for the conversation that you're going to have leading up to the show and it creates intention when you're at the show itself. Tip number two, research who you would like to meet. Now most events nowadays have a mobile app or some sort of attendee list that you can tap into and do research on the people that you would like to connect with that could be potential clients of yours. I did a post not too long ago about defining your ideal client and you can find links to that video and blog post in the description for this one. So check that out and ensure that you're meeting with the right people for your product or service. You may want to even take advantage of the people that you'd like to meet by inviting them out to a pre-conference dinner or a pre-event drink before all the hub of activity. That gives you a bit more one-on-one time where you won't be distracted in the trade show booth. If you're not able to connect with them in person before seeing them on the trade show floor, send an introductory email a few days before the show and attach a picture and that way they've kind of sort of met you through email and they would certainly recognize you when they saw you in the trade show booth. Tip number three, use social media. Now you can use social media to connect directly one-on-one with the people you'd like to meet or you can simply post updates and content about the show itself. People are going to be following that hashtag and in turn they're going to see you in advance of the show and at the show through the social media channels. Again, this is a great way to build the bridges and create connections without physically meeting a person face to face. So use that strategy to create warm connections before and during the show. Tip number four, create a communication strategy. So let your existing clients and your potential clients know well in advance that you're going to be at the upcoming trade show and encourage them to book some time with you. Again, if there's a scheduling tool this is easy enough to do but if there isn't a scheduling tool you can certainly put one another in each other's calendars. Tip number five, prepare your materials and rehearse in advance. Chances are you have a few different spleels for a few different audiences and you want to make sure that each of your spleels is polished, be it with facts, numbers, data, whatever it is that you're sharing with each respective audience. You'll also want to make sure that you have updates on your product or service, potentially new team member announcements, expansion plans, renovation plans, whatever that case may be make sure that you have that material rehearsed so that when you deliver it it is smooth and seamless. Tip number six, create an incentive to visit your booth. Incentives can be done in a few different ways. You can create a campaign that creates some pre-show excitement and engagement. Some do this through a trivia contest or a word find, something that reflects the product or service that you're representing and makes it a bit of a game for the delegate. Some other partners create engagement by having food and beverage as part of their booth and the food and beverage being native to the region or the hotel that they're representing. This is again a great way to bring people in, especially at shows that don't have a lot of other food options. Some partners are using a large prize as the way to create engagement and attention and so people need to visit the booth and ensure that they're put in a draw bucket for a larger prize. One thing we're seeing disappearing from the trade show booths are having a lot of little tiny church keys out for people to pick up and take. These are the pens and the note pads and the different things of that nature. Some partners are finding these are not attracting the right kinds of clients and I have to agree with them. So if there's a way for you to move your strategy away from the little tiny giveaways into more of an engagement strategy where you're creating strong connections with those planners I encourage you to look into that. So those are my six tips on creating pre trade show engagement with clients and prospects but I suspect you have some tips as well and I'd love to hear from you. If you're comfortable share with the community some of your success strategies about creating engagement before the trade show starts. Please comment below this video. If you're a meeting partner looking for an industry calendar on all the trade shows that are upcoming especially here in Canada if you go over to my website at liankolderwood.com and get yourself on my bi-weekly newsletter you'll receive that calendar every couple weeks or so and then you can see where all the shows are in Canada. Thanks for watching this week's video everyone. Have a great week. Bye for now.