building of the stand that wasn’t in the original costs (and yes this is bad practice from the agency who didn’t include these costs in their proposals).
Additional services
The one that always catches exhibitors out and ends up becoming a money pit if you leave it to the last minute. Depending on what you negotiate when you’re booking your stand you may or may not get a whole range of services such as power, electrics, flooring, furniture, etc., included in your package (more often than not, it isn’t included). Equally you may design a stand incorporating the latest tech that requires good broadband access without realising this is all to be paid for. There are a whole host of things that crop up under ‘additional services’ that you might need, and if you leave it until the day before the show opens they can cost you up to 20% more than booking in advance.
Staff and travel
Just to be clear we’re not talking staff salaries here as this is just about the costs you need to add into your physical budget, but don’t underestimate that’s a less visible cost to the business. However, if your staff do require additional or enhanced payments for working weekends/Bank Holidays, these and any associated costs will have to be accounted for within your budget. As good practice some organisations also include any costs associated with backfilling essential roles vacated by stand members while at the show as this is a legitimate cost to the business.
If you’re not sure how many staff you need, a good estimate is one person per eight square metres with an absolute minimum of two. So, taking our 20 square metre example from above, the ideal number of people would be two or three and with nine square metres you would need two. In addition to the on-site costs of travel and accommodation, it’s worth allocating some cost within this budget for staff training – even if that’s only two of you, take the time to review your plan before arriving on-site. Any more than four members in your team and it’s worth getting everyone together in one place around two weeks prior to the event for a full briefing.
Promotional
As much as the event organisers will work hard to get visitors through the door, it’s your job to get them to your stand. We’ll talk in more detail later about pre-show and at-show marketing, but it is advisable to allocate some funds for this, whether it’s creating giveaways for the stand or placing adverts in relevant trade magazines. Thankfully in our digital age there’s a lot that can be done for free (apart from the cost of time) on social media and with online marketing that can help you and save money on this element. Included in this section would be any samples (including transportation costs) you plan to distribute and the cost of any promotional activity or deals you will be running.
Miscellaneous
Having a miscellaneous line in your budget just gives you some breathing room for ‘stuff’ that will inevitably come up, such as a networking dinner or client entertaining, additional venue charges, etc., that you can plan for but don’t know about until you start really getting into the finer detail of the preparation.
Contingency
We’re suggesting 20% contingency, which is an absolute ideal. If you can only stretch to 10% then it’s still a great safety blanket for when your new MD decides he wants to attend all four days and needs accommodation at the best hotel in town (it happens) or when one of your staff drops the iPad on the first day and you need to replace it to actually capture all the brilliant prospects you’re meeting (this also happens). The most frustrating use of contingency we’ve experienced is when a major, global food producer with a well-known brand created an amazing ice-cream parlour as the heart of their stand. In 2019, if you book power it is usually for 24 hours but there were times when you had to be sure you ordered a round the clock supply otherwise the electricity to your stand got switched off at 6pm. Unfortunately, the exhibitor hadn’t read the Exhibitor Manual and didn’t book 24-hour power and despite a massive budget and an impressive stand, they were serving milkshake instead of ice-cream on day two of the show. They had been delighted with themselves that up until the show opening they hadn’t spent any of their contingency – it soon disappeared as they went about ordering new show stock via a rapid overnight courier and paying for additional power (at a 20% premium above the pre-show booking rate!). Things will crop up, things will go wrong, that’s just exhibitions, but with enough planning and some contingency you should be able to sort them out relatively easily and cheaply.
Once you have worked through your estimated total investment and allocated costs to each of the elements then it’s time to start really drilling down into the detail of where you’ll be spending your money. If you’ve bought this book alongside The Exhibitionist Project Manager Journal we’ve included some budget templates in there that should help you start to plan how and where you’re going to spend your money – but keep it flexible as things will change. After the show, it’s always worth hanging onto your budget trackers both for evaluation purposes and reviewing what you need for trade shows in the future.
Money pits
There are ways you can really waste money on trade shows so here are our five key watch-outs to help avoid wasting budget on non-value adding activity:
1. The last-minute service orders: Power, furniture, lighting, etc. will all cost significantly more once you get on-site, or even when you’ve missed the deadlines! Understand what you need early on and get it ordered at the best (early bird) rates.
2. Consumables: Most event venues will offer basics such as cleaning materials, wipes, paper cups, etc., all of which you’ll be able to buy much cheaper from local stores. If you’re taking your own stand, lob a hygiene box in the car with a few essentials for wiping down at the end of the day. If an agency is building your stand, ask them to pack the essentials on the lorry and bring it with them.
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