Plan of Attack - Realism Meets Optimism

This is part two in our (almost!) real time series of how one of our clients is dealing with dramatically decreased exhibitor and attendee numbers.

The assessment completed, we now needed to form a realistic plan of attack. What was equally important to the mission was keeping a sense of vitality and optimism among all parties involved, while clearly communicating the reality of the situation. Here is distilled version of what we did:

Space

The contracted space was much bigger than we now needed and even though we released space back to the venue, they were unable to resell the space in time for our client to avoid penalties. We were able to help them negotiate a cost break due to the overwhelming issues the economy has created, and the loyalty our client has shown to the venue. However, we still had a lot of space. Since perception is everything, we knew we had to visually make the space look full, so we altered the layout of the exhibit hall by dropping airwalls where possible and putting in a large physical "staging area" to reduce width. We also widened aisles, added lounge spaces in open booth areas, and added cocktail rounds to break up the visual openness.

Exhibit Income:

With fewer exhibitors, the budget was slashed for decoration and food and beverage. To help on very little budget, we added background music to provide ambience (and reduce echo) and carefully placed spandex arches and walls with uplights to take the place of planned decoration. Because the elaborate food stations were not possible, we worked with our client to move toward passed hors d'oeuvres for less time and spaced the timing to make them stretch. The hosted bar was replaced by a cash bar.

Attendee Registrations:

We needed our exhibitors to realize fewer attendees wouldn't necessary impact the outcome of their participation. We created and emailed an exhibitors guideline "cheat sheet" before the event that provided a profile of the expected attendees along with tips on how to engage them. We covered items that indirectly addressed the lower attendee count, such as the ability to spend the time to learn their needs so the next steps could be closer to a decision. Quality over quantity became the theme.

In the next entry, we will discuss reaction from the client, exhibitors and attendees to the changes.

Need to tackle a problem with viable solutions? Contact karenm@meetcsi.com to learn how simple steps can make a big difference.