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Sheer Edge Do’s and Don’ts – Virtual Exhibitions

Don’t; 

 Expect your team to know how to deliver content virtually  

It is a whole different feel being online than it is in person, it can take your team member both ways they can either feel more confident or they fRed virtual exhibition standeel even less confident as this is still a fairly new concept and very strange from what they have done before.  

Our advice – Try some test runs online with your own platforms within your office or wherever your team member will be on the day of the event, get the acoustics correct, the lighting needs to be good and the customer needs to be able to see you clearly.   

Remember the cardinal rules regarding in person body language, well they apply just as much virtually. Clothing is a comical subject when we talk about virtual meetings, remember ALL of yourself needs to be dressed just as you were if this was a live in-person event and remember… You are never fully dressed without a smile! 

Design your trade show display just to make you proud and what you want. 

The goal is to design your stand to market the message you want to portray to the attendees. Yes, use you company logos and colours but make it more interesting, speak to your marketing department in house to see if you can think of a new captivating slogan or image for use just for the expo. 

Leave things to the last minute 

Book your space now if you haven’t done already, you leave it to the last minute and you will end up rushing all the important details of your stand. 

Get your stand designed and finalised, have meetings with your team about what you want to achieve on the live day 

Start training your team  

Start marketing your event now 

Do; 

Record your 1-2-1 sessions or live chats with each customer 
– This way you don’t need to have your face down making notes, you can relay back to the recordings, and you can also send these to the clients post event (which we think is a nice little added bonus) they too will have brain overload.  

Make sure you only allow a small snippet of time with your booked 1-2-1s  

The idea is to sell your product or service and not to give them hours’ worth of sell or teach on what you have for them. If you were exhibiting in person, you would typically spend no more than 15-20 minutes per customer? Obtain all the information you need from them and let them ask you questions, then schedule a follow up with them when they are back in the office. 
This way you can get to speak to more customers and you aren’t frying their brain and yours! Short but sweet is definitely the best way. Black and white virtual exhibition stand

Gather feedback after the expo 

Like with an in-person trade show, you need to group together after the event and discuss what went well and what didn’t, what can you do better for the rest of the week or for the next time. 

Have the most up to date brochures  

Take time to put together a brochure your customers will not forget! Do not rush thisit’s really important you get your product right, you will find you need to upload your brochure to the online platform – so please do check the file size and also test it out to see how it looks when it goes live. Work closely with you marketing department to get this spot on.  

Familiarise yourself with the other Exhibitors  

Get to know the other exhibitors 

Collaborate with them  

Now if you have exhibited in person before you will know that there are many factors to consider and implement, such as, uniforms, staffing, marketing of the event, promotional items, reading materials, and any hidden costs for the stand etc – but the bonus with virtual events you do not need to worry about any of this, there will be no added costs for carpets, extra promotional space, bigger stands, lucrative positions;

You pay one fee, choose your stand layout, select your brand colours, upload your company logo and include you strap line, include a couple of promotional videos, PDF brochures and choose if you want any additional paid sponsorship branding and there you have it. Sounds easy doesn’t it? Too good to be true? Well, it is true and these events are a roaring success, 2021 will see a huge rise in Virtual Exhibitions than ever before.Live exhibition image

Why it would be valuable for you to exhibit at one… First of all, when will you ever get a worldwide network of visitors to your trade stand? Probably never because those people and businesses have to factor in the cost of travel, accommodation and the cost price of the tickets (if so), Virtual Exhibitions allow anyone from across the globe to log in, visit your stand and talk to you directly.

If you have exhibited before you will know that you have peaks in the day where your stand becomes flooded with people but you could only afford x2 members of sale staff for that day, the customers get bored and wander over to the next stand and never come back, well a Virtual Exhibition allows a customer to request immediate information, take a live brochure, watch a video show reel of products, search through a virtual online catalogue of your products and services, sit and chat to someone if they are available, they can even still ‘drop’ off their business card in the box for a call back, but only this time you won’t have the chance of misplacing them, or getting back to the office to update all the information on the system as this will all be online ready for you to access.

What to expect on the day… The visitor login will go live and all visitors will log in as they were walking into the exhibition and navigate to where they wish to go. Any staffed stands will go live with the 1-2-1 chats. If you have any offers you wish to extend on the day these will go live and all visitors will have access to this. Your product and services section will go live along with any downloads, links and videos. All you will need to do is sit back and watch your company soar at your first time Virtual Exhibition.

What happens after the event… Well usually you would struggle and have your army of staff there to help you set down the stand, some through all their chairs, cabinets desk away because they have no use for them or are simply too tired to pack them all away, you would probably then head back to the office and have a briefing on the event, which is sometimes hours long and all you want to do is go home eat some good food and relax. Next day you will probably update all the sales leads on to the system and that’s it, your event is over and start planning next years as we all know how long it takes to plan for a week-long exhibition. Well, you will have none of that with Virtual Expos and

this is the exciting part; the Expo remains open beyond the live days for further business opportunities which means;

  • More videos downloaded
  • More repeat business
  • More traffic to your website
  • More social interaction
  • More products/ services sold

All your sales leads are generated online, and you will have access to instant chat transcript.

Virtual exhibition image

What are the key things you should focus on to make the virtual exhibition a success?

Ensure any branding, collateral and information regarding your stand is up to date and ready to upload so that anyone visiting your stand has all the information they require

Ensure you have at least 2 if not 4 attendees for the stand, manning the stand as a sole individual can be a challenge.

To get the best experience, you need at least one other to support the stand footfall, messaging and 1-1 conversations.

Make sure you take the time to attend the scheduled pre-event run through, so you understand how to operate your stand and feel confident in how to use the platform.

Make sure you follow up on your leads post event.

Enjoy the experience!

For more information about how we could support you with transitioning from live exhibitions to virtual, or incorporating a hybrid exhibition to your scheduled live event.  Get in touch today; hello@sheeredge.co.uk or 0330 223 3176

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