Now that the busy trade show season is upon us, we’re all starting to feel the pressure. It’s easy to feel a little stressed out when thinking about all the deadlines, travel arrangements, and expenses involved in exhibiting, whether it’s for 1 show or 100 shows this year.

Here are the Top 3 Things to Avoid as a Trade Show Exhibitor: 

1) Don’t Procrastinate! 

Waiting until the last minute can lead to costly rush charges for shipping or production for your trade show exhibiting products, not to mention the higher rates on last minute flights and hotels. Planning in advance for your trade show will give you time to be prepared and be creative for your next show or event.

2) Don’t Shoot From the Hip!

The only thing worse than being unprepared at a trade show is looking unprepared at a trade show. Going in with the attitude “it will all work itself out when I get there” is a disaster waiting to happen. Have a game plan ready for your team. Know your audience and your purpose for being there. Come prepared with both questions and answers for your prospects. Make sure that all of your ducks are in a row for the products and appearance of your booth space. And in honor of Murphy’s Law, have a contingency plan! You never know what can go wrong…

3) Don’t Chintz Out! 

Exhibiting can be expensive. But let’s be real, when you’re spending upwards of 10k to attend a show, is it really worth it to save that extra $150? It can be tempting to take the cheaper route and buy a plain black portable display so you can slap on a couple of random print outs and call it a day. But in the long run, this method can lose you money if it creates the impression that your company is unprofessional or unprepared. Furthermore, there are a plethora of options these days for easy, fast, and affordable trade show booths (such as tension fabric displays) that cost less than $1000 and include full custom graphics, so why go the chintzy route if you can spend a couple hundred more to make a big-ticket impression?

So, to sum it up, be proactive, be prepared, and be posh. If you ignore these rules, you run the risk of wasting valuable time, money, and dignity, which I know we’d all like to hold on to. Good luck!