12 Do’s and Don’ts for Successful San Diego Trade Show Booth Rentals

A major trade show hub in the country, the local economy of San Diego is anchored by the presence of diverse blue-chip corporations hailing from the industry verticals of cloud computing, technology, defense production, and consumer electronics.

Given the robust corporate presence in the city, a diverse and well-functioning transportation infrastructure and the active trade show calendar that it has, it makes enormous good sense for marketing executives to think through the best practices for San Diego trade show booth rentals and the practices to do away with.

  Do’s for San Diego Trade Shows

1. Plan Your Trade Show Participation Early

First, San Diego rates highly on the trade show lists of several corporate executives. The city is known to attract visitors to trade show venues in large numbers and is reputed as a major corporate engine driving the global science and tech economy.

Thus, the first logical step to take is to incorporate San Diego trade shows that your marketing team aims to participate in.

Start brainstorming early on the return on investment on offer from the diverse San Diego trade shows that are of interest to your industry vertical.

Create a trade show marketing calendar and focus on the product lines to be showcased at the trade shows. Moreover, book your slot at the trade show early.

2. Use Bright and Colourful Digital Signage

Second, San Diego breathes enterprise and energy. The city is rightly called the birthplace of California.

What this means for marketing executives and managers participating or planning for trade shows is that they need to laser focus on creating a great first impression.

San Diego trade shows are always highly competitive affairs and a window of 5 to 7 seconds can make or break the first impression about the brand on the floor of the trade show.

Thus, it makes enormous good sense to San Diego trade show booth rentals that offer highly energetic, bright and colorful digital signage that is visible to the visitors from a distance among the milling crowds of people and arrays of trade show booths of competing brands.

3. Use Immersive Technologies to Augment Visitor Experience

Third, remember that San Diego breathes innovation and enterprise. San Diego is the city of new age consumer technologies and the corporate community here loves to generate ideas, experiment and innovate.

As such, engage with your vendor for San Diego trade show booth rentals and ask for some exciting immersive technologies to create wonderful visitor experiences on the floor of the trade show.

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), 360-degree videography and 3D videography can enable your brand to attract the attention of visitors and keep them engaged for your marketing executives to engage in conversations and pick insights.

4. Spell Out the Value Proposition Using Brand Graphics

Fourth, when preparing to participate in a trade show in San Diego, give due importance to your brand’s storytelling approach.

What content do you intend to showcase to visitors?

How do you intend to showcase the content to visitors?

Great brand graphics are prerequisites to showcasing your brand value proposition to visitors at a San Diego trade show. Engage with the designer and builder of your San Diego trade show booth rentals well in advance and ask them for different themes to customize your storytelling approach through great and unique brand graphics.

Here is the takeaway, your brand graphics should have already conveyed half the story to the visitors before they strike a conversation with your marketing executives.

5. Save Extra Space for Visitor Engagements

Fifth, people at San Diego trade shows like to look around, spend time at the trade show booths and ask precise questions about what is on offer. As such it makes enormous good sense for marketing executives looking to participate in San Diego trade shows facilitate conversations at their trade show booths by creating spaces for visitors to walk, move around and settle down in a dedicated discussion area for a quick meeting.

Stay assured that the visitors are going to come and they shall come in huge numbers. What matters thus, is that your trade show marketing team share your concerns of keeping the traffic flow inside the booth intact, with the San Diego trade show booth rentals designer and builder.

6. Focus on Bringing Parity Between Onsite and Online Marketing

Sixth, given that San Diego trade shows stand for all things new and ideas that are fresh and contemporary, it is advisable that your trade show marketing team invest efforts to synchronize the onsite marketing with online marketing.

Small things matter, share the location of the trade show venue on Google Maps with invitees. Send calendar invites using the Microsoft Office suite and keep sending weekly reminders to the invitees in the run-up to the trade show. Of course, it makes great business sense to put up a selfie zone if your brand is into the B2C segment.

Again ask your San Diego trade show rental booth designer to put up platforms to deploy cameras to share live video feed on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram to connect the audience at the site with those online.

  Don’ts for San Diego Trade Shows

1. Do Not Rush Through Your Decision to Participate in a Trade Show

First, San Diego is a hot bed for trade shows around the year and the list of trade shows is long. What does this mean for your trade show marketing team? Do not rush with your trade show participation plans.

That is to say, do not delay your decisions to participate in San Diego trade shows for the last hour.

That is when there are risks of overlooking the subtle details of costs of space, costs of San Diego trade show booth rentals and transportation.

2. Do Not Fall for Conventional Trade Show Rental Booths

Second, San Diego trade shows witness new product launches, new brand ambassador signings and marketing campaigns every year. It is a city that is always at the leading edge of marketing innovation and embraces new product and concept development.

Do not fall for conventional and standardized San Diego trade show booth rentals. Do not give into trade show booth rentals with basic brand graphics and lighting of subsistence levels. If it is not great to look at, it is not probably worth investing the money.

3. Do Not Fall for San Diego Trade Show Booth Rentals Without Financial Planning

Third, San Diego trade shows are going to cost your marketing team. Given the cut-throat competitive ambiance that prevails at San Diego trade shows and the beeline of corporate executives to register the participation of their respective brands at these events, the demand side economics can pose a challenge.

Do not fall for a San Diego trade show booth rentals designer and builder without getting an insight into the pricing and the features, functionalities and performance aspects promised in lieu of the price.

Get a clear insight into the prices of your San Diego trade show booth rentals and invest time and effort in financial planning.

4. Do Not Use Graphics That are Either Too Common or Too Far Off Industry Standards

Fourth, when it comes to the choice of brand graphics for your San Diego trade show booth rentals, a crucial question the begs an answer is the degree of differentiation. Should your marketing team opt for brand graphics that are completely different from industry contemporaries? Should your marketing team opt for brand graphics that are similar to those deployed by industry peers? The answer is neither.

Do not stray too far away from industry best practices and do not settle for brand graphics that are at par with those of competing brands. Ask the vendor of your San Diego trade show booth rentals to showcase options for custom themes based on your brand personality and image.

5. Do Not Fill the Space Inside the Booth with Inventories

Fifth, San Diego trade shows are fast-paced affairs and allow visitors and brand exhibitors a very short window of time for engagements. As such keeping the San Diego trade show rental booth stacked with inventories is certainly not an option. Over doing the inventories for display can actually spoil the ambiance required for holding bilateral meetings and talks.

Keep the product samples to the bare minimum that is necessary and do not over do things. Make sure that your San Diego trade show booth retains elements of the storefront format for visitors to feel comfortable.

6. Do Not Engage Your Staff in Non-Core Functions

Sixth, San Diego trade shows usually witness high levels of footfall. Time budgeting as such assumes a great deal of importance for both your trade show marketing team and the visitors.

It is important that your trade show marketing executives invest the lion’s share of their time working on achieving their trade show goals of lead generation, onsite sales and market research.

Do not engage your trade show marketing team in non-core functions like installation, monitoring, and dismantling of your trade show booth.

Look for San Diego trade show booth rentals that offer your marketing team on ground support for these activities so that they can laser focus their energies and efforts on the agenda at hand till the closing bell at the trade show is sounded.

On a closing note, it makes good sense to assert that San Diego as a trade show destination never stops to surprise both visitors and brand exhibitors with its innovation streams in the domains of marketing and technology. Thus, when your trade show marketing team participates in their next San Diego trade show, make sure that your brand value proposition is new and the storytelling, fresh.