Staying healthy during a trade show

My business trip last week was to a conference for my industry. I was a vendor, spending three long days demo-ing my product in the exhibit hall. I was talking to a woman at a booth near me who'd never worked a trade show before, and realized I had a bunch of tips to stay healthy during a long show, so I thought I'd pass them on to you, and ask you for your tips, too.

The tips can be divided into two categories, personal management and exhibit management.

Personal Management:

1. Bring 2-3 pairs of shoes to your booth each day and change every few hours. It doesn't really matter how comfortable the individual pairs are--it's the switching that helps fight foot and leg fatigue.

2. Drink a lot of water. It's super-easy to forget to drink water, but standing all day in forced air can make you feel really strange and sickly if you don't keep hydrated. Plus, if you're drinking enough water you'll be able to stretch our your legs more often because you'll have to leave the booth to go to the bathroom.

3. Eat vegetables. Sometimes you're kind of hostage to whatever they have to eat in the conference center, but if at all possible, walk out of the conference center for lunch and find some place that will give you at least a serving of vegetables for lunch.

4. Get out of the conference center at least once each day. Otherwise you're like a veal in a pen. Take turns leaving with the other person in your booth. If there is no other person in your booth, bring up item # 12 below with your boss.

5. Don't go nuts at dinner. Yes, this city is famous for its barbecue or pizza or whatever, but you don't need to stuff yourself with it. Do you want to feel sick on the show floor tomorrow while you're supposed to be talking to potential clients? If you do overdo it, try to stay up for a few hours afterwards so you don't go to sleep right after eating. That's how the sumos gain bulk--by eating and then going directly to sleep.

6. Ration alcohol. Again, it's really tempting to drink like a fish when you're out after the show each day, but draw the line at one or two. Dehydrated and/or hung over is not fun on a trade show floor. And the lighting in convention centers is bad enough; you don't need any extra help making your skin look pasty.

7. Run. You'll feel so much better if you do some exercise each day. Bring along a pair of athletic shoes. It's counter-intuitive, but your feet, legs, and back will hurt *less* if you run or walk briskly around your hotel (outside, if weather permits) for 15 minutes or so in the morning before you go to the show. I also try to do 15 minutes of T-Tapp in my room to help my system stay healthy.

8. Bring a trashy novel or some other indulgence you don't usually have time for. Take advantage of the fact that you're out of the usual routine to do something you don't normally have time for, like reading trashy novels or solving back-to-back sudokus.

9. Stay focused. What's your team's goal for the show? 8-10 hours of just standing in a booth sucks, but 8-10 hours of working toward a measurable goal is doable. (If you have no goal, see item # 13 below.)

10. Find a local place and befriend it. Strangely enough, for both of the last two shows I did I ended up spending some quality time a locally-owned coffee shops near the convention centers. It was really nice to be able to say "See you tomorrow" to the barrista, and feel like I had a little connection to the city in the midst of the daunting institutionalism of the professional conference experience.

Exhibit Management:

You may not have any control over this stuff, but if you have any influence these things will make your show experience more pleasant.

11. Choose your shows wisely. You and your team know what you want to get out of exhibiting at trade shows, even if you've never discussed it. Carefully evaluate whether or not you're getting that from each of the shows you do. "Because we've always done this show" is not a good enough reason to spend that much money and force your team to leave their families for 2-3 nights just to have to play catch-up when they get back to the office. Just because a show works for others doesn't mean it'll work for you, and a small show can be a goldmine if it's the right show. Define your true goals and evaluate from there.

12. Staff your booth appropriately. The magic formula for trade show booth staff is that you need one person for every 50 square feet of space. So a 10 by 10 needs two people, a 20 by 10 needs four, etc. Yes, it's cheaper just to send one person, but it's too much work for one person, and what if that person is occupied and not able to give full attention to someone who could have become a major client? And your booth staff needs to be able to leave to go to the bathroom and to walk out to get lunch and see some natural light.

13. Define SMART goals for your show. Your team should agree on and write down your SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, reasonable, time-bound) goals for each show. If everyone working the show knows what the goals are, you can all stay focused. Which means working will be working, and not working will be more relaxing, and you'll all stay in better shape. If you exhibit at a lot of shows and are thinking either "What is she talking about??" or "I know we need goals but don't even know how to start," the guy who runs www.compedgetraining.com specializes in trade show marketing and sells training stuff to help you start exhibiting to your advantage. A show I did brought him in to talk to exhibitors for free and it turned our show performance around.

14. Put in the work before the show starts. If you do your legwork (OK, mousework) before the show, you should be able to get the right people to come to your booth specifically to see your product. That way you don't have to stress the whole time hoping people will just happen by.

Now that I read through this list, it seems like some of these tips are applicable to people attending conferences, too, not just people exhibiting at them. Staying healthy and defining your goals will help anyone get so much more out of attending any kind of professional development event.

Do any of you have any tips for attending or exhibiting at professional conferences/trade shows?

Comments

[Lily]

Finally! A topic where i have some credibility!

I love your list, Moxie. Let me add:

a) Try to carve out some alone time from your colleagues. You can easily find yourself spending all your waking hours together, and that always leads to something bad, whether its debauchery or developing a strong hatred for the way they sniffle.

b) Locate old friends. One of the only upsides of going to these nice central places like Chicago or SF is to reconnect with someone you haven't seen in a while. This, sadly, rarely applies to Vegas.

c) Develop an alter-ego. And turn it off now and again. Tiffini is the girl I am at the booth. Tiffini is friendly, smiles more than I typically do, and is willing to call out to strangers passing by. She is unafraid of talking to anyone. She also typically doesn't make the snarky comment when someone "asks to speak with her boss, little girl" ... Somehow, turning on Tiffini when i get "on stage" and turning her off during breaks, and after hours, contains the disingenuous experience to a specific spot in my brain. It does sound a bit multiple-personality, but it works (and I'm not nuts- not in that way, at least!)

Now I realize these are all mental health items....

[Mom In France]

I think these are good guidelines for business travel in general. For myself, I always try to pick a fun place to stay if possible. For instance, I often stay on South Beach if doing business in Miami. I too befriended one of the local coffee shops on frequent trips to Washington DC. I found that the walk to/from was pleasant, and I liked the neighborhood feel over just getting a coffee in the hotel Starbucks.

Since the birth of Boo I travel much less (thankfully I had the choice) though I think I'll be starting up again soon, but sticking closer to home and traveling within Europe and less to the US or other far-flung places.

[effective nancy]

When I did marketing for a consulting firm, I was put in charge of our presence at several trade shows. The single best tip I can offer in addition to the excellence already offered here is that if you are making the arrangements for your booth (e.g. reserving the space), get double or triple padding under the carpeting for your booth. Your legs will thank you tremendously, and visitors will tend to linger (especially toward the end of the session) without quite knowing why.

[Robin]

These are great tips. I handle my company's tradeshows and all of these are EXCELLENT tips. One way I like to use the downtime at the tail end of a show is to plan and delegate follow up tasks.

Also I have a short list of nevers:
-never eat in the booth
-never talk on the phone in the booth
-never complain to the attendees about how your feet hurt, you're tired, etc.

[Tracy]

Ditto the Lots of Water! Not only do you need to be hydrated, you will be talking A LOT.

Have a great opening line. You only have a few seconds to get the client's attention, and only a minute or 2 to get their interest.

Have a fun give away. Something from your product line if possible. Clients will go home with bags full of info. Which packet will they open first? The one with the fun goodie in it.

When you get home, take the hubby and kids out to dinner. My trade shows are local, so I'm home at night, but TIRED. So I just want to crash. But hubby has had the kiddo all day, and he's tired too.

[Simone]

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I've had to think about this stuff. The nice thing about the consultant work I do is that it doesn't currently involve travel. That said, I know at some point I will again be in a position to use this info. In the meantime, thanks for posting it--everyone has such great ideas! I think it's important to focus on our own needs once in a while, even while working. After all, just like parenting, we cannot take care of others (clients or 3 year-olds...or clients that act like 3 year-olds) if we do not take care of ourselves.

[Charisse]

It's been a while, but here are mine:

-wash your hands every chance you get (you'll be shaking a lot of them!)
-for the price of a tip, you can get housekeeping in any nice business hotel to bring you bubble bath and all kinds of extra stuff--go for it!

-if you look bored, nobody will ever come to your booth; ditto if you look like you're just involved with your colleagues. Be engaged with the folks passing, say friendly hellos, move around, keep your eyes out.

[meggiemoo]

I've been the "booth babe" at a lot of shows. In addition to tips above:

- If you can only sit sporadically in the booth, don't sit at all. It feels much worse to sit for a few minutes and then have to stand up again than it does to remain standing.

- If you have an event right after working in the booth and no time to go back to the hotel, pack some things with you to freshen up...toothbrush, toothpaste, perfume, etc.

- Don't book every night to go out with the gang. This is a rookie mistake. You need a minimum of 1 or 2 nights where you can just go back to your room, and order room service and a movie.

- Do something nice for yourself. My boss and I have a tradition of booking massages at a nice spa our last day at the conference. Gives you something to look forward to.

- Do ask for a King bed and do specify to the hotel things like wanting a room on a low floor (less time waiting for the elevator), a room away from the elevators or vending machines (less noise), etc.

- Don't go hog-wild on the food. Just because the room you're staffing serves dessert with every meal...you don't have to eat it. Trust me, I've been there!

- Don't wear your badge outside of the conference center...it screams "I'm a visitor...Mug me!"

[meggiemoo]

Oh, yeah, and it IS possible to attend a conference while nursing/pumping. With the help of a very nice conference center employee, I was able to pump in a little-used bathroom away from the hubbub.

And to anyone who works for a conference company, it would be great if every conference center had a mom's room for pumping moms.

[rudyinparis]

Bring a bathing suit and take advantage of your hotel's pool, if there is one. I love swimming and rarely have the chance. Definitely try to move around at least a little every day--I won't even go so far as using the word "exercise" but definitely do something to keep the blood pumping. A lot of hotels have yoga "kits" that you can charge to use in your room.

And can I second Meggiemoo, only I won't say it as nicely, I'll say it with daggers shooting from eyes: Hey! Dummies! How about a decent space for women to pump, you big morons!

[Tracy]

Oh, pumping!
I lucked out at one show. I just nosed around the conference center til I found an unused, unlocked smaller conference room.

But they really could have a room reserved for nursing/pumping moms.

I find I feel a LOT better if I can get outside for some fresh air & sunshine on my face. At least for a few minutes a day.

[Shelley]

Ditto Nancy -- invest in a fatigue mat for your legs. Trade show floors are concrete, hard as a rock, and you can get the type of rubber matting they have at cashier's stations (in grocery stores, etc.) at a hardware store -- so worth the extra hassle.

[Marta]

At the last trade show I worked, I was at a hotel/waterpark. During the show, I took my pump and went to the Day Spa and asked nicely if I could use one of their open rooms to pump. I smiled sweetly, asked nicely, and I promised not to mess up the room at all so they would not have to clean up after me.
I pumped twice during the show that day, and there was relaxing music, dim lighting, and magazines and water. A pumping paradise!
I realize this might not be possible for everyone, but it never hurts to ask!
M.

[hedra]

For pumping, ask. I have yet to find a conference center that won't find a decent space with a lockable door for pumping in. Granted, I only went to big freaking conference events or ones at university campuses, but I either got somebody's office, or a small room with no windows.

Ditto on wishing they had a DESIGNATED space for this, but asking (especially ahead) did seem to get results handily. Being really direct, calm, professional, and matter of fact about it seemed to go over well. I took the attitude that they were a service industry, and that this was a service I had every right to expect (no different than asking directions to the restroom - that kind of 'approach'), it was neither unusual nor odd (no matter if they never got the request before, to ME it wasn't unusual or odd!), and I am simply waiting for you to proceed with your usual protocol for finding the space, thanks! I am also always prepared for someone to balk or look at me blankly, in which case I smile kindly, and ask if they have someone else who can help me? (That whole protocol is something I learned from my parents/step-parents, at least four of whom are masters of getting the 'system' to spring into action on their behalf.)

[Sarah]

Hand washing! I once did a recruiting event,and when I washed my hands before lunch I was astounded how much dirt came off in the sink!

[Ann]

Hedra, you are so right.
I worked in resorts/conventions here in Orlando for years. It was our job to accommodate any (reasonable) request of our guests. If you don't get the answer you want, just ask someone else. For this particular request, always better to ask a female around our age. The young guys just freak out about "girl stuff"

[hedra]

Ann, I found that 'grandmotherly' types were also a good bet. Though they tended to be more chatty as well (asking about the baby, asking about bfing, telling about their experiences, their kids' experiences, etc.). Some days that was really appealing - talking about something OTHER than work, even for a few moments!

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[Trade Show Supplies]

Thank you for posting this article and I have to tell you this is one of the best articles I have seen to date to explain a concept of using trade shows for events.

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