How To Ensure Your Exhibit Materials Arrive Safely

Your booth is the crux of your exhibit show. It's the physical manifestation of your company's goals, brand, products, and everything your company is trying to communicate to potential clients. If your company depends on the business you acquire through exhibit shows, any damage to your booth risks your bottom line on top of accruing fees for fixing your pieces.

The best way to prevent this situation from occurring is to plan for it to never happen. To kickstart your plan we've gathered a list of recommendations for ensuring your exhibit arrives safely at your location.

Be Strategic About Your Shipping Destination

While a seemingly obvious consideration, where you send your exhibit materials can affect the quality of your shipping. Generally speaking, exhibit managers send their booth materials directly to a show site, or to an advanced warehouse.

While each location comes with its benefits and limitations, you should consider each carefully, especially regarding their dates of acceptance, limitations, and various risks. When it comes down to it, shipping early is a great way to ensure that your shipping team has time to treat your booth pieces with the utmost care.

Choose Your Carrier Carefully

As an event manager, the first thing you might look at when considering a shipping carrier may be their price—but that's the wrong strategy for making sure your exhibit materials arrive safely. Instead look at:

• Their experience with and references for shipping trade show freight
• If they have a specific department for trade show clients
• How much of its business is devoted to exhibitors
• If it has 24-hour customer service or online tracking

At the end of the day, any freight that you pay to be delivered but ends up damaged and unusable is a dollar lost.

Document Everything Thoroughly

While potentially tedious, making sure you provide your carrier with a detailed list of your exhibit materials and all other relevant information can help the company provide you with accurate tracking information. This can give you peace of mind, knowing exactly what's being shipped and where it's going. Some things to include are:

• A list of all items to be included
• How many crates, pallets, boxes and standalone items are being shipped
• Dimensions and weight of your shipment and any unique equipment they'd need to move the items
• Necessary information about the trade show such as address, show dates, move-in/move-out dates, loading docks, delivery sites, your booth number and more.

It's a good practice to make sure that you check and recheck this list, as any errors can prove disastrous.

Look Into Insuring Your Exhibit Materials

If the worst does happen, and your booth does become damaged despite all of your preventative measures, insuring your materials is a great way to avoid large fees for fixing or replacing them. You may assume that your carrier would be responsible for paying for any damage, but they'll usually only cover a small percentage.

If it's within your budget, booth insurance is a great preventative measure in case the worst does happen, your carrier may provide you with options to purchase, or you can investigate the available coverage options through your insurance company.

Preparation is the Best Way to Prevent Damaged Booth Materials

It pays to be prepared, and that's never been more accurate than in the case of exhibit shows. A lot can ride upon a company's success at a trade show and considering the innate importance of a booth at these shows, any damage and chaos can ensue. By following the above-listed suggestions for making sure your materials arrive safely, you're ensuring a secure bottom line.