Tradeshows are starting to Reopen with a Different Look and Feel

Orlando officially announced Tradeshow openings starting in mid-July for six shows and ten shows in August. Las Vegas announced the opening in August, with 75 planned shows scheduled for the remainder of the year. Germany has opened and has prepared a full slate of shows.

What to expect for future shows:

You will see a lot of folks wearing masks. These will be mandatory, and you will most likely see more full aisles and access to hand sanitizers at every show. Distancing decals will be throughout the halls and in individual booths to remind about social distancing. Simple protocols like shaking hands will not be happening for quite some time.

For those of you traveling to shows, not to worry as the cleaning procedures for the restaurant, hotel, and airline industries have extraordinary protocols put in place.

Even Convention Centers like Las Vegas, McCormick, and Orange County are taking extra cleaning precautions and following industry measures. Convention Centers must support the Global Bio Risk Advisory Council's stringent demands of cleanliness. If all large venues are doing this, then smaller venues will soon follow suit. Every evening at the end of a show, everything will be sterilized. It is impressive to see the lengths people are going to keep everyone safe!

A look at how future shows will look:

Well, it does feel a little tenuous, and the big question in the air is, will this happen again, or will there be a resurgence? No one can answer that, but what the tradeshow industry is doing is making sure they keep things sanitized and making masks mandatory.

How should exhibitors approach preparing and marketing for a show knowing there is a big "what if"?

Well, you have to take preshow activities seriously when not 100% certain your show happens. You can do this by maximizing opportunities to drive traffic to your website through preshow activities like sending emails, direct mail, or social media campaigns. Hopefully, if the show cancels, this will not be an issue if you have done all your legwork for preshow work, and your sales team will be able to stay in touch with the prospects.

At the end of the day, you all want to drive revenue regardless if you have a physical booth or not. The bottom line for exhibitors is asking yourself, how are you looking at this world of events and how to best approach events. The excellent news is events are coming back.

The real issue is people have a pent-up demand for companies missing out on revenue opportunities, as well as people looking for services and products.

Shows will be safe, and the lengths people are going through is amazing in our industry. More importantly, future shows will only be attended by the most motivated and engaged buyers. Most people will not be traveling just to travel, and if people attend a show and must travel to get there, they will be a more serious buyer as an attendee. We may be getting back to the adage, shows may have fewer attendees, but you may see more serious business happen.