Trade Show Services

Many people have never been to a trade show, and so it is difficult to envision just how large-scale they can be. Or, you’ve been to a trade show and didn’t know it. If you’ve ever attended a Home and Garden show, an auto show, boat show, or RV show, then you’ve attended a trade show.

What, exactly, is a trade show?

Wikipedia defines a trade show as: An exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their new products and services. Some trade fairs are open to the public, while others can only be attended by company representatives (members of the trade) and members of the press, therefore tradeshows are classified as either "Public" or "Trade Only".

Trade shows are a huge business; the larger trade shows often draw upwards of 100,000 people. There are approximately 2500 trade shows every year in the US alone.

Trade shows are a very important piece of business for many companies, especially larger corporations. This is a chance to “show their stuff” to potential customers. I recently worked a trade show for a company that sells very expensive medical equipment; at this one particular trade show they sold 20 machines that cost $120 million each. Of course, not all companies involved with trade shows exhibit such expensive wares, but that is an example of the level of business that can be conducted at these exhibitions.

It is difficult to imagine the extent to which companies will go to showcase their company; the trade show display business is enormous. Most trade shows offer at least 3-4 days, if not a week, for exhibitors to set up their trade show booths. Some booths are not much more than a table and a corkboard; others are multiple stories high, with walls, electricity, carpeting, and even elevators or waterfalls.

The companies have people from their company working the booths to answer customers’ questions; and often hire professional presenters or entertainment to lure customers into the booth.

In addition, there are almost always multiple seminars going on throughout the duration of the trade show. These seminars are usually hosted by one of the companies who is also hosting a booth at the trade show. It usually is a “How to….” seminar, with its focus on some topic that is of interest to a percentage of the attendees. Of course, the company gets to advertise and plug its company as part of the seminar, so this is usually an honor and a desirable part of marketing at a trade show.

Or, the topic might blatantly be about the product, and the purpose of the presentation is to further explain the product’s attributes to those who are interested in possibly buying it. You can bet that someone interested in buying a $120 million machine is going to do his research and learn everything he can first before committing to buying!

So where do I fit in?

Obviously, trade shows require organizers and planners in a multitude of trade show services. You can either work on the committee that is hosting or planning the entire trade show, or for one of the companies who is attending and hosting a booth at the trade show.

For example, COMDEX used to be one of the largest trade shows in the world (it is no longer in existence). It was held every year in Las Vegas, and was the king of all computer trade shows; its focus was anything computer or IT related. Therefore, any and every computer or IT company had a booth at COMDEX; everyone from Microsoft to up-and-coming software programmers.

In this example, you could work for the COMDEX committee; and work on anything from trade show promotion or marketing, customer registration, booth assignments, act as a liaison with the companies who would attend, hotels and guest rooms (a huge undertaking for 100,000+ people), transportation (buses to get everyone from each hotel to the convention center), marketing, entertainment, and on and on and on.

Or, you could work for one of the companies who is hosting a booth at COMDEX; and assist them with the planning, staffing, entertainment, exhibit booth, and seminar/meeting planning.

You could also work as on-site staff instead of the pre-planning. This is where the jobs mentioned on the Event Related Jobs page come in; working for either a transportation company, catering, or a destination management company, you can work in any number of areas for large trade shows.

If design is your thing, then you could work at a company that creates trade show displays, booths, and exhibits. Companies will pay just about anything to make sure their trade show booth is top-notch; it is their first impression, and an important one.

As you can see, the opportunities within the trade show industry are endless; trade shows are just one of the many areas of event planning which could become a part of your career!

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