This week starts the beginning of the Fall tradeshow season for us. We’re doing shows in San Francisco, Boston, Denver, Milwaukee, and a second one in San Francisco. Only one of the shows allows our full-scale booth while one provides a turnkey booth and the others are tabletop shows. A tabletop show is one where you have a simple 4″ x 8″ table, and is generally smaller and more casual than a show that allows for large booths.

For our tabletop tradeshow preparation, we like to do the following:

• Reach out to prospects and customers in the area to invite them to the show or a breakfast/dinner
• Contact analysts and schedule briefings
• Rotate a new team member from our staff in to attend the show so that more people get to experience an event
• Prepare consistent talking points for team members that are going to work the booth
• Prepare a checklist of things for the tabletop including:
  – Table cloth with logo
  – iMac with product demo
  – Fish bowl to collect business cards for iPod Touch giveaway
  – Business cards and product slicks to hand out
  – Pop up banner stand with the message we want to emphasize

Tradeshows are still a great way to meet several people in person in a short period of time and should be considered as part of your overall marketing mix.