Trade show exhibition is nearly an art unto itself, especially when it comes to a show as enormous as SHOT Show. Simply put, this isn’t a bigger version of your local gun show with its folding high school cafeteria tables and chairs. Indeed, if you’ve never set up a booth at SHOT before, and even if you’ve attended smaller local or regional outdoor consumer shows, the list of items you need for a successful booth setup may not be obvious nor readily available to you before the show.
We can help. One of the many resources available and just a mouse click away is the Frequently Rented Items checklist. You’ll find this by going to shotshow.org, then clicking on the drop-down Exhibitors tab and clicking on the first item, the Exhibitor Resource Center (ERC). Under this heading you’ll click on the menu for General Information, Deadlines and Contract and find what we’ve affectionately dubbed the First-Timer Cheat Sheet, is an invaluable resource for any exhibitor, but especially those setting up shop for the first time at SHOT Show.
In this sheet you’ll find rates for the most common booth setup help, like electrical labor, freight and materials handling, end of show dismantling services, and post-show hours cleaning services. Then there are the smaller things, the trash cans, chairs, tables, table skirting and carpet, that one might assume are automatically provided at a show and would be woefully surprised to find they’re not (i.e., finding out you have nothing to sit on for four days would ruin almost anyone’s show experience).
One of the most important booth items you’ll find on this sheet are the listings for CompuLEAD services. CompuLEAD is a computerized sales/client lead retrieval system designed specifically for use at trade shows. You simply scan the show badge of each attendee you contact at the show, and CompuLEAD automatically collates that person’s full contact information, along with all the demographic information provided in the registration process, including job title, primary business interests and buying power, far more information than most business cards will contain.
This system not only eliminates the hassle of combing through stacks of business cards when you get home, trying to decipher all those illegible notes and numbers written on the back, you can append any prospect’s contact information and edit on the spot with notes, action codes and surveys, even run analysis reports. The setup is available for desktop and mobile use, as well as in a smartphone app.
Advanced rates on these exhibitor items and more are available until Dec. 26 (deadline for CompuLEAD products is Dec. 19), so plan now, get your orders in, and avoid a last-minute scramble to organize your booth during the winter holidays and in the last days before the show. For more information about CompuLead, click here, or call CompuSystem’s Heidi Marecek at 708-786-5565, ext. 312; Heidi.Marecek@csireg.com. If contacting CompuSystem, be sure to tell them you’re an NSSF member and SHOT Show exhibitor.
Quick Tip—Click on “Show All” at the top of the ERC page so you can easily view all forms and information within the ERC without having to go through each one individually.
Diedra Cauley is the director of exhibitions and conferences for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow her on Twitter at @dcauley.
Stepping onto the playing field and looking at the crowd can be a nerve-wracking or electrifying experience, and a big dependent on how you feel is how you prepare for the game. So, what can you do to be the all-star on the SHOT Show floor? Here’s what many successful exhibitors view as a winning game plan.