Enough Snow, Off to the (Trade) Show!
- Kerrie From Marketing
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Winter was loooong this year. With weather like this, it seemed like a great idea to get out of the every-day-busy of the office and do something new, so we decided to attend our first-ever Trade Show. We could talk a lot about building great custom wash systems, (and we are happy to, just click here anytime to get in touch), but today we wanted to share our first Trade Show experience and encourage you to think about attending one too. Spoiler alert: we had a great time!
First, you have to register. We chose Convenience U CARWACS Show, an event that, in their own words, would allow us to “Connect with 100s of industry leading exhibitors, the biggest brands and decision makers. Whether you’re a vendor/supplier or a retailer/operator in convenience, gas or car wash,” held annually in the GTA, this year at a new location in Etobicoke.
They did not lie. Thousands of visitors! Our team did not have a minute to themselves and were able to speak to a steady stream of folks about to enter the car wash industry or looking to expand.
Of course, you need to create your booth. Your “booth” is your own space at the trade show and where you get to meet people in person and talk about, in our case, custom designed, Canadian-made express car washes. You will be assigned a specific area and limited to a certain size, including height, and will probably have to do more paperwork if you are giving out food or beverages.
Do not be intimidated, there are thousands of trade shows in North America every year - so there is nothing you will need that cannot be done, and probably has been done already, the internet is your friend. Do not hesitate to type something like “trade show booth ideas” into your favourite search engine. You might have banners and signage you use already, just make sure they will work in a trade show environment where there are so many other exhibitors, this is not really a time to be subtle. Again, look online at not only the trade show you plan to attend but others as well, you never know where you will get a great idea.
Always read your Exhibitor Package carefully. This is a document provided by the show, that will explain all the basic information, and more, and give you contact information for specific questions. Shout out to the producers of this show EnsembleIQ for great communication and support throughout the process. Maybe you have never done this, so here is a partial checklist to get your planning started:
Branding your booth (banners, background, etc.)
Electricity in your booth (lighting too, conference centres do not have flattering lighting)
What will you wear? (another chance at branding, take it, even matching tshirts with your logo)
Swag (giveaways for visitors)
Will you have a video? Brochures? Your actual products? Think about how you will display these things.
How will you travel?
Where will you stay? (the event probably will have suggestions or even a block of rooms that you can make a reservation at)
Everything we do is a team effort and we are lucky to have some very useful skills around the table that made planning our first trade show a good time. Make the process fun and try not to get bogged down in meetings about it. We brought a two foot 3D printed model of our belt system to display at our booth. I cannot lie, almost everyone ended up breaking waste plastic off the pieces of the model as they were printed while we were meeting, that snapping noise is so satisfying!
Have someone on your team do big picture research about the show you have registered for. The CARWACS U show we attended promotes this online publication, Octane, consider subscribing to things like that, or at least looking over a few issues online. Who are the sponsors? Is there an app? (there is at CARWACS!) Are lists of past vendors/attendees available and do you do business with any of those people, or would you like to? What is your booth number - publish it on all your social media and encourage people to stop in, send an email inviting folks in the area that you already do business with and invite them directly to your booth.
They also had a great load in/out schedule, but we advise you to be prepared to be as self-sufficient as possible. Fortunately, our team are experts at logistics, so packing up our booth and items safely to travel was no problem and we had wheeled carts to make loading in and out even easier. We get no kickback for mentioning this, but we got these stools for the booth and certainly suggest getting seats for your team.
Do not forget human comfort. The show offered a coat check which was nice and there was lots of parking. Remember to think about lunches and other practical issues, good news, at a show like this there was no shortage of food and beverage samples.
Overall, our first trade show was a great experience and we will certainly do it again. Here is their recap video on YouTube if you want to check out that particular show. Do you attend trade shows? Is there one you would suggest?
PS - Considering all the snow and salt that has been on the roads, your vehicle still needs to be washed in the winter months. Consider taking it for an express car wash today - then, while you are out, you can drive your shiny clean vehicle to get a treat!
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