SHOW NEWS: Las Vegas: Making the Most of Your 45.7 Seconds

John Wolz

Exhibitors and attendees will need to do extra planning in advance for the 2001 National Industrial Fastener Show & Conference/West.
With 630 booths competing and show management predicting 3,000 attendees, exhibitors will need a strategy to catch the attention of distributors.
Show management reaffirmed the 5th annual event will go on despite the World Trade Center tragedy.
The show will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, giving distributors eight hours to visit exhibitors.
Though the show has grown from 228 booths in 1997, it remains a one-day event. That means this year attendees will have an average of 45.7 seconds per booth if they spend the entire eight hours in the hall.
A distributor staying just two hours in the exhibit ballrooms can average only 11.4 seconds per booth.
Exhibitors need to be prepared to get the right customers to stop at their booth.
Exhibitors also need to be prepared for a crowd. With booths sold out months in advance, show management has a full marketing budget and can give undivided attention to bringing quality attendees into the exhibit hall.
Registration manager Liza Peak reports early registration is outpacing that of previous years.
Attendees may register online at fastenershows.com.
Exhibitors can have a successful show despite the crowds. Jeff Ferry and George Wasmer of 1stFastener.com will have a booth on the exhibit floor, but they also reserved a conference room in Bally�s Hotel Thursday afternoon. They are inviting the industry to see an e-commerce demonstration in a more spacious and less hectic setting the day before.
Associate members of the National Fastener Distributors Association can take advantage of the one-on-one session to sit down with key customers during the organization�s October meeting. Then at Las Vegas they can concentrate on meeting new people.
Making Your Booth Stand Out
With so many booths competing for attention, exhibit space should be either eye-catching or memorable or both.
Marty Schneider of Continental-Aero plans to give out bottles of the new Heinz �funky purple� ketchup to attract attention to his purple colored nylon insert locknuts.
Attendees may be more likely to take the purple ketchup home than dozens of thick brochures.
At the Industrial Fastener & Forming International show earlier this year the IMU USA Inc. booth was smaller than many others, but the sparsely furnished booth with shiny steel-grid flooring and bright yellow walls was eye-catching.
� You may not want to order comfortable chairs for this show. Remember that if an attendee sits for 17 minutes and turns out to not be a potential customer 106 others will have passed by the booth.
� At the Paris Hotel the eight-foot aisles are narrower than the standard convention center aisles. Though attendees frequently stand in the aisles to talk to exhibitors, at Las Vegas the crowded aisles make it is easier to talk to an attendee in the booth. A counter across the front blocks them from stepping in. You may want your booth open in front with just a table in the back or on the side. Less furniture gives more room for attendees and booth staff.
Quick Qualifying
Both attendees and exhibitors will want to do quick qualifying to get the most out of the show.
Attendees need to decide what products or services they are most interested in and look up booth numbers before entering the exhibit hall.
Attendees may want to start at booths opposite from the main entrance to get more attention to their questions than those following the crowd.
With so many people in the aisles, exhibitors also need to do some quick qualifying. If you are looking for distributors in the crowded aisles, watch for their color-coded badges, but avoid �radar vision,� trying to read the entire badge before making eye contact and introductions.
The staff should avoid standing so as to block entry into the booth or with arms crossed and hands in their pockets.
Starting with an attentive look, a smile, a handshake and a �thank you for visiting� makes the attendee feel welcome.
Asking, �May I help you?� is likely to bring the �Just looking� response. Asking attendees if they are familiar with your product or service begins a qualifying process.
If the visitor is not a potential customer, politely invite him to look at your literature and then move on to the next possible buyer.
Establishing a relationship and getting contact information may be more important than handing out brochures that may be left in hotel room wastebaskets.
Plan questions to determine why the person is interested in your products or services and how you can best provide follow-up information.
Exhibitors may want to make appointments with key customers before or after the show to maximize time for new prospects on the show floor.
Stay Late Rather Than Arrive Early
Once again the fastener show was slated during the week of the Comdex computer show, which fills Las Vegas hotels, theaters, casinos, restaurants and the airport and raises prices.
However, this year Comdex cut its Friday hours and lowered the estimated attendance from a quarter million people to 200,000.
Anyone wanting to arrive in Las Vegas early for the Friday fastener show may find hotel rooms hard to find and expensive.
For information on attending the computer show go to Comdex.com\

�2001 FastenerNews.com