Expo development require work, focus and promotion.
Getting into the business expo planning is not for the faint of heart. You must study your prospective audience to determine their needs. Then you must determine if your event can provide them with information and services to fulfill their needs. Expos are typically designed to provide new, enlightening, cutting-edge ideas, techniques, strategies and/or gadgets to help attendees make some significant advancement in their lives, businesses, jobs or otherwise. You have to make sure that your event topics meet attendees where they are.
Instructions
1. Choose a venue that attendees can locate and connect to easily. It can be a place in your local community or a nearby area, such as a library (usually free or very inexpensive), college campus, recreation center, gym, church or hotel. Select a location that allows you to serve refreshments.
2. Choose a theme that clearly expresses the focus of your event, which will make it easy for you to promote and advertise, and easy for prospective attendees to identify with. Some ideas for themes could be, Small Business Ventures For the Unemployed, Home-based Businesses for Moms or Online Career Options.
3. Set reasonable rates for vendors and have them invite their clients and networking groups, so you can cover the cost of the venue and have a good turn-out. Advise vendors to have plenty of information about their business on hand-- printouts, catalogs, business cards, products and more. Decide how much you're going to charge vendors. Keep your event free to the audience if at all possible. Lower fees draw more vendors and participation from the community.
4. Seek corporate sponsorship for your event to cover your costs and increase your revenue. Many companies like going after certain niche markets in non-traditional ways. Since you are gathering the niche market for them, many companies are willing to support your efforts. Develop a corporate sponsorship proposal and/or an ad book, in which you will sell space to local organizations.
5. Advertise your event early to local organizations and media, with press releases, flyers, ads and e-blasts, if possible. Focus on how your event will help attendees and provide a few helpful tips to draw people. Let attendees know if there will be giveaways, raffles and door prizes. You may also want to inform guests what they should bring, such as resumes, business cards, sample products and more.
Tags: your event, business cards, corporate sponsorship, help attendees, local organizations, products more, their needs