The good news is you have delirium

Last week’s wedding show at the Caboto Club went very well for me. I had not done the fall show the last couple years, opting to just do the bigger show in January, but I guess I’ve found that bigger isn’t always better.

The first wedding show I ever did was actually the fall show. It’s been a while, but I don’t remember getting any bookings from it. Looking back, what could I have expected? I was new, had very little material to demo, and didn’t have the confidence and polish that I have today. My brochures and business cards are nicer, I have a a beautiful banner, I have much more material to demo, and my booth looks much better. Consequently, I had numerous engaging conversations with potential clients.

Go figure.

The winter show in January is much bigger, there’s no question about that, but one thing you can never predict is the weather.

Earlier this year in January, the Wedding Extravaganza got off to a roaring start on day 1, but overnight and into the morning of day 2, Windsor was tagged with a wicked snow storm. It got cold and nasty and the roads were very icy. Day 2 was a bomb. I don’t think we had even half the people we had from day 1. As a vendor, it’s tough paying $700+ for two days of booth space but really only getting 1.

Right now, I’m not sure what to do about the upcoming January ‘09 show. I’m tempted to wait until the week of the event and see what the weather report says. Of course, the selection of good booths could be very limited by then, or even entirely sold out. I will have to think about it over the next week or so.

When you’re doing any sort of trade show, you need to do whatever you can to jazz up your booth.

Even if you’re lucky enough to get a great spot with high traffic, people are likely to pass by if you don’t catch their attention.

I’ve done a few of the larger (and smaller) wedding shows, and my booth layouts have gotten better, but they were still missing something.

I had a sign with my company name. It was better than nothing, but it contained no images, and did very little to stand out.

A lot of companies, especially the successful ones, had large, colourful banners. Making a banner large will get people’s attention from a distance, and if it is well designed, they’ll want to read it and try to figure out what your company does. And if it’s really well designed, you will catch them staring at it, giving you an opportunity to introduce yourself and talk business.

Last week, I spent a few days in Photoshop designing a banner for my company, Delirium Media. The image above is the end result from hours of designing and tweaking. If you click here, you can view a larger version. This banner will be proudly hanging at booth 43s at the Caboto Club during the Fall Wedding Event.