Guidelines for a congress exhibition

Participating in an exhibition linked to a congress comes with its own set of guidelines. The delegates are there because they are, in the first place, attending the congress. These attendees have a completely different mind-set compared to those who visit a traditional trade show; your overall approach to the exhibition should reflect this difference. The congress delegates will visit the exhibition in between sessions. Their objectives tend to be limited to networking and unwinding; purposely visiting stands and being subjected to sales pitches or product presentations is not high on their list of priorities. We recommend you keep your stand simple and efficient, and that the staff switch over to networking-mode. Having your staff mingle with the delegates is an effective approach. The stand should be regarded as a place to where you can direct interested visitors or to demonstrate something. One of the downsides of this scenario is that the persons(s) manning the stand run the risk of becoming slightly apathetic due to the lack of constant activity and the not-so-motivated visitors. Whoever stays behind to watch the stand needs to work hard at keeping up an active appearance and not fade away into the background. If you do expect a lot of traffic at your stand, then go for a hospitality concept. Time your activities according to the congress’ schedule so that you don’t end up competing with other networking events. Are you presenting a new product? Plan (and communicate on) an official product launch event and provide catering for all those present. And finally, take into account what position the congress delegate holds within his/her organisation; it’s not necessarily the case that people attending a trade fair are the same as those who attend a congress.