The ASD team makes it easy to access support when you need it and provides simple access to any tools you may need as you prepare for your booth. For any businesses who’ve considered exhibiting at this event, I can’t encourage you enough to dive into the ASD expo experience. They truly do make it easy and give you all the support you need!

Making Our ASD Booth Count

As a new exhibitor, our goal is to ensure that we maximize our efficiency to build as many relationships as possible with quality connections - whether that means making a sale, purchasing a new load of inventory, or just shaking hands with someone who we can learn from in this industry.

To do that, we want our booth to be unique, branded, and stocked up with all the resources we need to get our name out there. When you’re working a trade show, you only have a few moments to grab the attention of the tired and overstimulated attendees who have already spent hours walking the expo hall floor. Your appeal has to be bright, inviting, and engaging.

For us, that looks like a bright blue, Nice Find Wholesale branded booth where attendees can easily access a team member, charge their phone, take a seat, and learn more about what we do. We have a 10 by 20 foot space and plan to use it all to our advantage. How you present yourself directly affects your results at a tradeshow - so we’ve been working hard over the past few months to fine tune our presentation.

A few things we’ve decided are essential as a first-time exhibitor:

• A beautiful, branded, and easy to assemble booth.
• An iPad for easy data collection.
• Brand new business cards - triple checked for accuracy.
• Easy to read, highly informative flyers for both buyers and sellers.
• Space for seating - for low-pressure interactions where customers can slow down and hear you out.
• Electricity and internet connection to our booth. We want people to be able to charge their phone and stay awhile at our booth. We’d also love the ability to livestream while we’re here.
• A booth that can easily be packed into a travel case and/or luggage and carried in by our team. This is a new ability for vendors this year, and as a startup business, it’s a huge money and time saver. Bringing in our own stuff means that we don’t have to worry about lost luggage, a damaged booth, or expensive shipping fees.
• Collaborations! We can’t wait to interview other sellers and business owners in this space. Networking events aren’t just about making sales - they are about building connections and learning from one another in a space where everybody can win if we all are willing to share.

We’re still on the fence about displaying samples and taking orders. We’ve heard mixed feedback from other sellers in this space about taking orders during the event. Since there are so many attendees and our inventory is constantly changing, it may not be a smart idea to try to keep track of inventory and fill orders while there are so many moving pieces. On the other hand, we’re built to sell and have a hard time passing up the opportunity to showcase a few quality items and move them while we’re there. We’re still deciding on how to handle this - but for now, we’re packing samples!

A few tips for brand-new exhibitors just like us:

• Start planning in advance. We have been meeting all spring to plan for this event. Don’t let a major trade show surprise you - be intentional about every step along the way so your entire team knows the plan and can execute it well.
• Eat the cost & make it count. Promoting at major events like this costs money. You’re covering airfare, lodging, and meals for your entire team. Don’t let that cost scare you away - the connections you build will more than make up for it.
• Save where you can, spend where you must. Don’t skimp on the essentials. Get the good gear, buy the impressive booth, and spend on quality branding. Save in the places you can - like opting for less expensive food options, average hotel rooms, and transporting your own promo gear (like we are).
• Fly southwest and maximize your luggage. Southwest gets a bad rep, but they offer more free luggage than most airlines. We’ve saved money just by taking advantage of this.
• Bring the whole team. You don’t want to put all this effort into planning and executing a brilliant booth just to let customers fall through the cracks because you don’t have enough personnel to meet with everyone who stops by. Bring the whole team - each of them offer valuable insight into your business operations.