UK vs US Trade Shows: What Exhibitors NEED to Know Before Going Overseas!

Speaker A: So are all trade shows alike no matter where they are in the world? The answer is no. Uh, as we come to find out, especially if you are an exhibitor and you're thinking of going to the UK or to Europe for the very first time and exhibiting, you've got some things that need to be different. And I am so excited to have on an expert who's going to help us to figure out if you're going to the UK for the first time, what are some things you need to be aware of. We're also going to be talking about ROI and a lot of great things. Really, really excited to have on Andy Hickenbotham from Tecna, who is going to be educating us a little bit today on all the things that you need so you could be prepared and just rock out your next show. Andy, welcome to Tradeshire University. Great to have you here.

Speaker B: Yeah, great. Thanks for having me. I'm really looking forward to it. It'd be great uh, to go into some detail with you.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Tell just give people a quick intro, uh, about who you are.

Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. So, um, originally I'm a, I'm a designer by original trade, uh, fell into the exhibition industry like so many people in the UK and became a salesperson. But I've dabbled in project management and then other sectors such as retail and museum. But generally speaking I've always done much the same thing which is exhibition, live events, uh, various different companies that have taken me, you know, to many, many overseas installations. So um, so yeah, I still use my design leanings, um, in my day to day sales work, let's call it, um. And uh, yeah, it's a very, it's still a very, very interesting sector. It certainly is for us over on this side of the pond. And I think it's um, uh, it's ripe for expansion and it's, it still is. So I think it's always going to keep my attention. Um, and I'm a very visual person. I like to work strongly with marketing and uh, with various trade associations that will maybe mention. So, um, yeah, that's me in a nutshell. Design led, commercially focused.

Speaker A: Love it. Oh, that's great. That's great. It's really at the core of it, it's about design, it is very visual. As we're walking through these exhibit halls, even if we're walking down that long aisle of 10 by 10 booths, excuse me, exhibits. Then what are we drawn to? What are we drawn to? So I'm glad, uh, you bring that to the table. But let's start off by talking about some differences between uh, the world or us and the uk. What are some common misconceptions that people have about when they, they're coming to the UK for the first time?

Speaker B: Well, I don't know whether the misconceptions or they're almost like under conceptions, if that's a word. Okay. I don't think people quite realize that there are things with UK and to a lesser extent emea, um, exhibiting in Europe, um, which are for, for us, um, exhibitors of which I've, I've been privileged to work with many over the years. Um, they are easier, the process is easier. I think the mechanics of lead generation, data collection can be easier depending on the excellence of the organizer of course, and the venue. Um, I think there is a school of thought that, you know, British design as it once was sort of thought of, is still very good. And even though there's still a learning curve there, it brings in some really nice differences I think for our state, for my stateside clients who really understand what we're trying to do on this side of the pond with um, uh, custom modular approach rather than just, you know, straight reuse. There's some really interesting little intricacies in that and m different sorts of materials and it is a thought process. And like you say, everything stems around design and design thinking, but it also stems around psychology. Right. You know, people go to a show, they don't usually go there to be impressed by exhibition stands. Sometimes they're going to be impressed with an experience. Oh, and sometimes that's an exhibition stands. Quite nice when you think about it in those terms. Um, you know, treating people as we always should, as individuals, um, with an advocacy in mind is always far better than just treating them as a number on an ABC sheet. So that's something that maybe an organizer can't do in the same way as we do as uh, ideators, as people who come up with uh, those concepts. So the differences really I think, um, uh, are, uh, that uh, in the States obviously you have a lot of regulatory control over certain things. Not just messaging and you know, pharmaceutical industry for example, and defense, but also um, you know, the way that drage and carriage and inward shipping and all those sort of things are structured. Um, you guys, I guess your exhibitors over there are used to it. Well, it doesn't really. There's a release. I think when exhibitors come to the UK it's like you guys can do it all. And we do. And I'm speaking here As a, as a person, as Andy, uh, within the industry, but also representing an industry. And most contractors and suppliers, design and build suppliers in the UK are able to offer that to a greater or lesser degree. Some just forget to try and forget to communicate that and just assume that everything's going to be a decision on cost, not, um, responsibility, if you like. Because we term ourselves as responsible creators of brand experiences. But what are we responsible for? It's not just, not just budget, it's time, it's brand, it's roi. Those are all the things that are the brand assets or the assets really for the exhibitor, not just money. Um, so it's great when we can deliver things for less money than maybe an exhibitor is used to in the uh, in the us but even better when the experience is better and the ROI is stronger. So I think that's where we approach it from. Those differences become huge levers to get more out of events and keep people exhibiting. Because that's what we want to do.

Speaker A: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. You probably have a lot of us exhibitors right now going. I think I'm going to do all my shows in the UK from now on. We're making it simple, but it sounds like really do your research. If you're an exhibitor, you're trying to think of it, uh, do your, do your research. Maybe reach out to someone like Andy, who's the boots on the ground there and can help you navigate and figure out, well, this is how we do things differently. And you don't have to jump through all these hoops like you do in the States. You could do things a little bit differently. Does that sound about right?

Speaker B: Yeah, it does. Ah. And again, I'm the first person to tell you that, you know, if somebody comes to me and says, you know, can you, we need such and such, and it's something that me or our company or Tecna doesn't do. I'll be very honest and point them towards, uh, somebody I know is going to do a fantastic job in the uk. I only want to see exhibitors re exhibiting and they'll do that because of that roi, not just because they had a lovely time and got, you know, drunk on the first night of the show. You know, I used to work for GS and obviously in the States, GS and Freeman rule the roost in terms of, uh, the large scale exhibitions. And I realized that there are shows in the US that, that are so vast and so big that it's very difficult to almost judge how you're going to Penetrate that market and that sort of thing. We don't tend to have shows of that monumental sort of scale of some of the Vegas shows in the uk. What we do have is quite, um, an ah, advanced and quite a mature segmentation of market over here so that certain shows will strip out and do maybe regional shows or they mirror a show in Europe. Travel sector is a perfect example of that. So I think it's really quite interesting when we talk to US exhibitors, you may be we can. And something I do a lot of is actually suggesting shows and saying you've probably not even heard of this event, it's relatively new. But you know, think about that because, um, that's really interesting. Some of those concierge services that we certainly offer, and I do, um, are more to do with the things that uh, are nothing to do with loading anything on a truck. They're things to do with carbon footprinting and the insights that we take from the show and you know, brand ambassadors and all that. So it properly can be crafted as a total package. Very measurable, very responsible. But also, you know, we're responsible for the output as well as the input. So I think that's, that's really the um, the thing to expect from uk good, UK design and build contractors, those that are accredited anyway. So I think there's some really, really good opportunity for, as you rightly just said there, for uh, um, US exhibitors and uh, the widest overseas exhibitors to benefit from that local knowledge, let's call it. Wow.

Speaker A: That, that is so important to understand that local knowledge and not just take it for granted. Uh, let's stay on this topic for one more second. Then I want to switch to something else you brought up, which sustainability. But I want to come back for one more second and that is the difference. So, okay, we've got, uh, the show is here, we're on the show floor and the show is open, attendees are streaming through. Are there tips for, uh, engaging with people in the uk, uh, knowing some different things, business versus the US or elsewhere in the world, that you would say, I see some mistakes, some companies kind of not doing it the right way. Uh, what would be some tips or some mistakes that you see, uh, from the attendee engagement standpoint?

Speaker B: Yeah, that's a really good question. Good point. Um, because there are differences, um, and there are tips, but when you illustrate those differences and they probably migrate around the way that lead gen and data capture works, I think it is, as I say, in certain markets, it's really quite good. It's almost instant live data. No waiting three weeks after the show for stuff to come through. And as long as that's embedded in the design of the stand and everything functions from a space planning point of view, big or small, fantastic. At least it's locked in there. It's not some sort of optional benefit. It should be an expectation, it should be a demand of both organizers and people like ourselves. The other thing though is hospitality. I mean, it's the same between the, uh, comparison between the style and type and scale of hospitality in the UK with say Germany, which does things in a very, very different way in France as well, and Italy. They have a slightly more hospitality bias in some sectors where really the show is more of a meeting place rather than a lead generation tour. In many. In many sectors that is the case. Whereas I think again in the UK perhaps we use things like engagement tools quite a lot. Touch tables, lift and learn, you know, interactives, uh, different sorts of, uh, data mechanics to actually, um, what we would term as Persona marketing. So when somebody wanders up, we want to quickly determine, well, are they qualified or are they disqualified because that's a skill. So we do lots of things with sales, um, uh, well, exhibits for training, uh, have some specialists, um, who we work with who do that. That's very important because the worst moments of my exhibiting life have been to see a fantastic stand with some people sat on it, playing on the phone. Uh, you've got that over there as well. This is nothing hilariously launching into the conversation, but it is gutting because thankfully they're rarely mine in terms of my projects. But if they are, something happens about it because you can't do that. You can't spend all that time, collateral and company brand assets to waste. So I think, yeah, um, hospitality data comms, let's call it generally, and lead acquisition, let's say, uh, but also the engagement factor. So we spend a lot of time on those, um, activations, we would term them as they can be very physical, you spin the wheels and all sorts of things that's been done many times are still very popular. Um, we also do things with origami, um, just things that people are very tactile. Ah, people love to win, so give them a chance. So we love to have competitions and scavenger hunts and stuff like that. Now that's. It may not be unique, but it's. It feels pretty unique when it works. And when you're on a stand as an exhibitor, which I've been many times, and you see people interacting and smiling and laughing and doing loads of socials. You do. It does give you a very warm feeling inside. It really, really does. In terms of the fact that the, the design cycle has ended up with something that people are really enjoying. Because, you know, let's face it, closing centers of this bit exhibiting should be fun. And if it's not fun, you've done it wrong. So it's not all about roi. Sometimes it's about fun. So I think if we can blend the two using those sort of, uh, levers, then, then I think we've, uh, we've hit the nail pretty hard. Really. It should work. All of the things being equal.

Speaker A: I love it. I love it. You're hitting a couple, a couple of big things that I always stress with my clients. And that is strategy. You got to have this thing all planned out ahead of time. And then, uh, the other thing is you've got to train. You've got to train your people so they understand, hey, we're here to have fun. This is the kind of mood we want in our booth. This is, this is. These are the questions we're going to have. This is the activation we're doing. Like you said, some of the old school things still work today. You've got that spinning prize wheel. People can hear that as they're approaching. They're. What does that sound? Oh, now they see the line of people waiting to win a prize. Now they're engaged by, wow, what's this line for? What am I going to get? And they want to, they want to find out. And then how do you use that line line? And how do you get your people engaging with people while they're standing so they don't just walk away. I'm not going to stand around. But now you got to engage. There's all of that. And I love that. Uh, there's so many.

Speaker B: There's also another spin. There's also another spin on that. It's not just the mechanic of what you do with somebody. It's also the, um, the sales trainer that we, um, I know really well. His name is Steve Murtar. He's the exhibition guy based. Worked with him many times. Good friend of mine. He does something really well, which is, I suppose you could argue. Never really thought of this before. It would work better with overseas customers from the States where they could be disparate from many different states coming together for the show. Maybe it's a big hr, ah, company like, I don't know, Lattice or someone like that who got many, many sort of operations, sometimes the 22 year old new starter who's doing really, really well. He's been invited to the show because he's keen and he's sort of edgy and he's excitable, doesn't quite have the same sort of elevator pitch let's call it as the 50 year old guy who's been in the business many, many years, super valuable for other reasons. So sometimes just before a show, aligning all that on a teams call or something like this with say 15 or 20 people, marketing, sales, projects, product just to make sure everybody's got a really focused idea on what the return should be of that show is probably the money best spent because then you get to the show and just like you said, everybody's got a really, you can still go off road, you can still ad lib, you can still, you know, like I just did. But, but it's more a case of making sure that the primary um, levers of the company aren't forgotten in sort of random conversation. And I think that's so important. As you said, you've got to have a plan and you've got to have a strategy. Sorry, but I think how you, you know, bring that to the show is very often down to making sure that there are no sort of stragglers who haven't been sort of party to the um, the full messaging and the full pre brief. So I think sometimes that plus the same thing after the show to make sure post, show follow ups are done credibly and quickly. Basically those two parts. I love the idea of having a show and then you extend it into the pre and post. It's not a two day show, it's a six month program with a show in the middle. That sort of premise really works really, really well for me to help exhibitors to um, understand that we care about their market and their customer journey. We're not just into just building a stand and that's your lot. That's one small part. The architecture is only part of what certainly we do. And I really like that because if you can't take it personally, then not sure you deserve the work. So I think that's part of our sales pitch now is understanding that customer journey, that customer philosophy and it goes back to that Persona marketing thing. Again, not everybody will be a customer. So learning how to disqualify, I say again, is a real, real art. And some people find it very, very difficult because they think it's rude, well, even more rude to waste 30 grand or you know, $50,000 on a stand space where you're talking to the wrong people. That would be rude.

Speaker A: Yeah, the owners and shareholders definitely think that would be rude.

Speaker B: I would make it rude.

Speaker A: It's even rude to spend 10 minutes on and take all of your time and energy. Uh, pitching somebody who doesn't qualify. Yeah, it's, it's your waste of time. It's their waste of time. And I love that you brought up Steven. He's uh, he was on my, on the podcast previous. Are you still there?

Speaker B: Sorry, yeah, I'm still.

Speaker A: All of a sudden my computers went black. I'm like, what? Okay, I'll edit that out. So, uh, but I'm so glad you brought up Steven. He was a guest on my show previously. He's uh, he's brilliant. He and I are very locked in with uh, the way we approach our clients and, and yeah, he's fantastic. Uh, really appreciate.

Speaker B: Yeah. Small world. Small.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely. And uh, with the uh, thanks to virtual it is even smaller. But uh, yeah, you bring up so many great things. Having that meeting ahead of time to make sure we're all on the same page. That. And like you said, you can add your own personality in but making sure that you understand. Here's what we're saying to people, here's how we're engaging, here's the questions we want to know. And if you're going into a market, you're going to a new market like the uk, something you brought up earlier. Find out about brand ambassadors, people that you can hire that are local, that know how to speak, speak the terminology and then, but then they are going to immerse themselves into your company, your culture, your messaging, your branding and probably do it even better than you can and your own people from your company.

Speaker B: M. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker A: And, and again to, to. I uh, uh, love the, the thought of this is a six month process. We just have it happen to have a show in the middle of it because there is so much you have to do ahead of time and the show is not over. When the, when the. You're packing up your exhibit and you're packing up your stand, it's over. After all the follow ups are completed and now you're taking that learning and what did we learn from this show? What are we going to do better next time? There's so much of that that happens after the show as well. That's outstanding.

Speaker B: Uh, um, and the main thing of that, the one thing to add to it which is that when you have the next show in sight, say Six months away. And um, your sales team is looking forward to it because the previous event was really successful and it just felt cool. But also when you can move that forward and actually you create advocacy between the shows so your market starts to think, right, that was really cool experience. I love the fact that they had, you know, whatever it was on the stand that the engagement or whatever it was, suddenly you build, you, you don't have such a, you flatten it really. So it's not these big sort of high points of the shows. They're nothing in between. You build up the ability to extend a marketing campaign to actually nurture those customers, new prospects actually between the shows. And again, uh, not a brand new principle exactly, but often forgotten. It's often like the show's over, let's look at the leads. Look at the leads. We only got 42 leads, why we won't go next year. And it's sort of like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Small return investment for a reason. If you don't invest the thinking and blend that out into the uh, post show activity, then don't expect people to come running at the next show. They might, but you know, hope isn't a plan, is it? So, um, uh, it's really interesting when you start to think of things as we now do with our clients, tend to be repeat clients and on a line of travel which takes them up the exhibit in scale with more and more enhancements and engagements because we can illustrate what worked and didn't work. Sometimes things don't go right and you think we won't do that again. What we'll do is we'll expand that area. Um, we can do heat mapping on stands so we know exactly who's been wearing for how long. Those sorts of tech elements now are really, really exciting because they mean we can judge ourselves with our clients and they can look and see how the space planning of a stand, for example, um, or hospitality planning actually as to our earlier point, could be changed for the better for the next time. So that's where it gets really, really interesting, that analytic. It's not too educational. It's real then it's real. You could look at it and say, no wonder that worked because the lead gen in that area was strong because of X, Y and Z. So I think it's really, really interesting. If you can try and find designers, uh, contractors this side in the UK got to that point, as we're lucky that we have, because they come with a certain amount of almost like free of charge knowledge, then it's almost rolled into the project, sort of uh, that sort of, sort of innovative thinking I suppose you'd call it. Yeah.

Speaker A: And if the uh, thought of heat mapping is making you say what, what's that? And you've got to learn all the new things that are available today. There's so much technology, it wasn't you know, one, two years ago that uh, and it continues to evolve and get better and better and better and, and

Speaker B: uh, there's still very few people doing. I have to say we still see ourselves quite privileged in the uk. We're one of the few companies pushing it. But we did um, a uh, show, we built a whole show last week called AI Summit at Tobacco Doc in London. We show fantastic. We basically were main contractor for the entire event rather than just a stand or stands. And as part of that, on some of the stands we did, we heat mapped the uh, environment so that we could actually during as well as post show talk to that customer about exactly how long people were in certain areas, how long it was before they moved, where they moved to. It's almost like a website really where you can look at where people drop, perform or stuff like that. That's awesome. If I'd had that 20 years ago, I'd be even better. It's really good because you look at that, you look at the client's faces, you've not seen it before and they've got all this sort of heat map data. It's like oh my God. And when you're talking about people in the AI sector that really, really floats their boat. So um, it's very, very interesting when you get that level of um, sort of data analytic analytics because you can really prove both yourself and your contractor right or wrong, which is fantastic. Ability to be able to do that. There's less guesswork basically.

Speaker A: Yeah. And the level and amount of data that is available to us today is just, it's mind blowing. It's mind blowing. The more you dig into it, the more you realize there's more and more and more and ah, the opportunities are really endless and it just makes you smarter. It makes you smarter. At the end of the day, uh, it's all about continuous improvement. How do we use this, how do we get better, how do we serve our customers better? And you could start all that right there on the show floor, which is really, really amazing.

Speaker B: And that's the point. When that same technology is successfully scaled into a show rather than just a space, um, it means that we can look at visitor flow, um, which Entrances are hot. It brings in that sustainability piece which is to do with using energy. Well there's all sorts of little nuances that come from that one subject which is always really great, especially the sustainability thing in terms of carbon capture and the way we carbon map our um, carbon um, uh, emissions basically through projects and stuff like that. That's got to come from somewhere and sometimes that can be really, really useful. Just like for organizers, they want to know how far you've flown into the country for a show. We want to know you know, similar things about the suppliers that we chose for that, for that event or you know, where, what the supply chain economy if you like, uh, carbon economy is. So that, that's where it becomes really, really interesting. Especially for the younger population within the industry of sort of 20 to 30 year old designers, project managers, they need to see that they work in an industry that's got that sort of foresight and it isn't wasteful. And that's a really, really strong tie between technology and sustainability in my opinion.

Speaker A: So many great topics that we've covered on in Rapid fire.

Speaker B: Here it is, rapid fire.

Speaker A: This has just been amazing, amazing talk uh, on some sustainability, on technology, on data and obviously on the differences uh, in the uk. Uh Andy, thank you so much for sharing so much. If people want to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that?

Speaker B: Uh, you can drop me a line on the, on my work email which is andyeamtechna.com that's teamechna.com um, or another easy way is just find me on LinkedIn. Andy Hickinbotham um, got an orange filtered image. You'll see me stand out nicely in a list. Uh, I'm often on there posting uh, and commenting and doing some thought leadership stuff as well as sort of just generally talking to industry. So I'm also an ESSA board member. ESSA is the trade association for the UK exhibition industry. I'm currently a board member. So uh, I could, could be reached through that but it's easier to go the LinkedIn route or direct to um, Tecna, but always up for a conversation. Um, always had lots of us uh, clients and it is, it is good fun when we do it right. So I'm always up for a conversation about those differences as well as those sames.

Speaker A: I will make sure we drop all your contact info into the uh, the show notes. So please check those out and check out what technos do and they do amazing things go to their website, just kind of hunt around a little bit and see what they do. And reach out to Andy if you have any questions about anything we've covered today. Uh, just really, really excited. Andy, thanks again for coming.

Speaker B: Thank you so much.

Speaker A: Oh, uh, it's my pleasure. And everyone, keep coming back. Keep, keep learning. Check out some more videos we've got here. And we'll keep, uh, we'll keep educating you. We'll see you next time here on campus Trade show you.