Go High Tech and Green for Your Next Tradeshow

May 3, 2014

Shane Shirley

Shane Shirley is CMO for SBS Brands, a 90-year-old global brand leader focused on creating digital and print business solutions that offers traditional and eco-friendly customized promotional products to accelerate trade show marketing.

Integrating technology into your tradeshow experience will get people engaged and excited about what you’re offering and when you can introduce technology while also going green you can help the planet and stay true to your environmental initiatives.

Here are some ideas to bring green technology into your tradeshow booth.

Go Green with Eco Apps

Look for an app that will streamline your ordering process and eliminate paper forms and receipts. Handshake is a great option that digitally streamlines the ordering process. Oftentimes, putting together an order through an app is quicker and easier for everyone from customers to staff in the booth and back at the office.

Uploading images and product specs will take some additional time before the show, so plan accordingly and make sure your staff has plenty of time to practice. Be aware that many apps need to be purchased and they require Internet connection, so you’ll have to budget for these expenses; however, the time and paper saving qualities of taking your ordering process digital will make the added costs worthwhile.

Audience Response Polling Will Keep Your Guests Engaged

Wouldn’t it be great if you could get feedback from the people who visit your booth in real time? Consider audience polling; you can pose a question, people can text their answer and you’ll have valuable metrics that will help you make informed decisions on the fly and get people interested and engaged.

Since all of this will go down digitally, there is no paper trail. Poll Everywhere makes it easy to ask your audience questions they can answer from a web browser or their mobile phone and you can display the answers on a laptop or screen for an interactive experience. Again, factor in the cost of introducing this technology and make sure to write out some questions ahead of time.

Give Your Press Kits a Digital Edge

You certainly want to attract customers, reps and vendors to your booth, but don’t overlook the press. If just one journalist or blogger writes about your booth or the products or services your company provides, that can potentially reach more people than if you were to tally up everyone who visited your booth during the show.

A good press kit will include info and quotes and photos, but also mind the fact that members of the media are going to be picking up tons of press kits, so the last thing you want to do is to create something bulky that they’ll need to lug around all day, so go paperless as much as possible.

Burn your info onto a disc, setup a page on your company’s website and distribute the web address and login info, or upload info to a reusable flash drive.

Technology can help give your company a sense of excitement and make your booth memorable while also minimizing your environmental impact. Look for engaging ways to work green high tech elements into your booth.

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