If you’re a marketing communications director, you may have reserved your trade show booth space, but plenty of work remains to make the most of that conference. Whether ordering trade show swag, updating your booth design and messaging, or writing new sales collateral, the trade show deadlines wait for no one.
Perhaps you have already secured a speaking slot for one of your VPs or C-level execs on a panel, or for a keynote address. It’s your job to promote the presentation before and after, drive attendance to the talk, and generate the most exposure to various stakeholders (partners, investors, prospects, analysts, and customers). What can you do to make the most of the opportunity?
Update the speaker’s bio and photo
If you have already landed a speaking opportunity, good for you! Generally, trade shows book their speakers six to nine months ahead of schedule. If not, then get ready to pitch your executives for speaking opportunities by updating your speaker’s biography, which should list all their previous presentations and/or professional affiliations and credentials. Also, make sure that your executives have a good promotional photo/headshot on hand to send to the conference organizers.
Promote the talk
Although the vast majority of people on your master mailing list won’t attend the presentation, it’s important to let all stakeholders know that someone from your company is a subject matter expert, and is active in the conference scene. You may want to mention upcoming speaking engagements in monthly e-newsletters, and post on all your social media channels several times in the days and weeks leading up to the presentation.
Fine-tune the presentation
Marcomm professionals are typically involved in helping executives write and shape the content of a presentation to ensure that is in line with the organization’s messaging strategy. That could entail writing and editing the PowerPoint presentation and running practice sessions with the presenter.
Take photos
Ideally, your team can record the event (some companies will record for a fee). However, if the trade show organizing company will not allow you to record and share the presentation, capture photos of the presentation and share them on social media during and after the event. (Tip: Be sure to use the official conference hashtags to leverage any social media buzz associated with the conference.) If you’re not at the event, be sure to talk to your colleagues who are in attendance; give them tips and reminders for getting good photos of the speaker talking on stage.
Post-event marketing
If you have a recording of the presentation and have permission from the conference organizers to share it, consider posting it on social media. If you have only the PowerPoint slide deck, consider sharing it (in PDF format) via social media and follow-up emails to conference attendees (in case they missed the presentation.) You also have the option of using the presentation (or parts of it) as source material to include in a blog post after the conference.
Companies invest substantial time and money for trade show booth space, registration fees, and travel. If you have a company representative speak at a conference, you’ll get a better return on that conference investment when you effectively plan and promote the presentation.
