First roadtrip for my new business

So I’ve written about using social media to highlight your exhibition presence before, but this week saw me exhibit for myself for the first time.

It was such a liberating experience. I have exhibited for many organisations over the last 15 years, and although each one has been approached with the same diligence as I lent my own one, I often had a partner in crime to lean on. This time it was all about me and what I can offer, which felt really strange, but good strange. Partly because I knew I could promise what I would deliver, whereas in previous times, even if I believed it, I couldn’t guarantee. When your business is your own baby, you know that you’ll go out of your way to ensure your client is super happy with what you are giving them.

Do you find virtual expos easier or harder? 

In a way, it was simpler - being virtual, I didn’t have to consider buying in branded giveaways, or having to produce collateral to hand out. There was no getting up early for a long journey and the stress of getting your stand set up by a certain time for the health and safety check was gone.

There are a few things you need to consider though, the main one being a good strong broadband connection! There’s nothing worse than being in full flow and the wi-fi cuts out, or you’re diligently listening to your potential client’s requirements and the wi-fi breaks up at the critical point in your conversation.

Learn some new skills

I went on a course recently about making the best of being on camera, and although I didn’t remember everything for every conversation, I tried to put a lot of what I learnt into action during the morning. 

When you think about traditional exhibitions, you generally think of your pop-up stand that you have as your backdrop. You know, the one with all your contact details on, your logo, a lovely picture explaining what you do? So how do you recreate that on camera? I’ve seen so many virtual backgrounds on zoom - I’d love to know your thoughts on them? Personally I’m not a fan - I find the way people’s heads continually change shape as they move rather disconcerting and actually find myself watching the distortion rather than paying attention to what they’re saying! Maybe that makes me a visual learner and an auditory learner perhaps would not be bothered by visual distractions? 

So for me, I have chosen to avoid the green screen in favour of a plain backdrop, that I hope means the person I’m speaking to will focus on what I’m saying rather than be interested in what is going on behind me. 

Try not to judge!

I think all of us have become rather judgemental about what we see in the background - I know I’ve watched a number of newsreaders presenting from their homes and some have had amazing rooms and some have been really untidy! We judge an awful lot from what we see...I particularly remember having a chat with a friend this summer about this something along the lines of ”one person can’t possibly have read all of those books” when someone appeared to have a library in their home and then “how fancy is that house” versus “what a tip”. I think it’s human nature to make assumptions about people from what we see - but in a business environment, you’re wanting those assumptions to be favourable. I’d be really interested to know if you consider what is in the background of your video feed after reading this.

As soon as I had signed up for this virtual exhibition, I was onto social media to let my audience know, as you’d expect, and I was super lucky on this occasion to find the organisers were brilliant about posting and used my logo in their publicity, which was really generous. As we reached the day of the expo, I had a message from the organisers to thank them for engaging so much with their posts - as I’ve highlighted before, social media is a two way street, the more you help others, the more they will help you and I wanted the expo to be as successful as they did - what helps them helps me too doesn’t it? 

Check out the platform’s features

The event was hosted on a platform called Hopin. I’ve used this once before and was very impressed, both in its simplicity but also in the features it offers - I’ll definitely look into using this myself for future projects. Once you have accessed the platform, you can update your profile so that others can see who you are with an image rather than simply your initials - remember it’s about building that connection, so anything that makes it easier for your customers to connect with you is beneficial and shouldn’t be overlooked. What I liked about this event was that you could see all of the visitors and send them messages, so I used that opportunity as an icebreaker. 

Then came the speed networking - this had been described to us as brutal, as you had 4 minutes and once it was done, you moved straight on to the next person and you had no idea who you were going to get. The reality of it was that if you were having a good conversation, you had the option to extend that 4 minutes. The really harsh reality on the other hand, was that at 30 seconds in you had the option to leave if you didn’t feel it was a good match!! Having had a chat with someone about this feature afterwards, I could see the benefit if, for example, the person on the other end was saying inappropriate things and you didn’t know how to respond.

Set yourself up for success

I was so thrilled that I’d had some really interesting conversations with some great business people, so I felt it had set me up for success. Clearly there’s a long way to go and lots of follow up to do, but it gave me a real boost to hear what potential clients find are their stumbling blocks to moving forward and how I might be able to fit into their business plan to help them achieve their goals.

It was a very timely event as I have just signed up with a lovely business coach and we had discussed my strengths and the aspects of what I do that bring me the most joy to uncover where I should direct my energies only the day before, so it was good to test the water and get feedback from these new connections on whether they thought I could be of help to them along their business journey.

Tired but happy!

And do you know, I did still feel exhausted after it, a kind of euphoric exhaustion but thankfully my feet didn’t hurt from standing up all day! I think it’s easy to underestimate the mental strength required to listen carefully and absorb that information, in order to understand and consider how you can help in a manner that is supportive rather than salesy, especially when you’re under a time pressure. Depending on which area you live in and which Tier you currently sit in (written during the Coronavirus pandemic 2020), the personal connection to so many people in a morning was really reassuring - you could tell everyone wanted to have a chat, which was lovely. Either way, Friday afternoon was for catching up with a business friend and not having to think too hard!

Follow up in earnest starts today and yes…..I have already signed up for the next virtual expo in January. If you’d like to know more about it, drop me a message in the comments and I’ll put you in touch with the organiser.

How have you found virtual expos? Have you enjoyed them or do you hate them? Remember to always talk about them on your social media channels to encourage your audience to attend - they will appreciate you signposting them to a great event.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please use the comments section below and let’s start a discussion right here!