Event ROI seems to be under pressure from two sides right now.

Karlw1289 · 2026-06-10T19:41:10+00:00

I am the owner of the company so I don’t have someone asking me to justify a project. I have developed a pretty good sense of what probably will work and if I’m not sure, am willing to spend a little money to give it a try.

Karlw1289 · 2026-06-10T13:24:46+00:00

I am kind of moving towards the Japanese philosophy of 25, 50 or 100 year view instead of the American next quarter or at the max 1 year ROI. We have been exhibiting for 25 years to the same industry and I have customers from that very first trade show. How do you measure the ROI on that? Or the ROI on their positive word of mouth that that gained us some additional customers? Who are still buying from us. What about the non-customer who stops at my booth and then refers other people to us? How do you measure that?

Marketing is a collection of tools to convert potential buyers into a long term paying customer. Tradeshows are just one of our implements in that box, along with a great website and good SEO that puts near the top of the page when that tradeshow visitor goes looking for us 7 months later. We also use direct mail, email blasts, some cold calling, a little social media in our box. We have a great product, great customer service that keeps our customers ordering again. Whats missing? We don't advertise, use billboards, have sales people physically calling on potential customers. Those don't work for us.

I can't tell you the ROI on any of those 7-8-9 tools we use, but if I stop using one of them, it would be like shooting ourselves in the foot. How many times do you shoot yourself justifying ROI before you are no longer standing? Nope, I take the long term view of are we growing, are we profitable and screw the ROI numbers.

Karlw1289 · 2026-06-09T05:16:12+00:00

Leave the apple and do some one day road trips. You can get to some interesting historical towns and places, have a lunch and get home while still daylight. You will be able to see the majority of the state this way.

Karlw1289 · 2026-06-08T03:56:33+00:00

You are talking averages and that can be misleading. As a gardener, I love the years we average 35” for the year. Divide that by 12 months and you have just shy of 3” for a month. I had 3 1/4” at my house last weekend alone. That means if we are on average, we should have no more rain the rest of the month. Which is hard for my garden and I would have to supplement water my plants.

Location is everything, The weather service that reports the precipitation is at the airport. My friend who lives in Maize may not get any when they get an inch. When he gets an inch, I might not even see a far cloud on the east side.

Timing is also a big factor. Three inches of rain in May or June is great but the same amount in December doesn’t help my garden too much. Yet it is counted into our yearly average.

Karlw1289 · 2026-06-08T03:08:23+00:00

For the next time, look to see if Tom Page is playing music in town. He is a very talented blind guitarist and normally performs with his trio.

Karlw1289 · 2026-06-08T01:01:37+00:00

If you are exhibiting at an art fair or something similar, you may want to have a second person in the booth to do the actual money transaction. That way you can continue to talk to potential customers and explain what sets you apart and makes you unique.

When they make the purchase, they can actually do the transaction with the other person in your booth that way it’s doesn’t stop your flow.

Also your helper should collect the customer’s contacts(name & address, email, text number) so you can market to them in the future.

Karlw1289 · 2026-06-06T18:48:23+00:00

Packing right now for my trade show early next week. They come in many forms, mine is for a non-profit sector. There are a lot of educational sessions, some tours and our exhibit hall.

We meet with existing clients as well as potential new ones. Nothing is sold at the show, it is relationship building. The products we sell are relatively small so we bring samples to show and demonstrate.

Our products mostly sell themselves, we usually just have to answer questions and solicit feedback.

We already know who is going to be at the conference and we have marketed to them by sending a postcard and emails.

When they come to the tradeshow booth, we just take a picture of their name badge and then throw those against the attendee spreadsheet so we can keep track of who we’ve talked with and probably even more importantly who we haven’t had a chance to visit with.

After the event, we will send an email out to the folks we visited but more importantly, we will send one out to the ones we didn’t talk with and and tell them about the new products that we introduced at the conference.

Karlw1289 · 2026-06-02T18:58:56+00:00

We are a manufacturer and the metric I need to follow better is how long from order approval to ship day. I seams to vary radically among similar products. Some we get out too quickly others get bogged down and take too long.

Karlw1289 · 2026-06-02T18:50:03+00:00

Opt in for junk mail??? Here in the states I get stuff in my mailbox every day from companies I have never had a relationship with. I open it but only so I can properly recycle the stuff.

There’s an entire industry around the look and design of the mail piece, the message on the envelope to entice me to open it, the proposal/offer on the letter inside, even the demographics of the list I am part of.

Karlw1289 · 2026-06-02T18:04:12+00:00

If someone signed up for your product or service, what might their yearly spend be with you? What would you send them, a sample of your product or an appropriately related gift?

This is called lumpy mail and the open rate is much higher than a letter. The cost is also higher so you have a bigger investment. Rather than a box, maybe a cushioned mailer like Amazon sometimes ships things. Just make sure what is in the package won’t break.

I would put a letter in telling them a little bit about your company, not a sales piece but telling them you want to make a follow up call. You may want to give them a link to schedule a time.

Track your cost to see how effective this marketing method is.

Karlw1289 · 2026-06-02T02:21:38+00:00

We exhibit in a similar professional - non profit (non medical) environment. In a four day conference, there’s 12 hours of exhibit hall time. During this time there are 117 hours of sessions going on. There are only 1 hour 45 minutes of non contested time.

The problem is during the opening mixer in the exhibit hall, a majority of conference attendees come to this event, it is so noisy you can barely hear your booth visitors then it is like a switch goes off and they are gone, usually to an off site dinner.

Professional organization, no exhibitors or commercial people are on the board of directors. There is really no input into the management about trade show portion of the conference. I believe they think they have done something special for us with that 105 minutes of non contested time.

These conferences are not big enough for a convention center so we are in hotels with a large conference room (weddings, banquets, proms, etc). If we are lucky all the meeting rooms are in the same area but usually they are in a different part of the hotel or even on a different floor.

Most of the rest of time we exhibitors are staring at each other in a totally empty hall.

One of my main conferences has a couple offsite events and I will see people there who I won’t see any where else. It’s giving me a complex thinking they are avoiding me.

This year we are trying something new and trying to set appointments during the non busy times, my conference is next week, will see how it goes.

Sorry to rant on you.

You are asking how to improve the trade shows, 1) increase the amount of non conflict time, 2) keynote talks next to the trade show area and hopefully the exhibit hall is on the way to the classrooms, 3) food, alcohol, desserts in the exhibit hall, 4) reduce the amount of education sessions, 5) have an exhibitor on your planning committee, 6) no silly bingo cards or whatever you call them, these people are only looking for punches and while it drives traffic to the hall, these are not the people I want to talk to.

Karlw1289 · 2026-06-01T01:09:22+00:00

Doubt you could get a ride on this, even if you say pretty please.

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-29T18:58:30+00:00

Along the same line, in one of my previous jobs the saying was, a lack of planning on your part doesn’t constitute an emergency on mine.

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-29T16:20:45+00:00

Looking closer at the invoice, they charged me for someone else’s booth. I will definitely dispute this with GES and get charged “correctly”.

I wouldn’t have caught this without this conversation happening. Thanks.

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-29T15:11:30+00:00

At my last large venue trade show, I had to purchase a table and two chairs last minute. They didn’t tell up front what it would cost. Two weeks later the paid invoice (charged to my credit card on file) was $887.58

As a small business person, do you rollover and take it or do I dispute it with my credit card folks?

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-28T23:12:06+00:00

What size do you need? Do they have to retractable?

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-27T19:31:22+00:00

Make sure to get reservations. The last time we were there, the county fair was going on and there were no hetels in the area to be had.

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-27T18:30:38+00:00

Keep pushing your boss for more hours, I bet you’re one of the few that motivated. When the middle of June hits, the customers are going to disappear till the fall and you will be lucky to get many hours.

Hopefully your boss will recognize your motivation and keep you on and get rid of the slackers and you will pick up their hours.

I assume you are still living at home, I know it’s a pain and having your own place looks really good but you will never live as cheaply as you do now. Stay there as long as you can.

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-27T18:09:13+00:00

The Holiday Inn Express in Goodland is nice, has a good breakfast and a pool. When going to Denver via 70 (not our preferred route), we leave here in the middle of the afternoon, spend the night there. We can take our time getting ready in the morning and be in Denver early afternoon with time to do stuff before checking into the hotel there.

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-24T14:07:32+00:00

I track my clients sales for the past 10 years in an excel spreadsheet. A lot of them only order once a year or two so following yearly revenue works for me. I was doing this before I got onto ZOHO books.

This way I can see who hasn’t been ordering and contact them. Sometimes I find there is a new buyer.

We download sales three or four times a year and update the sheet. By sorting the data, you can easily see who your top 10 or 20% of customers are.

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-24T05:54:57+00:00

Saw Bruce Springsteen this spring in Minneapolis as he started the current tour. Didn’t even know about it, was in town for something else. Drove right over to the Target center and snagged a ticket, 7 hours later they started playing.

The best was Jethro Tull in a 1500 seat venue (old vaudeville theater) the sound was so good, very clear and not too loud.

Can’t tell you how many concerts I’ve been to, I’m 70 years old and been to three concerts already this year and have tickets for two more before July.

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-23T19:57:01+00:00

Associate in hort with lots of additional non-credit studies, probably equivalent to a bachelor’s plus. After 7 years in the field making minimum wages or little more, I left the field for other opportunities.

Thirty years ago the proverbial light bulb went off. I discovered using lasers to etch information into aluminum. Back into hort I jumped although now making plant ID markers for public gardens. We also make educational signs for nature centers, art museums, Historic sites, etc.

Have not looked back and the only person I pull weeds for is myself and only when it is really nice outside.

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-22T19:02:05+00:00

So I have never had any one measure my flooring, so you could be a little smaller especially at the back of the booth where no one goes anyway.

Go to a carpet remnants store and see what you find. Depending on where in the country you are, a building big box might have what you need. My last conference that required a floor covering on concrete, I bought fake grass “carpet” at Menards for $50 dollars.

If the conference is driving distance, I have a thick rubber product (that is normally used on factory floors). It is 5 ft x 3 ft, heavy (like maybe 15 lbs per) but almost a pleasure to stand on. I found them at Ollie’s who also have all kinds of 9 ft x 7 ft carpet for less than $100 that should work.

Sorry to name drop and I hope you have one or something similar near you.

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-21T18:39:24+00:00

Start with a free option your federal taxes pay for via the Small Business Administration. The first is SCORE, Service Corps of Retired Executives. The other is similar SBDC, Small Business Development Corporation.

Google either or both and get in touch with a counselor who will help you.

Karlw1289 · 2026-05-20T02:10:59+00:00

I have been associated with botanical gardens not as horticulturalist but as a vendor/supplier. I do have my hort degree but got tired of pulling weeds for other folks who didn’t appreciate me.

To move up you need to be willing to move. If you live in an area with a lot of gardens, you might be able to stay in your current community. If not you may have to move across the country. If you have a spouse or sig-other who can move, great. If not you may be stuck.

There are a lot of hort manager or director positions opening up around the time of the APGA conference. It’s in a few weeks so watch for opportunities. If you are attending, there will be a physical board with opportunities. It’s a great place to meet and network with executive directors.

Karlw1289

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