Bob Milam, trade show manager at Kerry Americas, is a past All-Star Award winner, a current Editorial Advisory Board member, a Conference Advisory Board member, and an EXHIBITOR Conference faculty member. [email protected]

f your staffers self-destruct on the show floor, they’ll take your plans down with them. I learned this the hard way at the 2001 Institute of Food Technology (IFT) show in New Orleans.

Shortly before the show, my employer acquired another company and its new extruder, a food-processing gizmo that could mass produce bite-sized snacks in a whole new way — think french fries with the catsup on the inside. We decided to position the new machine center stage in our booth. A couple of our food-technology experts would stand guard nearby, giving scripted presentations that explained the machine’s functionality, benefits, and technical specs, and then answering questions from the crowd following the dog-and-pony show.

In fact, we were so jazzed about the idea that we decided to add similar dog-and-pony shows for all of the technologies we planned to show off in our booth at IFT. Our newest gizmo presentation would be at the center of our exhibit, with several other attractions surrounding it, each with its own three- to four-minute presentation.

We hoped the new strategy would set us apart from our competitors, who usually just handed out samples of food and answered questions. We’d still hand out samples, but first our engaging staffers would educate attendees, and dazzle clients and prospects with technical knowledge.

What made the plan seem foolproof was that we had all the pieces in house. Our food-technology experts were great at explaining the gee-whiz stuff in our boardroom. And our marketing staff had worked with them to develop scripts for each demonstration as well as talking points for the follow-up Q&A sessions.

The day before the show started, we did a few dry runs in the booth, and all seemed to be working well. We gathered a crowd of other booth staffers in front of each technology expert’s station, had them give their presentation as our crowd watched, and then threw out a few questions as the experts offered up trays of the final food product being discussed.

In all, we brought about 30 experts to IFT, and each sailed through the dry run. So when the show opened the next day, we felt confident that, unlike our hors d’oeuvre-only competition, we would stand out with both dinner and a show.

The next day, our food technology people showed up at the booth, dressed in lab coats to give them an air of authority. Everyone was in place, and as the show floor opened for business, we couldn’t wait for our presentations to wow the crowd.

Unfortunately, our techie types were a bundle of nerves. I expected about 30 intelligent presenters ready to smoothly talk about our food technology in the booth. Instead, the techies resembled Beaker, the meek, mumbling, shock-haired lab assistant from The Muppets.

When the attendees began arriving 15 minutes into the show, I asked several presenters to stand up, gather a crowd about them, and start their individual presentations. What I got instead was a mutiny.

Oh, they’d grab a tray of food and answer any questions that came their way in the old passive approach we’d always done before — and which our competition still did. But the proactive presentations we’d planned? The near-unanimous response was “No.” They just wouldn’t do it.

What Went Wrong?

We quickly took down the signage inviting attendees to hear our many presentations and decided to trudge through the rest of the show with techie folks serving food and answering direct questions from attendees. A buffet line with a literature rack could have accomplished about as much.

Meanwhile, I had to figure out how our fantastic plan failed. After all, we had intelligent staffers who knew their stuff. We’d seen them speak in front of groups before. And we’d even worked with them to develop and practice their presentations.

We came to the conclusion that we had obviously asked them to do something that was well beyond their comfort zone. We had asked food scientists to become trade show presenters. We made the mistake of saying, “We can change these people.” But we failed, no matter how hard we’d tried. So I learned an important lesson: You have to pick the right people to do jobs they feel comfortable doing, or all your great planning is in vain.

Learn From My Mistake

What can you do to keep your staffers from self-destructing at a show? If you are solely responsible for selecting your booth staff, then good for you. Your only concern is finding the right people in your company to do the specific jobs you need done. As hard as that sounds, frankly, you’ve gotten off easy.

If you have no control over who will staff your booth, examine each staffer’s strengths and weaknesses. Then, assign booth duties that reflect those strengths. For example, don’t make the company introvert your booth greeter. Assign that job to a bubbly salesperson, and task the introvert with answering direct questions or keeping an eye on booth supplies. Also consider designing your strategy around your staffers, rather than planning your exhibit first, then trying to make your staffers do what you want. It might seem like a backwards approach, but you wouldn’t spend time designing an exhibit you didn’t have the funds to fabricate. Similarly, there’s no point in planning a promotion, presentation, or in-booth experience you don’t have the human capital to pull off.

Of course, if you’ve got really deep pockets, you can always hire some ringers. While that’s never the cheapest option, there are some major advantages to consider. But take the same approach with hired talent as you do with in-house staffers — only ask them to do things that match their skill sets. Don’t expect a crowd gatherer to talk shop with your VIPs, and don’t expect a professional presenter to handle technical Q&A sessions with a theater full of prospective clients.

All of your staffers — from hired professionals to in-house employees — have their own unique limitations. The key to your success is identifying them and finding ways to capitalize on them. After all, if getting your message across is the first step toward success at a show, it’s important to make staffing choices that put your best foot forward. e