FACILITY TOURS
 I’m looking for a new exhibit house, and all of the candidates want to give me a tour of their facilities. What can I gain from a facility tour, and what should I be looking for during such a tour?
 While tours allow exhibit houses to show you the best parts of themselves, they also serve several purposes for exhibitors, not the least of which is the opportunity to peek behind the curtain to reveal the mysteries of Oz. A facility tour also creates a sense of familiarity, which decreases fear. The more you know about something, the less afraid you are of it. And usually, less fear also translates into more trust.
Thus, a facility tour is a face-to-face experience that allows both parties to better familiarize themselves with each other, allowing them to take another step toward — or away from — a long-term relationship.
Taking one tour of one exhibit house is likely to be interesting and eye opening, leaving you with a few “So that is how they do that” realizations. However, touring three to five facilities will probably reveal big differences between the firms, especially if you know what you are looking for.
Here are six things to watch for, each of which will help you determine whether you should continue down that particular yellow brick road.
1. Does the creative staff mix with the factory workers? Does everyone know each others’ names? When people don’t mingle with each other or don’t bother to learn everyone’s names, there’s a definite lack of teamwork. And without teamwork, there’s no reason for everyone to pitch in to make sure that your exhibit is the best it can be.
2. Are the employees enthusiastic and motivated? For the most part, a cutting-edge, quality exhibit is built by bright-eyed, eager employees who enjoy their work and value the company. Do workers you encounter exhibit these traits or suggest such an attitude in their conversations? Do they seem attentive to details, and are they proud of what they’re doing? When trying to answer this question, be bold. Stop the tour and ask people questions such as: How long have you been here? What do you like least about this place? What are you working on now, and is it making you happy? Granted, your questions will likely surprise your tour guide because such queries happen so rarely, but do it anyway. This is the time to really get to know the company and its people.
3. Is the current work in progress similar to what you’re considering? Keep in mind that some production firms gear up assembly for a particular type of production each day. That is, maybe the company does plastics assembly on Monday, graphics on Tuesday, etc. If you don’t see anything that resembles the product you intend to purchase, it doesn’t necessarily mean the firm has little experience with it. However, it should prompt you to inquire further into the company’s experience with that product or service.
4. How are the offices arranged? Every time I visit an office where creative people are all boxed up inside cubicles, I cry a bit inside. Creative types need creative environments. For exhibit managers, then, you’re not going to get a creative exhibit design if the work environment is sucking the life out of the employees. Also try to check out the office doors. An open-door policy typically equates to easy accessibility within an organization, which often carries over into the firm’s client relationships. That is, if doors within the company are not open to internal employees, it’s likely that your account executive’s “door” will not be open to you, especially when you make that emergency call at 3 a.m. to locate your graphics.
5. Aside from exhibit building, what other divisions or services are available within the company? By understanding the divisions, you’ll become aware of the types of services available, and the amount of space allotted to those divisions will also give you insight into how much emphasis the company places on this service, and how much expertise it can offer.
6. Do you like the people? Will these people be able to consistently exceed your expectations? Will working with these people drive you crazy? There are a lot of talented people who you might respect professionally, but some of them simply don’t make for great partners. It’s OK to admit this, and it’s better to understand it from the start than to learn it five months into a three-year contract.
No company is perfect, and a facility tour shouldn’t be the sole deciding factor when choosing one company over another. However, a fact-finding tour centered on the preceding questions is a wise investment of time and resources, allowing you to see for yourself how each exhibit house operates and affording you valuable face time with your potential partners.
— Thom Walker, vice president of special projects, Winntech, Kansas City, MO
STAFF-TRAINING MOTIVATION
While our booth staffers are fairly experienced, they still need to read my staff-training handouts, which contain valuable show-specific information about product emphasis, target markets, etc. How do I motivate staffers with a been-there-done-that attitude to read my staff-training handouts?
Much of an exhibit manager’s job relies on how well other people perform. After all, you probably don’t gather every lead yourself, you don’t install your booth, and you don’t drive your shipment to the show. So I try to evaluate the value of each person’s task in relationship to the effectiveness of my program, and when legally and ethically appropriate, I provide incentives to ensure better performance.
In this light, a well-trained staff is absolutely critical to the success of almost every program. That’s why I provide incentives in the form of cold hard cash to motivate my salespeople to read my pre-show handouts. My secret: I hide messages in the text and reward people for finding them. When I’m preparing my training materials, I locate the most critical information within it and place a note such as “Call me for a reward” immediately after it. For example, if product focus is critical for a specific show, I might slip the following phrase into the text directly after the product-information section: “The first three people to call and tell me which three products are top priorities at the show will receive $25.”
If you’re on a tight budget, you can require that staff members answer multiple questions before they can obtain a single monetary reward, or you can offer a nonmonetary reward, such as one less hour of booth duty or maybe even an early flight home on the last day.
No matter what rewards or questions you choose, the incentives urge people not only to read the handouts, but to read them within a relatively short period of time after receiving them so they can beat other staffers to the loot.
— Kimberly Kee, president, Kee Consulting, Castle Rock, CO
EXHIBIT COSTS
My company needs a new exhibit, but it’s been so long since we’ve purchased something new that I have no idea how much they cost. Can you provide an industry average?
According to the most recent Exhibit Designers & Producers Association’s Economic Survey, custom exhibits average $124 per square foot ($1,238 per linear foot) for an inline exhibit and $139 per square foot for an island exhibit.
— EXHIBITOR Staff
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