Making sure that you have the best tradeshow booths possible is really important, but those won’t do you any good if all of the pieces don’t arrive together, on time, or intact. Believe it or not, tradeshow logistics can be difficult to coordinate, so make sure that you have it all in one place (or hire a company like Blazer to help you) before you start shipping.
Here are our best tips for getting every part of your tradeshow booths where they need to be on time and in one piece by planning for the upcoming show well in advance.
- Send overseas items early enough. The number one mistake companies make with shipping tradeshow booths to an overseas destination is not putting enough buffer time between things like custom holdups and the date of the actual event. If you are sending stuff overseas, find out how long it takes for those items to arrive, whether or not your goods might be held up at customs, and what you can and can’t send into another country.
- Pack things the right way. If you aren’t sure how to pack a specific part of your setup, make sure to enlist the services of a company like Blazer. You’d be surprised at how quickly things can break in transit, and some parts of a tradeshow display are more fragile than they appear. Exhibition services like the ones that Blazer offers will ensure that everything you’ve paid and worked so hard for get to the show in one piece.
- Plan for the return. What will you do with your display pieces once the show has finished? The reality here is that you will have to repack and resend those pieces somewhere after the show, so make sure to do two things.
- First, add enough packaging to the original boxes to ensure that you will have enough paper and other materials to repack and resend the parts after the show. (Otherwise, you’ll be scrambling to find these things on the show floor!)
- Second, set up some kind of storage solution with a company like Blazer that offers exhibition services. Otherwise, you may find yourself scrambling to figure out where to send those parts once you are done with the current show.
- Make sure that someone is available and willing to pick up the pieces of your exhibit once they arrive at the show destination – this means that a part of your team should arrive prior to the actual show date, and that person’s name and phone number should be included on all shipping and custom paperwork. A company that offers exhibition services (like Blazer) can send a member of their team to meet and pick up all of the pieces, so that you don’t have to worry about these details. If you don’t work with a team like Blazer’s make sure that someone is available to pick everything up.
- Run through a setup before the show starts. On the day of the show, you will see people frantically running around trying to set up complex booths, hoist heavy signs, and make sure that everything else is in place. Those that have prepared for the day in advance will have made sure that everything runs smoothly (and is easy to set up) before the actual event starts.
But, some people will be struggling and scrambling with pieces that don’t fit or will be dealing with confusion as a result of not knowing how to fit things together – or how to lift that heavy piece towards the top of a big booth! We recommend arriving a few days early, setting things up well in advance, and making sure that you know of any issues before the start of the show – we can help you there too.
Why Exhibition Services Are a Godsend
From sending your items to the show location, to picking everything up and setting it up to storing and sending the items back to our location, Blazer’s exhibition services will make sure that everything goes smoothly. We’ll send one of our professional team members to the venue location in order to work with your team, and to make sure that your booth is set up quickly and simply.
If you are planning to attend an upcoming tradeshow, contact us to find out how we can help you with shipping, storage, setup, or removal of show pieces. You can also contact us through Facebook for additional details.