While trade shows are one of the best ways to generate leads and engage with clients and suppliers, they also come with their own set of challenges. That’s why it is important to have someone on your team who can handle any issues that come your way. Here are our top three trade show horror stories and how we handled them on behalf of our clients!
Angela and the Crushed Counter
To get the floor ready for thousands of attendees, show material handlers work fast to move-in freight. This sometimes results in accidents on the floor and damaged exhibit assets. This was the experience of Angela, one of our Exhibiting Consultants. Her client had a demo station counter get smashed by a forklift. This made it completely unusable unless they found a way to fix it. It was less of a booth, more of a crime scene.
Quickly, Angela arranged for our I&D team to repair the table before the show opened. After the show, she filed claims on her client’s behalf. After months of back-and-forth, she was able to win most of the money back for her client.
Mari and the Runaway Railcar
Our second horror story comes from our CEO, Mari. When she started at the company as an Exhibiting Consultant, she had a client who needed us to ship their exhibit show-to-show. What should have been an easy shipment turned into a nightmare when the carrier mistakenly loaded the crates on a train. And they were 2,000 miles away!
With no way to stop the train and retrieve the crates, Mari worked with the show decorator to provide a rental display for her client for no charge. When it looked like there would be no booth for this show, Mari made sure that the client wouldn’t show up empty-handed.
Anna and the Detoured Display
The last of our trade show horror stories is similar but about a crate not returning after a show. Anna was waiting for a crate to return to our warehouse in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After a few days with no booth, she contacted the show decorator and freight company to figure out where the booth had gone. When they couldn’t help her, Anna started getting creative.
She learned that another exhibitor was missing a booth as well, and their name was frighteningly similar to our clients’. After more investigation, she finally found that the booth had been delivered to them! She arranged a pick-up time and got the crate back in time to be checked and sent back to another show.
If you don’t have someone who knows the ins and outs of the trade show world, you could experience your own trade show horror story. Our team works around the clock to solve any issues that arise with your booth. From runaway shipments to broken tables, our goal is always to become an extension of your team and streamline the entire process, from discovery, design, and build, to shipping, installation, and storage.
Trade shows are scary enough, don’t do them alone! Contact us here.
