talkmagic.co.uk

You must remember that pounds are worth more than dollars. 1000 pounds is about $1500. The pound is not very good at the moment. Normally it is about 2 grand.
In the UK I don't think a grand a day is underselling yourself.

mark lewis wrote:You must remember that pounds are worth more than dollars. 1000 pounds is about $1500. The pound is not very good at the moment. Normally it is about 2 grand.
In the UK I don't think a grand a day is underselling yourself.

My mistake. On this side of the water I'd be asking for more.

Any one on Talkmagic ever work at a tradeshow?

taffy wrote:Any one on Talkmagic ever work at a tradeshow?

I’ve not performed at a trade show, but in my day job I'm a manager at a corporate events and conferences company. I therefore have a lot of experience dealing with marketing managers from exhibitor companies.

Here are a few pieces of advice from the organiser’s point of view. None of these are to do with performing magic – all this information is about the business side of things.

1) When paying so much for an event, clients are very demanding and very picky about how they want things done. (Wouldn’t you be?!). Where possible you should try to be flexible to meet their needs because if the trade show doesn’t work for them they will be looking for something to blame. Don’t let it be you.

2) The flip side to the above is that sometimes clients will ask for awful things that you just know can’t work. You are an expert in what you do and it is part of your service to advise them on this. For them to listen to your advice, you need to have the right working relationship in place from the outset. You are not simply an entertainer; you are a an entertainment consultant – a solutions provider. Sell yourself on this and they will listen to your suggestions as an expert in this field.

3) More often than not these guys measure their success by qualified leads at the end of the day or by deals done within a certain amount of time after the event. Only a tiny minority of savvy marketing managers take into account brand awareness. (They have to justify their decisions to their superiors and the effect on brand awareness is very difficult to measure. It's much easier to point to a pile of business cards.) Bear this in mind when speaking to trade show clients. Find out how they measure success, what they want to get out of the trade show etc, and tailor your approach accordingly. This is much easier if you have followed the advice in point 2.

4) Be aware of their target market and what else is happening at the event. Often at trade shows there are workshops and conferences alongside the exhibition. If a large proportion of their target market is attending these workshops, you need to make sure you are always on the stand when these delegates are on a break. Often the client will only be interested in a fraction of the attendees so you need to make sure you are there when a higher proportion of them are around.

5) At the end of the event speak to your client and drop in details of what you delivered. They will be so busy doing their job, they might have missed the fact that you entertained 50 groups of people that afternoon and that a rough average of x people per group picked up a brochure after you performed.

If anyone disagrees with any of this, please let me know. I’ve not worked as an entertainer at an event so I have probably missed some of the subtleties, but the above is my advice from dealing with hundreds of corporate event clients over the past 5 years.

I went on a bit long there. sorry.

I have performed at many trade shows. I think giznorm gives very good advice.

I have also worked at HUNDREDS of consumer shows as a svengali deck demonstrator but that is a different ball game altogether although there are some similarities.

I think the guy with the bell was Charles Green. I saw him at IFSEC a couple of years ago and had a good chat with him. Nice guy.