I just returned from the RSA Conference in San Francisco where I helped a client set up their booth and man the show floor.

Rapid7 Booth

This conference is a large IT security conference with over 15,000 registered attendees and over 300 exhibiting vendors. I was planning on blogging from the conference, but after 8-10 hour days on my feet, I had all I could do to read my email to stay up to date on what was happening with my other clients.

I did manage to walk around the exhibit area and check out other vendors and their booths to see what was in vogue in tradeshow decor and attire. Polo shirts, button down oxfords and tee shirts all adorned with the various company logos were everywhere. Booth layouts were interesting – some very simple and others extremely elaborate. Many spent money on “models and rapsters for hire” to attract people to their booth. The question is did these antics do anything to attract the right person to their booth in order to achieve a satisfactory ROI on the show?

Tradeshows and conferences are great places to meet prospects and start building business relationships that are critical to a company’s success. People get to see the product, hear first hand what it can do and meet people from the company. They can begin to form opinions about the company from how they are perceived at the show. Although you need to put your best image out there, it does not have to be expensive and trendy.

Like everything in marketing, a tradeshow appearance needs to project the brand, be professional looking and attract the right audience. We spent approximately $10 – $15k total for the show. Our simple 10×10 booth with a contest to win an Atari Wii managed to attract over 350 people who stopped, took literature and entered the contest. Of those, I suspect about 50 are truly interested in our product. Close a couple of them and the show more than pays for itself.