Bring Passion to Your Trade Shows

We've talked a little bit in the last few days about planning for our trade show marketing events.  We haven't gotten into nuts and bolts planning tasks such as creating new exhibits, planning pre-show mailers, and filling out show forms.  We have been talking about looking at our organizations and our events to figure out where we fit in.  This is critical so that we understand what message we need to bring.  The final piece of this puzzle is really all about passion.

We've talked a little bit in the last few days about planning for our trade show marketing events.  We haven't gotten into nuts and bolts planning tasks such as creating new exhibits, planning pre-show mailers, and filling out show forms.  We have been talking about looking at our organizations and our events to figure out where we fit in.  This is critical so that we understand what message we need to bring.  The final piece of this puzzle is really all about passion.

It is critical that we bring a passion to our trade show events.  We need to create a picture of what we believe we can and must deliver to a particular market.  I received additional insights into this at a John Maxwell leadership event last month called Maximum Impact.  At the event we heard from Andy Stanley who is the pastor at an Atlanta church called Northpoint Community Church.  Andy gave a great talk about casting vision.  The emphasis of his talk was about how vision doesn't stick and he gave us insights on what we need to do to make vision stick.  Here were the insights he shared with us:

1. State vision simply
2. Cast it convincingly (define the problem, what would go undone if we don't make our vision a reality)
3. Repeat it regularly
4. Celebrate it systematically
5. Embrace it Personally

Point number 2 is really what it is all about at our trade shows.  Our vision is really our message and purpose for that particular show.  If we attend a particular show, we have to clearly understand what problem we are there to solve and paint a picture for attendees of what will go unsolved or undone if we don't make our vision a reality.  You've got to bring passion to your events to make that happen.