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REPORT ON BUSINESS SOUTH WEST

Last Updated: 09/11/2006 15:15:17

We attended the Business Southwest show last year at WestPoint and found that there was a really broad mix of local businesses ranging from large franchises to cottage industries. This diversity convinced us that the show would be the ideal platform for us to reach a wider audience with DV8 Media and we booked for the 2006 event almost immediately after visiting.

The show is organised by TJW Exhibitions who we found to be very helpful right from the minute we signed up to the last hour on the final show day. They provided excellent information on what to expect from the show and also helped us with advertising before the event. This included a listing on the shows promotional web site which in turn linked through to our own site; they also provided invitations and flyers for us to send out to clients/prospects. They also supplied animated banners for us to use on our web site to help raise awareness of the show.

For exhibitors who may not have experience of these kinds of events they also arranged an exhibitors workshop “getting the most from exhibitions” where people could go along and receive valuable information to ensure that your planning was all in place and that every element had been considered.

The show took place on the 12^th and 13^th of October and exhibitors were allowed entry after 2pm on the Wednesday to get there stands setup and ready to go. When we arrived we were able to park reasonably close to the main doors and getting equipment in and out was no trouble at all. There were TJW employees everywhere to assist but we found that the information provided to us before the event was good enough that we were able to organise ourselves once we had found our stand. We spent approx 2 hours setting out our displays which consisted of a counter, 2x roller banners and 2 laptops attached to flat screens. All equipment was available for hire if required but we were in the fortunate position of having our own. Wireless internet access was available on all the stands for a fee of £10 per day, for a company specialising in web based work this seemed very reasonable. The vibe in the exhibition hall was good and we found all exhibitors to be good natured and eager to chat about their company or ours, this made things a little easier for us as this was the first event of this size we had attended.

On the first day of the exhibition exhibitors were allowed entry from 9am onwards and visitors from10am. This extra hour in the morning gave us all the chance to double and triple check all the bits and pieces we had in place. We ran a competition on our stand which simply involved visitors having to place their business card into a draw. This helped break the ice with people approaching our stand and also provided a way for us to gain contact details. The main prize we offered was a 4 page brochure style web site so it was safe to assume that anyone putting their card in the draw was in need of one! When the doors opened at 10 there was a consistent stream of people and by 11 it had really picked up and at some points we had 4 or 5 people waiting to speak to us on the stand. A company called SilverStream TV were circulating the event and doing on the spot interviews with exhibitors; this footage was edited straight away in their mobile studio and was then posted on the Business Southwest web site. We were able to add this link to our site too and displayed it on one of our screens on the stand. There was also a crew from Westcountry TV that were interviewing different people and Gemini FM were offering on the spot adverts from their stand. This left the impression that the organisers had made a really good effort to ensure that everyone involved received as much exposure as possible.

The organisers provided good facilities for both visitor and exhibitor. There was a client lounge where we could take clients if we needed to take an enquiry to the next level, a network cafe which supplied fresh baguettes, coffee etc and of course, a Wi-Fi hot spot. There were also various seminars held throughout the day in a fairly large seminar theatre, covering a wide range of topics from networking to being an effective entrepreneur.

Overall I felt the show was very positive for us, we met with many business people that we knew and also made first contact with many potential clients, collecting contact information along the way. We launched a new website the week previous to the show and we received lots of positive feedback from visitors to our stand. One chap mentioned that he was in the market for a new site and that he had spent all of the previous evening checking the web links of any designers on the Business Southwest web site. I was particularly pleased when he stated that he liked ours the most and this also provided the proof that users were making use of the information available to them.

After the event I received an email to offer us a place at next year’s show at this year’s prices, the chap was not at all surprised when I said we would be happy to exhibit again next year.