Exhibitors
DO
Make sure your team co-ordinate their meeting planners, to ensure that there’s never a time when everyone is booked up. After all, you will still need people manning the stand!
Make sure you have plenty of staff free for meetings at any one time. It might mean a higher number of your team than usual at Olympia, but it’s worth it.
Log onto the Concierge service early because diaries fill up fast. Two weeks before the show the top buyers might have full diaries.
DON’T
Blanket bomb visitors with requests to chat. There’s a limit (50) to how many invitations you can have outstanding at any one time, so be selective. Once a pending invitation is accepted or declined, you can send out another.
Overwrite your requests. Meeting requests should be short and sweet - 30-50 words is plenty. They don’t need an in-depth family history, and it’s NOT an advert.
Visitors
DO
Update your availability regularly, and be clear about when you are going to attend. Block out any times that you definitely aren’t available.
Get the right balance of invitations (made by you) and acceptances (sent to you).
Check the LWF schedule for tastings, talks etc. Bookmark the various live sessions you want to attend, these will upload into your diary so that you can plan your meetings around them.
DON’T
Fill your diary the second it goes live. It’s a good idea to keep some space free for interesting requests that you weren’t expecting that come a bit later on.
Forget to check your phone. You’ll be notified by email when someone contacts you or accepts your request – so keep an eye out!
