SHOWCASE Best Practices

Geographical and Time Zone Staffing 

The SHOWCASE is operating 24 hours a day, simultaneously, in every place around the globe. Trade visitors log onto our platform at all hours of the day and night. Your staffing plans should take this into account. If you have multiple offices in different time zones, consider having those overseas colleagues available when you (in the U.S.) are not.  

Depending on how specific the focus is on your SHOWCASE exhibit, you may even consider having overseas agents and representatives register as Staff.  

Think of it this way – if your exhibit was set up at the Paris Air Show or EuroSatory, you might have certain Staff from the U.S. “HQ” present, but you might also have European office colleagues, agents or representatives on the stand with you.  If your exhibit was set up at the Singapore Air Show or Malaysia’s DSA Show, you might have different U.S. staff and/or different agents / representatives on hand.   

The omnipresent nature of the SHOWCASE provides a unique challenge and opportunity as visitors from different regions of the world will be visiting the same exhibit.  There are three ways to address that:

  1. Create one “corporate” display with the contact details of a U.S.-based “administrator” or business development executive who then routes regional queries to the responsible individual(s) overseas.
  2. Register overseas colleagues, agents, or representatives on the exhibit (clearly identifying their regional remits) and allow visitors to connect with them directly.
  3. Create multiple exhibits regionally focused.  This approach allows for each exhibit to be targeted in terms of message, language, and staffing, and most emulates the IRL experience.  Lockheed Martin is the first exhibitor taking this approach as the Middle East-focused exhibit set up in support of their IDEX 2021 participation now remains on the site while a second (Lockheed Martin Australia) is being prepared to debut in advance of the Land Forces 2021 exhibition set for June.

Kallman Worldwide has also taken this approach with the numerous different exhibits staffed by different teams and various overseas agents and partners.   Not only does this allow Kallman to deliver a focused message, but through the involvement of overseas partners and agents, there is always someone online and monitoring our display(s).

Online Expos offers greatly reduced prices for companies electing to purchase multiple subscriptions to establish multiple regional displays.  Drop and line for details 

Competency and Subject Matter Staffing 

We all know that line engineers rarely attend international trade events “in real life.” But on the SHOWCASE, they can be invaluable contacts for visitors who have technical questions or who are technical pre-qualifiers.  Through the power of the SHOWCASE’s keyword search, your engineers will be easily found and connected directly to the other platform members.  Customer Service and Human Resources are two other Staff position you should seriously consider.  Both can provide direct and timely information to platform attendees visiting your exhibit.

IN SHORT: when it comes to staffing your Exhibit on the SHOWCASE, don’t think in terms of “in real life” – rather, think of responding to potential buyers “in real time.”