Ticket Summit® is Going Green and You Can Too!

Spring is a great opportunity to improve sustainability around the office! Here are some great tips for reassessing your practices, and making them more environmentally friendly:

·         Use Eco-friendly materials in the break room—the break room is one of the most wasteful places in the office. Countless cups, plastic cutlery, and paper plates are thrown away every day. Make your break  room greener by using re-usable mugs and plates or purchasing biodegradable materials.

·         Recycle your electronics—When old electronics are thrown away, they can leech toxins into the soil and water supply. The materials in recycled electronics will be reused in new ones. Visit the EPA’s website for a list of electronics recycling centers near you.

·         Plant a tree—Planting is always a great way to reduce your carbon footprint, and make the world a lovelier place. Ticket Summit® recently planted the tree below, and will move it outside soon! If you’d like to receive your own TS sapling to plant, simple email info@ticketsummit.org.

For more tips and tricks on going green around the office, visit the U.S. Small Business Administration’s website.  With just a few small steps, your business can become greener overnight!

Webinar Recap: Boost Your Trade Show Sales!

Last week, Ticket Summit® Executive Director, Molly A. Mérez, Ph.D., led Boost Your Trade Show Sales!, an hour-long webinar as part of the Ticket Summit® Plus 2013 Spring webinar series. In the webinar, Mérez provided tips and tricks for gathering leads and boosting sales when you exhibit at a trade show.

For Mérez, the most important part of exhibiting at a trade show is having a goal in mind. Are you launching a new product? Do you want to reach new customers or rebrand your current company? Your goal will dictate the design of your exhibition space.

With your goal in mind, what do you want booth visitors to do? Will you be having extended conversations with them? Do you need to perform a demo? Will they be stopping by briefly, or having an extended meeting with you?

What you want visitors to do should guide the design of your materials. If you expect visitors to listen to a 30-minute demo, Mérez says, you should provide a table and chairs for their comfort. If you are planning on having extended conversations, pertinent information—like your logo or phone number—should be posted in a location where it won’t be blocked by people standing at your booth.

Mérez also provided some tips on how to stay within budget, like purchasing fewer, high-quality swag items rather than a large quantity of items. She also discussed ideas for promoting your presence at the show, and following up afterwards. Mérez recommends following up with connections via email the day you meet them, rather than when the conference is over. That way, they’re more likely to remember you!

To brainstorm ideas about your trade show booth, feel free to reach out to the Ticket Summit® team! Just give Ticket Summit® a call at +1.860.416.5767 or email info@ticketsummit.org.

Ticket Summit® Plus will continue on Wednesday, May 22 at 1 PM ET with Improve Your Inventory Management!, led by Scott Barrows of Symbioticks. Register now for FREE!

Are You Exhibiting at a Trade Show?

Exhibiting at a trade show can involve considerable logistics, particularly if the trade show is in a different city from your headquarters. With so many elements to consider, where do you start to plan?

Well, you can start by setting a goal: what to you hope to attain by exhibiting at this trade show? Do you want to generate leads, raise brand awareness, sell a specific product? Are you looking to create partnerships or draw in new clients? Setting a goal will determine the design of your booth, which will in turn help you to determine what you need to bring with you to the show.

With your goal in mind, you can next determine what items you will need at your booth. For example, if you plan on selling a product, presumably, you will need to perform product demos at your booth. To perform software demos, you’ll need a computer and large monitor, so multiple attendees can view the demo at once.

Some trade show items are necessary no matter what your goal may be. Signage can make your booth stand out and draw in attendees easily. Innovative swag items can create buzz around the trade show hall. Business cards and documentation about your company are absolute necessities, no matter what.

Once you have determined what you plan to bring, it’s simply a matter of booking your hotel and shipping your items. The host hotel or the trade show management can assist you in shipping, but you can also mail them directly to yourself at the hotel.

Trade show exhibiting can seem like a daunting process, but if you approach it with a singular goal in mind, you’ll see how all of the elements come together to achieve that goal. With some advanced planning and by answering some simple questions, you should be able to more than exceed any trade show goal you set!

Welcome to the Ticket Summit® Blog!

Welcome to the Ticket Summit® Blog! This blog is a resource for all levels of the ticketing industry. Like the annual conference and trade show, this blog will help you to boost your business through tips and tricks for increasing sales, marketing best practices, going green initiatives, and much more. We’ll also provide you with sneak peeks at what’s in store for the upcoming Ticket Summit® conference, and a look backstage at the show itself.

Ticket Summit® is the leading conference and trade show for ticketing and live entertainment executives. Register for the networking event of the summer here. The conference will be held July 17-19, 2013 at Bellagio in Las Vegas, NV, and the Ticket Summit® blog will keep you connected to the industry year-round!