If you are attending SPATEX this year, here are a few ideas on how to get the most out of your time there.
SPATEX is in a new location this year, so why not freshen up your approach to attending the show?
Now in it’s 18th year, SPATEX has moved to the Jaguar Exhibition Hall at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.
After so many years in Brighton, it’s a fair bet that quite a lot of people who will be attending this year will be using the post code CV6 6GE on their sat-navs to get to the show rather than their memory of old and familiar routes and roads.
Once you arrive, the exhibition hall and its layout will be new and unfamiliar.
That’s good, it’ll be exciting, but to get the most out of the show you will want to do your homework, do your research and make a plan.
Whether you are just going to be there for a day or whether you will be staying longer, think of it as planning your journey through the exhibition so that you see the stands and exhibitors that are important to you and meet the people that you want to meet.
Have a look on the web.
The Jaguar hall is a large, rectangular space and for SPATEX it will hold roughly 100 stands.
If you look on the SPATEX 2014 website, there is a list of all the exhibitors.
That list also gives you information about each of those companies – an exhibitor profile – that includes detail on what products they will be showing, contact information for them, a link to their website and their stand number.
Obviously it is much quicker to look through 100 exhibitors on your computer than it is to walk around 100 stands, so look through this list and make a note of the ones that you definitely want to see.
One of the great things about SPATEX and exhibitions like it is, of course, the ‘lucky find’, the chance meeting with a company that is offering a product or service that is perfect for your business. You’ll want to leave room in your schedule for some random exploring, but at least if you have a list of ‘must-sees’ then you won’t be going home with regrets or disappointment.
The other benefit of doing your homework is that, when you actually visit these stands, if you show that you have already taken an interest in the company, they are going to be much more interested in talking to you.
Old friends and new contacts.
For lots of us, the thing we enjoy most about SPATEX is meeting people, catching up with old friends and contacts and making new ones.
The stands will stay in the same place, you can find them on a map, but people move around. Once again it’s a good idea to make some arrangements before the day or days that you will be there.
Get in touch with old friends and arrange a time and place to meet.
Try to find out who else will be attending. Perhaps there’s someone in particular you’ve been trying to contact or you want to know who will be representing a particular business.
There are a few simple ways that you can try and find this information.
LinkedIn.
People are quite likely to start talking about SPATEX on LinkedIn before the event so check your contacts and see who’s going.
Post the fact that you will be going to SPATEX on your LinkedIn profile.
Twitter.
There is already a hashtag for the SPATEX show which is #SPATEX
The great thing about Twitter is that people use it not only before the event but during it as well.
You can follow it to find out what exhibitors are up to and who else is planning to visit. You can use the event hashtag to tweet that you’ll be attending, and ask if anyone wants to meet up. It’s as simple and as effective as that.
We hope this article has been useful.
We hope you enjoy SPATEX and, of course, we hope to see you there.
