5 Tradeshow Planning and Transportation Tips

When you invest thousands in your tradeshow planning—giveaways, booth, staff, marketing materials and attention-grabbers—don’t forget that last critical step, tradeshow transportation. The marketing elements of an event can overshadow logistics considerations critical to avoiding costly and embarrassing shipping blunders. Before your next show, use these tips to make sure every piece of your booth or exhibit arrives on time.

1. Label your booth crates.

Label all booth crates properly and mark them with a large color logo and industrial-strength luggage tags. When you need to identify your booth in a sea of display crates or assist a provider in locating your shipment, clear and bold identification is a must.

2. Get the right help.

Ask peers and other exhibitors for tradeshow transportation references and recommendations. Reputable companies with tradeshow planning and transportation experience may have slightly higher rates but weigh any additional shipping costs against the cost of delays, or worse, of having no booth at all at the show opening.

3. Document every crate.

From crate number to contents to tracking numbers, you may need quick access to a full inventory of all your show crates. Whether you keep it on your smartphone or in your back pocket, always have your inventory within reach.

4. Use advance warehouse space if offered.

If the event sponsors have planned for an advance warehouse, use it. Unforeseen circumstances like bad weather can cause flight delays.

5. Have copies of all paperwork and files with you.

Bring copies of all your show forms, including registration documents and confirmations, and have them on hand, just in case. You may need access to them before your exhibit boxes arrive. Also, bring duplicates of all audio and visual presentations you’ll be using.

We’d love to learn more about your business and talk about ways our tradeshow and event logistics management team can help. Feel free to contact us.