It can be really hard to get conference attendees to visit you at a trade show.  There’s a lot of competition for starters. It can be somewhat overwhelming for attendees. And oftentimes, the exhibitors are very “me, me, me” focused instead of thinking about their target audience, which is quite captive at a large industry gathering such as the LMA Annual Conference, which hosts many of its events in the actual exhibit hall to faciliate networking between attendees and the conference’s sponsors.

I have been wowed a handful of times over the years by conference exhibitors, including Right Hat, which offered attendees an interactive thought leadership experience with a twist – I’ll post on that later, MoFo, which did a client-focused resources booth and Jaffe PR, which incorporated a community service project in their booth at #LMA18 bringing clean water to kids around the world.

But I wanted to give a special shout out to David Ackert and the Ackert Inc.’s’ exhibit hall booth at #LMA19 in Atlanta this year in this post.

Ackert Inc. offered attendees (many of which are women) the opportunity to make an appointment and receive complimentary makeup or massages. To sign up you just needed to provide your name, title and email. Brilliant! It’s a great way to build your prospect list, tell people in a low-key way about what you do, draw foot traffic into your exhibit hall space and create buzz. Forget pens, this is way more effective than some silly tchotchke! Take a look at the after pic of me looking much more refreshed thanks to makeup by Miguel. 

Now what could your company do to better engage with your prospects and clients at a trade show or conference?