Each year, North America’s most abundant specialty food and beverage event commence in New York City. The Specialty Food Association’s Fancy Food Show is the event to see and taste over 180,000 products. These foods include pastries, cheese, coffee, snacks, spices, ethnic, natural, organic, and more. Attendees can connect with 2,400 exhibitors from 50 countries and regions. As many exhibitors are preparing for this monumental event, the tasks that you need to focus on during preparation, execution, and recap can run away from you during the enthusiasm of the event. To make sure that your brand is fully prepared for this fantastic marketing opportunity, here is a checklist for before, during, and after the Specialty Foods Fancy Food Show.

Before Fancy Food Show

Create a Primary Goal

Are you attending the tradeshow strictly for brand recognition, sales opportunities or both? Direct your messaging and strategy towards that objective. Once you have your objective set, create a specific goal. Maybe you want to get the attention of a few crucial vendors, or publications. Your goal might be aggressive, and you may want to land a contract during the event. Whichever it may be, set the goal and work towards accomplishing it. Having a set goal will allow you to maintain focus during an otherwise chaotic event.

Decide on Your Main Message

Your brand should already have a central message, but how does that message translate in this space? You may need to tweak your messaging since you will be speaking vendor representatives and not consumers. What can your product do for a vendor’s business? How will your product increase its bottom line? Aligning your messaging with their objectives is key to landing a contract with an outstanding vendor.

Pick your exhibiting space

Find your ideal space on the venue map and try your hardest to get it. It may seem impossible to get the spot you want, however being kind to the right people can go a long way. Having the right space can make or break your brand’s experience at the tradeshow. Also, your activation may need a specific kind of space, like a corner spot to showcase an endcap. Getting the right place is a priority to have optimum success.

Design your tradeshow banner and collateral

Make sure your branding is everywhere on your marketing materials for the show. Your name needs to stick in the mind of those who matter. Make sure it is everywhere, within reason. It’s always wise to make sure that your banner is not too busy as to keep your brand name and message clear and concise.

Pre-show marketing

Blog posts, social media messaging, and marketing emails are all substantial pre-show marketing collateral to disseminate. There might be potential vendor representatives that have their eye on you and only have a specific amount of time at the event. Confirm that you are on their list of stops at the show through the right marketing before Fancy Food.

During Fancy Food Show

Be ready to speak about the product.

You’ll need to know every ingredient in the product and every part of the production process. Vendor representatives will ask every question they can think of and the last thing you want is to be at a loss for words.

Use Social Media to promote your presence.

Live post your involvement on your brand’s social pages. Live posting allows those looking for you to locate your booth quickly. Also, others can see your dedication and commitment as a business owner. You can even go as far as doing a giveaway at your booth for the first fifty people that show you the post you published while at the event. Increasing audience involvement is impressive and shows that you care for the audience of your product. The digital marketing possibilities are endless while you are at the event since there are thousands of attendees and they all have their phones out.

Make sure you have plenty of samples of your products

Everyone want’s samples. Don’t find yourself in the position of meeting a vital vendor representative to only have just run out of the product. You don’t want to be the person to run out at the most significant food show of the year.

Start thinking about next year, this year

Make a list of all of the things that you see that you should have done. Also, include all of the things that you should not have done and all of the things that you might want to do next year. You’ll learn new things each time, thus making your activation even better every year.

Make your booth exciting

Bring tons of product and make your presentation exciting. The packaging of your product is most likely already permanent; however, you can make the presentation of your products of the packaging original for Fancy Food. Executing the presentation of your product uniquely will catch eyes and prove to vendors that you are an innovative and creative brand. You’ll want to be eye-catching at a show with over two thousand exhibitors.

Take Pictures

It might seem obvious, but it’s easy to forget. You’ll want a lot of pictures, thousands of photos. You can use these images for marketing materials, social media, future business proposals, and many more different opportunities in the future.

After Fancy Food Show

Follow up with leads

After collecting business cards throughout the event, having discussions with different people, and shaking hands with hundreds of people, you will have a long list of contacts. Reach out to those whom with you had a serious and engaging conversation. These are the ones that will assist in propelling your business.

Evaluate your participation

The number of visitors – Recording the numbers of visitors will allow you to prepare better next year if you may have sold yourself short on product or staff this year. The number of serious business conversations – Counting the number of newly established connections goes hand in hand with following up on leads. Make sure to record the names of those that are serious about endorsing your brand. Connect with them as soon as the show ends to further the relationship. The number of newly established contacts – Counting the number of newly established contacts can help you rectify the cost of the tradeshow. If you landed a lot of different connections, then the show starts to pay for itself as those people will start talking about your brand and potentially contract your brand for retail sales.

Appearance in press and media

Appearance in press and media is one of the ultimate goals (aside from landing a massive contract on the spot). Having a presence in the press and media can help further validate your brand as well as increase brand recognition.

Promote your participation in a Tradeshow, Conference or Event on your website homepage, through publications in professional journals, and press releases

The promotion of your participation in a tradeshow is vital for the entire experience. Through the promotion of your attendance, you can increase your brand awareness and the tenacity of your brand. Those that attend tradeshows are serious about the success of their brand and also firmly believe in their brand. Show potential vendors that you mean business by promoting your tradeshow experience. Following this list can assist in your preparedness before, during, and after the show. Extensive preparation will allow you to focus on networking and showing off the product for which you are passionate about. Properly documenting the experience will also make the tradeshow experience pay for itself over time. Having the ability to include your presence at a tradeshow in marketing collateral, website content, and social content is extremely valuable for any brand. The Fancy Food show happens only once a year, and your brand has the opportunity to find vendors that want to sell your product and propel your brand to new levels. As long as you market yourself effectively and keep to your strategy, you will find success in your tradeshow endeavor.