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Exhibition is one of the glamorous media for exploring business branding and finding new avenues of expansion as well.


I remember the days during 2003, when I was working in one automobile accessory parts manufacturing company and the company was very aggressive in media participation. The entire emphasis was on Exhibition .


Those days were very hectic. Before, the exhibition was to start long brain storm sessions with technical team and reporting to top brass for strategy for the specific exhibition was normal for almost every week. Also, at times, had to complete all formalities of visa and et all , so that I can safely land in international territory for new international territory of business for the company.


With the completion of new exhibition , the tension of attending the another one was on the chart and again the same cycle .The same type of preparations and activities were at par with daily sops of channels .


Once, I had to make a last minute visit to Nairobi for an international exhibition. I alongwith my team reached in late night , unfortunately the hotel denied to honour their commitment of booking and the very next day , we were also supposed to look fresh so that visitors can be attended in a sophisticated manner. The night was very long by the time we settled for some roof for our head .


All such experiences taught me one lesson that attending an exhibition successfully requires preparation for every phase :


a) Tracking exhibition on regular basis.
b) Choosing and getting a stall booked.
c) Pre-preparation for attending an exhibition including accommodation and other reservations.
d) Making stuffs for distribution and packing it for transportation .
e) Study of participants of a particular exhibition.
f) Reaching in advance .
g) Attending the days of exhibition and explaining to visitors.
h) Compiling all data’s of probable’s and packing on completion of exhibition.
i) Reporting on exhibition to management and action plan .


Over twenty five years of experience in attending exhibition and trade events , I always wish that if I had some alternative to attending an exhibition. Since offline exhibitions are very expensive, time consuming, requires intense travelling, devotion of entire days during exhibition, limited reach to the visitors and participants of exhibition and requires extensive preparation.


Finally, I got online B2b exhibition not only as an alternative but is more effective and advantageous than offline exhibition. Really , want to know how , then pl read it very carefully:


a) No international Boundary – Online exhibition has deepest reach and penetration since any person at any point of time and from any part of the world can see the exhibitors products and services . No international boundary exist for the visitors who want to go for online exhibition, whereas, offline exhibition always have a barrier of international boundary. Since, entire world is for business and b2b portals just make it happen.


b) No Travelling – Neither the exhibitor need to travel to a place to show their products or service nor a visitor need to travel to see the products or services of the exhibitors.


c) Very Less Cost - The cost for travelling , lodging and boarding, cost of distribution stuff and manpower gets reduced to almost 5% .It is very cost effective since , costing is the need of the hour especially when entire world is pointing on costing.


d) No Time Limitation – Convenience is the other name of online exhibition since there is no restriction of time for visiting online exhibition. Any person can visit such exhibition at any time of day or night and see and find the products and services of his/her need. This is not possible with offline exhibition. With such innovative online B2b exhibition people don’t have to plan out time ,out of busy schedule to visit upto the place of offline exhibition but as per their convenience , it can be explored .


e) Maximum ROI- Business world always care for return on investment i.e profit , for them online exhibition always have maximum ROI in return .Since, not only it is cost effective and reaches maximum mass and targeted genuine audience but also more people can participate in exhibition.


f) Better Communication – On finding a particular exhibitor, a visitor can immediately contact him/her by email or call as entire details are available . It makes communication more effective and fast as well.


g) Maximum Exhibition can be Attended- One can attend atleast 5 online exhibitions at the cost of 1 offline exhibition. Moreover, frequency of participation also increases without much preparation and no need to settle again after visiting one exhibition before preparing for participating the other one.


h) Tension free- The term tension can include any and everything which is associated with offline exhibition . Whereas, online b2b exhibition is totally tension free and blended with latest technology to improve the chances of success.


The list of advantages are more and more …….just think once again , but I really wish it had been in existence atleast ten years back as well.


The author is an exhibition advisor to www.made-from-india.com