Maneuver the maze

We’ve all been there before. You arrive at a trade show without having done much prior preparation and feel a bit overwhelmed, and now you're a little lost in the maze. Over the next few pages, we share technological advances and tools that will help you maneuver that trade show maze with ease.

Preparation
The pre-show planning and preparation is perhaps the most important. Having a game plan going into the show can help you to have clear objectives and meet your event goals. Do you want to scope out a new pottery vendor? Attend the session being given by a well-renowned garden center consultant? Touch base with peers from the opposite end of the country who you only see at these events?

Social media: Not surprisingly, social media has become a tool for business professionals to stay in touch as much as it's a way for friends to reconnect. One simple way to stay up-to-date is to like the event’s Facebook page and follow it on Twitter. Organizers should be regularly posting updates, links to find out more about a specific aspect of the show and other pertinent information. You can also post your own questions and comments about the show, either for the organizers or for other attendees to comment.

Are you looking for someone to carpool out from a neighboring city, or do you need more information about something you weren’t able to find on the website? This is the perfect place to ask.

Newsletters: This may seem like an obvious point, but it’s always beneficial to sign up for the event's newsletters to get the latest information and updates. You can always visit the event’s website, but it’s sometimes difficult to remember to regularly check for updates. If you receive a newsletter, you’ll have regular reminders to prepare for the event, and receive details helpful to planning your trip, such as accommodation information, trade show and education program hours, etc.

Evernote: Most garden center owners and employees that I have met at trade shows have a smart phone or tablet. One of the aspects that I like the most about this mobile technology is the wealth of applications and features that make taking notes on the go easy and shareable. One app that’s great for getting organized pre-trip is Evernote. Available for most mobile devices and computers, it’s described as “an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use.” What does that mean? You can take photos, jot down a few thoughts, create your own to do lists, record voice reminders and even “clip” portions of websites that have valuable information that you may need later. All of these are turned into individual “notes” that can be tagged for easy searching later on. The best part? You can share all of this information across all of your devices and with employees, family or friends at any point, if you so choose.

One of the most interesting features of this app is that it automatically tags any notes or photos that you create with the location it was created. This could be extremely helpful when you’re on a tour of independent garden centers and are having trouble remembering where a certain photo was taken. If you’re on the road and can’t or find it cumbersome to type out a note on your mobile device, you also have the option of recording an audio message to listen to later. Say you’re on the road at California Spring Trials and just remembered that at the next stop you need to ask the breeder a specific question about a new variety. With Evernote, you can record that message, and tag it so that it comes up when you pull up the rest of your notes tagged for that stop.

For more information, visit www.evernote.com.

California Spring Trials central reservation website: Speaking of California Spring Trials, we recently sat down with Michael Geary, CEO of OFA and executive vice president of ANLA, to find out more about this new planning tool. Essentially, this website is a place where California Spring Trials attendees can book most of their stops to different breeders at once (there are few companies who aren’t participating at this time due to limits on the number of attendees). “I don’t know if you’ve ever participated and made reservations yourself [in past years], but you had to register and make appointments with all these individual companies independently. It was quite a chore to set up your schedule to go as a participant to drive along the coast of California,” says Geary. “We wanted to find a way that would make it easier for all the attendees to be able to participate.”

After setting up a user account, you can start booking appointments. The system asks for some demographic information about the visiting group as well as the group’s arrival and departure time and if they will be eating a meal on-site. After submitting this information, the group is automatically confirmed, unless there is a conflict. The contact information is sent to the company, which will then contact the attendees and plan their staffing accordingly. At this point, attendees can print their personalized schedule, which is listed in chronological order and includes each company’s contact information.

The process is straightforward, and modifications can be made if one of your group members is no longer able to attend, or if you miss a flight and have to change your schedule. In fact, Geary told us that a mobile version of the site is currently in development as well. “When [attendees] are out in California, they can log into their profile on their smartphone and identify where they’re going next and even set up or cancel appointments on the fly,” he says.

For more information, visit www.HorticultureEvents.com/CAST

At the event

GPS: This may seem like the simplest of high-tech tools, and it may even seem like a given to many of you. However, this is one of your greatest tools to use during events such as the Michigan Garden Plant Tour or the California Spring Trials. Both events require a bit of traveling between stops, and one missed exit can mean a lot of wasted time. Maps are a great resource, until you’re forced to take a detour because of road construction, and have to pull over to manually “recalculate.” Many rental cars come equipped with a GPS system, and there are a wide variety of free turn-by-turn map apps for smart phones (my personal favorite for iPhone is the new Google Maps app). If you’re looking for food or a gas station while on the road, you can search for them on your smart phone with an app such as Urban Spoon for restaurants or Google+ Local for food, stores and just about anything else.

Event apps and mobile websites: Many larger events are starting to develop apps or mobile websites that make it easier for attendees to keep track of what’s going on, and even create their own agenda of booths to visit and education sessions to attend. The Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit show app includes hotel information, detailed schedules, an interactive map, exhibitor/sponsor list (which can be filtered by in many different ways, such as numerically by booth, alphabetically or by first time exhibitors), basic attendee information, local area resources, and even a tab that links to each of their social media pages. This app is available for free for Apple products in the iTunes store.

In addition to the mobile website they’re developing for the California Spring Trials, OFA is also working on one for their Short Course in Columbus this July. “Once upon a time we put out computer kiosks,” says Geary. “People could check their email and websites there. We don’t do that anymore because no one used it the last couple of years; people are using their smart phones instead.” He explains that the new mobile-optimized website will allow attendees to create a personalized, daily agenda, access a map of the event, and other features. Geary says they are also in talks with several mobile service providers to improve the mobile service within the convention center, because without good service, not even the best mobile website is useful.

Twitter: While it may be helpful to check out other social media outlets during the show, Twitter seems to be the most beneficial to keep up on the goings-on. In addition to following the page, also check out whether or not the show has a hashtag. In January, I attended the National Green Centre show (@NatlGreenCentre) in St. Louis, Mo. and tweeted my comments on Garden Center’s Twitter page (@GardenCenterMag), tagging the posts with #NGC13, the event hashtag. Others could follow not only my tweets, but National Green Centre’s tweets as well, all by searching for the #NGC13 hashtag. At other events, I have seen Twitter used to promote last-minute contests and to set up impromptu meetings.

Wrap-up
A lot of the value in attending trade shows is in the connections you make while there, and the information that you acquire in the educational sessions, tours and by visiting vendor booths. However, what do you do with all of that information? It can be overwhelming to unpack the stacks of business cards (which inevitably go flying across the room the moment you open your bags), product pamphlets and class handouts upon arriving home. Here are a few tools to help simplify that process.

CamCard app: One speaker at Next Level referred to the pile of business cards that we acquire that end up on a corner of our desk as the “business card dungeon.” Enter CamCard. While this is not the only business card app available, it’s one that was brought up at the show as one that’s convenient, easy-to-use and works well. It's not perfect, but it's a definite timesaver.

For more information, visit www.camcard.com.

Recorded sessions: Due to the concurrent schedule of educational sessions at shows, it’s impossible to attend all of them, as much as you might like to. If you weren’t able to attend the show, and therefore missed all of them, not to worry. Some event organizers offer the recorded educational sessions after the show to review or watch/listen to for the first time. While they’re usually not free, they are a worthwhile investment, as you can refer back to them multiple times, and share the information with staff members who weren’t at the show. New England Grows posts short video clips of the show and interviews with speakers on their website, and audio records most of their sessions. A CD of the audio recordings can be purchased after the show. OFA Short Course offers an “Education to go” package to attendees, which can be accessed in an online library or via a multimedia CD-ROM once the show is over. One of the interesting features of the Education to go package is that audio sessions can be recorded to an MP3 player or computer in order to listen wherever you may be.

For more information, visit www.NewEnglandGrows.org and www.OFAShortCourse.org.

Whatever your strategy for making the most of events, take advantage of as many of these high-tech tools as possible to get the biggest bang for the buck you spent to attend the event.