Owning an exhibit includes ongoing expenses
When an exhibit booth returns from a show, remains packed in its crate(s), and moves to another show six months or a year later many things can happen. There is the initial wear and tear on the show floor – the dirt that builds up after three days, the stained carpet and furniture, the breakage during the show, at the dismantle, or in the wooden crates as it is taken out by forklift and placed in the truck and the additional jostling as it moves back into the warehouse.
Common sense tells us that the exhibit needs a once over and repairs need to be made not in an emergency situation on the show floor, but in the warehouse where labor rates are fair, where supplies are sitting at hand, and where a client can mull over decisions using pictures instead of being called with emergency news at the airport by the project coordinator or installer before he boards his flight, two or three days before the show opens. Many exhibit booth owners do not think of this when they are buying their exhibit. While there are many great reasons to have an exhibit custom built – repairs, maintenance, and refurbishment are not at the top of the list. However, accidents, filth, and deterioration all happen especially when thousands of people walk into and around an exhibit every day during a trade show.
Asset management is a very important step to putting your company’s best face forward
In most cases clients have pre-determined not to rent, but to purchase an exhibit. While salespeople will explain the benefits of renting verses buying an exhibit, we are not in a place to ultimately influence that decision. However, once purchased, we will once more convey the importance of maintaining your exhibit rather than appear unkempt or in disarray. We offer asset management after every show. We will give you a price for setting up your exhibit, photographing it so that you can see which dings, scratches, and major repairs you wish to have done. In fact most minor repairs will be done on us. One bill using either the “A” or “B” method to “A” build and repair, or “B”inspect, inventory and repair, then re-crate your exhibit can save you twice or three times as much as it will on the show floor. Certainly, we carry a few lights and cleaning supplies, but if you need more than that on site we have to pay union rates to laborers and runners. And remember those people are only going to slap it together – not fix it the way the original builders will in the warehouse.
What is included in asset management
Your exhibit is an essential asset to your overall marketing and branding plan. Maintaining this asset in prime condition adds polish and professionalism to that image. Asset management includes setting up your entire exhibit, photographing all areas that you might consider repairing, giving you a priority list for repairs, a list of materials needed, an estimate of hours of labor, and re-crating the exhibit. A lesser asset management is to pull all inventory from crates without building and do all the aforementioned items.
