Our 7 tips for a successful Paris Fair

Each year, the Foire de Paris attracts around half a million visitors (467,855 unique visitors in 2018) who come to stroll through the various halls and randomly discover the novelties that interest them from the exhibition stands. It is also in this context that the candidate inventions of the famous Lépine competition are presented: this competition, which has existed since 1901, which owes its name to the prefect Louis Lépine at the origin of its creation, offers a motley set of inventions, some of which are doomed to success and others quickly forgotten.

Exhibiting at an event such as the Foire de Paris cannot be improvised if you want to be sure to get the most out of it! Discover our tips for maximizing the impact of your stand ...

1. Plan and anticipate your participation

Exhibiting at the Foire de Paris or at any fair requires meticulous preparation: you have to reserve your exhibition space (you can estimate the cost of your stand online), ensure the availability of the necessary staff, prepare its future stand with the help of a stand engineer, ensure the logistics of transporting products and people, ensuring the commercial follow-up of the contacts that will be collected, etc.

The first thing to do is to prepare a checklist of everything to do and when to do it. By following this list (and enriching it as and when necessary), you will be sure to prepare for the operation with peace of mind and not to stress unnecessarily due to avoidable oversights.

Tip: the organizer of the Foire de Paris r will send you the exhibitor's guide in which you will find the deadlines and best practices to follow.

2. Choose the location of your stand

The location of your stand is crucial in order to be visible among the 1,700 exhibitors at the Foire de Paris: it will determine both the number of visitors who will see your stand, and the likelihood that these visitors will be interested people. by your products.

The Foire de Paris is divided into five universes (Maisons & Habitat, Crafts & World Cultures, Fashion & Accessories Well-being, Leisure & Practical Life, Wines & Gastronomy): you obviously have to choose the most relevant according to of its activity. It is also necessary, within the appropriate universe, to be near other stands offering similar or complementary products: the visitor to a fair generally seeks to compare the offers before making up his mind; this makes it easier to find a stand within a thematic area than an isolated stand unrelated to its neighbors.

The other important criterion for the location of your stand is to be in a passageway - ideally a stand with two or even three open sides. The help of a stand builder will allow you to know the best locations ... and an early reservation will allow you to get them!

3. Design your stand well

Your exhibition stand should allow you to present the products you have chosen ... and to sell them, on site or in the future (222 million € were spent at the fair in 2018).

The design of the stand must take this double need into account. You must first choose which product(s) you want to highlight: it may be a novelty, unveiled on this occasion, or on the contrary a safe bet, which can attract many visitors. If you want to present something new, don't hesitate to participate in the Grand Prix de l'Innovation to gain visibility. It is then necessary to design a stand in accordance with the specifications of the Fair, visually attractive and commercially effective.

The help of a stand builder will be invaluable to you to have a stand that meets all these constraints and makes a good impression. Do not forget the phrase of Canadian Marshall McLuhan, according to which "the medium is the message": a beautiful stand, well hung and thought out, will instantly give a flattering and positive image of your company and its products!

Tip: the Foire de Paris is organizing the Stands of Gold competition which rewards your stand's efforts in the presentation and attractiveness of your stand

4. Ensure logistics

Everything must be ready the first hour of the opening: having a stand that is not quite finished, either empty of products, or abandoned for lack of personnel, this is certainly the best way to miss your Paris Fair!

Special attention must therefore be paid to logistics: it is necessary to ensure that the necessary products are available in good time, to ensure their routing and to reserve hotel rooms for the people who will be there (as well as than trains or flights if they do not come by car). The organizer allows you to benefit from good travel and accommodation plans, do not hesitate to consult them.

You also have to think about the small details, for example having a USB internet key to troubleshoot in the event of failure of the fair's wifi network, as well as extension cords and a power strip to be able to connect everything if the sockets provided are not sufficient or not well placed.

5. Involve your staff

Participation in the Foire de Paris will only be effective if there are people on the stand who are present and know what they should say.

They must be notified sufficiently in advance so that they are actually available, despite public holidays and / or school vacations.

They should also be briefed on the products to be sold, on the speech to be made and on any special fair promotions, particularly if they are people who are not used to participating in such commercial operations.

6. Enrich your database of customers and prospects

The presence at the Foire de Paris is obviously an opportunity to sell on site, but also to make contacts by collecting the contact details of prospects who will be future customers: many visitors come to inquire about projects that are not must be immediate; taking their contact details and then regularly sending them a newsletter and / or offers will increase the effect of the Fair by adding future sales to the immediate sales made on site.

The ideal is to provide a registration form for these potential customers, in which you will invite them to leave you their contact details (address, telephone, email); do not forget, to be compliant with the GDPR, to provide a check box with a mention of the style "I agree that my contact details will be used by company X to send me information of a commercial nature".

07. Debrief and calculate the ROI

Exhibiting at the Foire de Paris is good, learning from it is better!

Once this is over, it will be time for you to take a full look at it. On the one hand, you have to analyze what happened in order to learn from it, and see what could be improved next time: if, for example, you noticed that a neighboring stand with comparable products attracted more people, it It will be necessary to wonder if this difference in attendance is due to a higher notoriety of your competitor, or to a better presentation of his stand.

The balance sheet must also be financial: it is necessary to calculate on the one hand all the costs incurred (rental of the stand, logistics, staff costs), and on the other hand the profits made (sales made); the comparison of the two positions makes it possible to calculate the return on investment (or ROI, after the initials of the English Return On Invest). Remember, however, that there can also be a second round effect, due to contacts made during the Fair and subsequently converted into a customer: this effect can then boost the profitability of your presence ...