10 Tips for Nailing Your First Vegan Fair

Congratulations on your decision to exhibit your products or services at a fair! We know that the idea of presenting your organisation to the world might seem overwhelming, especially if this is your first event. To make your exhibitor experience as productive and stress-free as possible, we’ve put together an easy guide on what to do before, during, and after the fair.

Before the fair

1. Clearly define your goal(s) for attending the fair. What will this in-person opportunity to connect with your audience yield for your organisation? Examples of goals include:

• Grow your email subscriber list by 10% through product giveaways
• Grow your social media audience by 15% through on-site content production
• Gain feedback from 50 booth visitors about a new product you’ve just launched or will soon debut.

2. Invest time, energy, and paid advertising (if you can) in promoting your brand’s attendance at the fair. Deploy every communications channel that you currently own including your email subscriber list, social media pages, website, and blog.

3. On social media, make sure that you always tag and mention the fair/event’s account so they can help spread the word as well. Creating a countdown to the fair for your social channels is a creative way to build excitement among your followers.

4. Take the time to meticulously plan for the things that you’ll need on-site at the event. Create a master list of necessary items including:

• Booth/table accessories
• Product inventory
• Giveaway items
• Point of sale (PoS) device (if relevant)
• Devices or paper/pencil to get email addresses
• Business cards
• Water and snacks for a long day
• Miscellaneous but important “housekeeping” items: paper towels, tape, paper clips, pens/markers, device chargers, scissors, hand sanitiser, etc.

During the fair

1. Define clear roles for the team members at your booth. Who is in charge of engaging with visitors? Who should handle social media? Who is tasked with completing purchases at the cash register or point of sales device? If you don’t have a team, make it a point to introduce yourself to your exhibitor neighbours. They can help with watching your space when you need to step away for a few moments.

2. Use the fair to generate content for your social media accounts. Take pictures and videos, capture your customers’ experience/feedback, and get testimonies from happy visitors. Stockpile these images and videos into an evergreen content library that you can use for months into the future.

3. Go Live! Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn all have a Live video feature that the platforms’ algorithms prefer. This means that using the Live feature will probably expand the reach of all your content. Doing Lives is a great way to reach more of your audience organically and grow your following.

4. Create connections with complementary organisations and influencers to create collaborations and co-branding opportunities in the future. Build-in time to walk the event and connect with potential collaborators. If there’s a particularly promising partnership opportunity, seize the in-person moment by continuing the conversation over a coffee or meal after the event.

After the fair

1. Follow up with all the people with whom you connected. Thank You messages are a nice touch to send to potential collaborators. You can also send exclusive promotional offers to the people who subscribed to your email list at the event. Do anything that will prompt your audience to continue the conversation.

2. Make a list of learnings from the fair experience so that you can plan for the next one!