Successful trade fair appearance in Bavaria: Tips for start-ups and businesses

We show you how to find the right trade fair for your company in Bavaria and how to plan a successful trade fair appearance. It often does not require huge budgets to attract the right investors or potential customers. In many cases, solid basic planning and perfect follow-up pay off far more.

Marketing opportunities through trade fair visits

In addition to attracting attention to your company in general, trade fairs offer you the following opportunities:

•    New customer acquisition and customer care
•    Introducing new products to people
•    Maintaining personal contacts

Nowadays the direct relation to your potential and existing customers, for example at trade fairs, is an important aspect in the marketing mix for companies and start-ups. However, you should bear in mind that comprehensive trade fair success is always associated with a certain effort and a cost that should not be underestimated.

Finding the right trade fair in Bavaria

It is important to successfully remain in trade fair visitors’ memories for a long time, particularly in Bavaria, where there are numerous trade fairs and conferences on a wide variety of subjects. You should therefore always be in the right place to reach your customers. It won't do much good if you are at a B2B trade fair, but your target group is in the B2C sector. Ask yourself the following questions when choosing a conference or trade fair:
 
•    Can your target group be found at the event?
•    How important is the trade fair within the industry?
•    Will existing customers be there?

In our calendar we list numerous events for a vast range of different areas and industries. In addition to conferences or annual symposia, you will also find a selection of interesting trade fairs.
 
By the way: clever marketers are not tempted by the size of an event. There is always the danger of drowning with your own stand with big appearances with a lot of competition.

Attract attention for positive reasons: from the exhibition stand to the team

Remember that the first impression is the most important one for your entire trade fair concept. Make sure that your trade fair stand is inviting and does not appear overloaded despite many ideas. Choose give-aways carefully.

In general, the stand design should be adapted to your company’s corporate design. This means: Use your company or start-up’s colours, logos and other advertising elements. In this way you not only create a direct link to your company, but also trigger a recognition effect with prospective customers – those who remain in people's minds are much more successful with their trade fair and marketing presence. More tips for effective marketing in Bavaria can also be found in our blog.

It is also important that your stand personnel can impress your audience with the necessary specialist knowledge.

Include professional and open-minded people in your trade fair team. Before the event, define a meaningful goal or a message which all employees can focus on. Make sure that there is always enough personnel on the stand.

To be able to assess this in advance, contact existing customers before the trade fair and invite them to an appointment at your stand. As a result, you will already know how much time and team members you will need for this customer group before the start of the trade fair.

Follow-up on the trade fair concept

A successful trade fair appearance has to develop. To fully exploit all potential for improvement, it is important to collect and evaluate positive and negative data afterwards. You can then make improvements for the next event if necessary. Develop a trade fair checklist for future appearances in the team. This will not only save time but also costs, especially for start-ups – always remember: you learn from your mistakes!

The most important fairs for start-ups in Bavaria

Bavaria not only has an excellent network with accelerators, incubators and makerspaces but has also become one of the top trade fair locations in recent years. Start-ups and companies should, for example, know these events:

•    Bits & Pretzels :
The founder festival brings more than 5,000 founders and investors together. The next date is 27-29 September 2020 in Munich.

•    Augsburg Gründet!:
Exciting business models and ideas from the Augsburg economic region on one platform.

Bavaria is also characterised by a large number of trade fairs for a wide variety of industries, such as:

•    MedtecLive 2020:
The trade fair for developments in medicine and life science in Nuremberg from 31.03-03.04.2020.

•    PCIM Europe 2020:
The international leading trade fair and conference for power electronics, intelligent power transmission, renewable energy and energy management from 05.05.-07.05.2020 in Nuremberg.