After spending countless hours designing the perfect marketing strategy for your trade show booth—not to mention countless dollars on custom signage with compelling graphics—you will definitely want to do everything you can to protect your exhibit products when they are being shipped to each expo. Here are a few tips to help you do just that.
1. Select the right shipping containers.
The biggest mistake that companies make when it comes to shipping exhibit materials for a tradeshow booth is to ship them in containers that are the wrong size. There are a variety of products on the market that are designed specifically for tradeshow products. For instance, our half-hard case built to perfectly fit 6 foot and 8 foot tabletop pop up displays and ready pop fabric displays. You won’t have to worry about the popping mechanism getting damage during transit, bouncing around in the back of a truck or as it is thrown into the cargo area of a plane. Similarly, digital displays will require special protections such as monitor cases and the like.
2. Choose durable materials.
Obviously, you aren’t going to ship your tradeshow displays in a cardboard box; plastic tends to be the material of choice. Shipping containers that are rotational molded, however, tend to be stronger than those that are injection molded. The rotational molding process also allows the containers to be designed with a more customized fit for the product and manufactured using the optimal thickness to protect the product. In other words: the shipping containers will fit your display materials like a glove!
3. Look for features that make it more convenient to transport.
Your exhibit displays will be less likely to get damaged if you also look for features that make it easier to move from one location to the next—from the truck to the dock, from the dock to the expo floor, etc. Such features include:
- Wheels
- Handles
- Locks
You may think of locks as a security feature rather than a transportation feature, but locks also protect the case from accidentally being popped open in the event that the container is dropped during the loading and unloading process.
4. Hire a reliable shipping company.
Most likely, the products you will be shipping are heavy and oddly shaped, making it more cost efficient to select the services of a specialized shipping company rather than a general parcel service. Often, the venue will offer a list of preferred providers that they recommend you use. Don’t hire a company without first checking a few references to determine their reliability. Nothing will make your company look more unprofessional than being forced to use displays that are damaged or broken or, worse yet, haven’t arrived on time. You will also want to inquire about other services the vendors may or may not offer such as:
- Less than truckload service
- Inside pick-up and delivery
- Flexible scheduling
- On-site assistance
- Unpacking and debris removal
If you follow this advice to pack and protect your tradeshow displays, you can be sure that your investment will arrive in tact, attract potential customers and pay off at many tradeshows to come.
