There are as many ways of organising an event as there are different event types – conferences, social events, business events, trade shows and festivals. We asked Mateja Peric to give her view on organising trade shows and offer valuable insider tips to other event organisers who wish to organise festivals or trade shows.
Q1: What are the unmissable steps that event organisers cannot bypass when organising a trade show or festival, regardless of the digital age and artificial intelligence?
When an idea is born, we must ask ourselves a few crucial questions: what is the trade show’s purpose? What goals do we wish to achieve? Who does the trade show target – is this a business trade show or an event aimed at the end user? Before that, we must deliberate whether it may be too early to develop an idea, whether the attendees will understand it and whether they will actually decide to join the trade show. Event organisers must explore the market of potential exhibitors and trade show visitors.
Q2: How much time passes before an idea comes to fruition?
Once we decide our idea makes sense, we must prepare an ambitious but tangible content plan and set the date. We must not forget the trade show’s budget, which is an essential part. Usually, this process takes around two years before the trade show is scheduled. Only then can we start with activities to promote and organise the event. Less-experienced event organisers will put all their effort and resources into organising a trade show, yet overlook that organising a trade show, bringing exhibitors and preparing an accompanying event programme is only the first part. The second, more important part, is convincing as many visitors to attend. That way, a trade show is a win-win situation.
Q3: What rookie mistakes do event organisers make when organising their first trade show or festival?
We have witnessed far too many times that despite an excellent idea, a great programme and numerous handpicked exhibitors, a trade show did not have any tangible effects. That is a bad omen for the trade show, as an event organiser has difficulties attracting exhibitors the following year, especially if they had a poor first impression. On the other hand, seasoned event organisers who organised events before the digital age underestimate the influence of social media platforms to promote their trade shows. They don’t use it enough to spread awareness about their trade show. As with organising any event, expert and respectful communication with all key stakeholders is imperative and leads to the longevity and success of a trade show.
Q4: Which trade shows that took place in Cankarjev dom would you highlight?
One of the first trade shows I helped organise was the legendary Infos trade show, which took place from 1991 to 2003. Among numerous other important ones, I want to outline the Slovenian Book Fair, which took place at our venue until 2021 and the Festival for the Third Age.
I am particularly proud that we hosted the Festival of Holistic Health DAO YAH, as it was created and developed by Cankarjev dom. We hosted the festival for three years before entrusting Proevent to develop the brand further: https://dao-yah.si/.
This year, we are honoured to host the first festival of vital longevity and health, set to take place on 25 November. I believe exhibitions organised alongside international congresses are part of trade show organising. We have organised several of them in Cankarjev dom. A few of the most renowned include the International Saxophone Congress, WONCA conference, Edna conference and WCNA conference.
These are only trade shows and festivals that our team curating the Congress and Commercial Programme co-organised with external stakeholders. Cankarjev dom is famed also for its plentiful music festivals, organised by our colleagues from the Cultural-Art department.
Learn more about Cankarjev dom and its conference-packed season here.
