EMT #22 - Work Smarter, Exhibit Better: How to Maximize Trade Show Impact with Marlys Arnold

How do you make your booth not just seen, but remembered?

In this episode, Chris Dunn and Dana Esposito sit down with trade show veteran Marlys Arnold to explore how strategy, design, and staff training converge to create powerful trade show experiences. With more than two decades in the field, Marlys brings unmatched insights from both the exhibitor and show organizer sides.

“Hope is not a strategy” – Define your purpose

Too many exhibitors operate without a goal. Marlys recounts a $250K exhibit team that “just wanted to show up.” Once they defined a goal, they not only met it—they exceeded it. Having measurable objectives changes everything.

Exhibiting ≠ Task List

Ordering the booth, booking travel, and shipping materials are logistics—not strategy. Exhibitors often miss the bigger picture: What message are you communicating? Who are you targeting?

Booths are experiences, not billboards

Design your booth to engage multiple senses. Let attendees interact with your product or service directly. From quiz touchscreens to pitching cages hitting product walls, the best booths bring the brand to life through interactivity and story.

Align with the show theme & organizer

Too many exhibitors treat trade shows as isolated events. Marlys advises: Use consistent messaging across all marketing platforms and align with the event’s theme. Most importantly, tap into the free resources show organizers offer—from promo tools to speaking slots.

Train your staff—then train them again

A great booth experience crumbles without the right team. Marlys promotes her “10 Commandments of Booth Staffing,” which include basics like no phones or food and knowing your booth’s goals. Even experienced sales reps need purposeful training.

Marlys Arnold reminds us that a trade show booth isn't a checklist—it's a living representation of your brand’s promise. From planning through follow-up, every element should reinforce your core message. The most impactful booths don't just talk—they invite attendees into a story they remember long after the show ends.

👉🏼 Join us for more insightful discussions like this by tuning into 'Event Marketer's Toolbox,' where industry leaders share the tools, tactics, and trends driving success in the event world.

This Show is sponsored by Blue Hive

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro & Guest Welcome
• 4:39 Why Strategy is Often Missing from Trade Show Plans
• 7:39 The Danger of Exhibiting Without Goals
• 10:39 Design, Promote, Train: The Three-Pillar Framework
• 17:39 How to Make Your Booth Interactive
• 23:39 Storytelling Techniques That Make a Message Stick
• 31:39 Building Partnerships with Show Organizers
• 36:39 Marlys’ Top 3 Actionable Ideas for Exhibitors
• 39:39 Her Books & Podcast: Tools for Trade Show Success
• 44:39 Closing Remarks & Where to Connect

Transcript

Chris Dunn: [00:00:00] Hey, hello everybody and welcome to the Event Marketers Toolbox. I am Chris Dunn. I am with BlueHive Exhibits, and I'm so happy to have everybody join us today. Uh, sitting in the co-host seat, I have one of my coworkers, Dana Esposito. Hey Dana. How's it going? Hey. 

Dana Esposito: Hey Chris. So I'm Dana Esposito. I've been in the trade show industry almost 30 years now, um, on both the exhibit design side as well as the corporate strategy side.

Dana Esposito: And today we're super excited because we have Marlis Arnold here and Marlis. You wanna tell everyone who you are and what you do. 

Marlys Arnold: Hi. Hi Chris and Dana and everybody watching and listening. I'm Marli Arnold and I have been in the trade show world for over two decades now. I, uh, the way I got started, I, I pretty much have always been an entrepreneur and so I had my own business and I was doing exhibits at some local shows and, and, you know.

Marlys Arnold: Showcasing my business. And then I also had helped to produce some expos. So pretty soon I started to [00:01:00] observe like what people were doing, what worked, what didn't. And so just started making lists of notes. And that became, you know, do, I started doing consulting and training for. Trade shows and exhibitors and then, uh, used all those notes and compiled them together and wrote my first book, build a Better Trade Show Image.

Marlys Arnold: And then, um, also started hosting the Trade Show Insights podcast. And so, yeah, so just lots of tools and lots of training and working with exhibitors of all sizes and types and all different industries. Everything from medical to construction to petroleum to. Local bridal shows. So just a little bit of everything over the years.

Chris Dunn: Wow. That's, that's a pretty good resume. So maybe we should flip the script and just have you interview us because you've been doing this an awful long time. That's a, that's an impressive background. So, yeah, thanks so much for, for joining us. You know, like many of our guests, um, we've met originally on LinkedIn and, you know, start [00:02:00] conversations.

Chris Dunn: Um, I've actually contributed a few things to, uh, some things that, uh, that Marlis has done. Just gaining some perspective from our standpoint. Um, so it's wonderful, uh, that we're building this community of, uh, of kind of like-minded event people really from kind of, you know, we're really on the trade show side, but corporate events and festivals and, um, event planners and, you know, we're, we're building, uh, hopefully a really great, um, you know, group of folks who share ideas and um, and can learn from each other.

Chris Dunn: 'cause at the end of the day. That's kind of what we're, what we're trying to, you know, create here on, on the toolbox. Um, so before we kind of jump into the meat and potatoes as it were of the conversation, we have a couple sponsors that I wanted to mention. Uh, so as we move forward, uh, I mentioned BlueHive.

Chris Dunn: BlueHive is, uh, a really creative. A cool exhibit house. Uh, I've been there 20 years. Dana, you've been with us for a few, although your experience level takes you back several decades as, as does [00:03:00] mine. Um, so we've got a lot of, uh, a lot of, uh, institutional knowledge here on this, uh, on this call for sure. Uh, BlueHive.

Chris Dunn: East coast, west Coast. We, I like to think that we're kind of the right size for a lot of, you know, groups out there. We work with all sorts of different, um, industries, different size exhibitors, everything from kind of, you know, well-funded startups up through, you know, multi-billion dollar, uh. Enterprise level corporations.

Chris Dunn: So, uh, we bring a lot to the table. We're kind of in between, you know, that boutique size and some of the real, you know, big guys where you're just a number. Right? We're, we're very customer service oriented. So on the BlueHive side, that's kind of who we are and what we do. In addition to BlueHive as a sponsor, we also have, uh, our friends from Fist Bump.

Chris Dunn: And Fist Bump is an agency and they help us, uh, produce this, uh, content right here on the, on the podcast. Initially I got involved with, uh, with Brandon Lee of Fist Bump and started, uh, working in a coaching [00:04:00] program with him to uplevel, uh, mine as well as Blue Hive's, uh, social media, um, and specifically kind of LinkedIn presence.

Chris Dunn: I. And the more that I worked with them and the more that I learned, um, they really kind of were pointing us towards like, you know, what the podcast, uh, kind of as a platform is a great way to create content, to be a thought leader, to, uh, have these great conversations and to be able to use all of this information that we've got coming in.

Chris Dunn: We're learning and now we're able to, to use that as, as content that we're, you know, putting out as well as take that information and share it with our clients. Because every conversation we have, we learn a little something different, which is really cool. So, um, without further ado, uh, I'm gonna kick it back over to Dana to start with our, our questions, but that, uh, is just a, a kind of our launchpad into what's gonna be a, an awesome conversation.

Dana Esposito: All right, so I am a planner. Um, but when we're thinking about trade shows and exhibitors and everything they need to do, there's still a big difference between [00:05:00] planning and also just creating proper strategy. So, um, Marlis, the first thing we wanna dive into you is like, why exhibitors need a real strategy, and what are some of the most common mistakes that you see from exhibitors?

Marlys Arnold: Well, I always like to say hope. Is not a strategy. And I think too many exhibitors take what I call the field of dreams approach. You know, where if you build it, people will automatically come to your booth and, uh, that just, you know, you can't, you can't count on that because. It, it takes it. Too many exhibitors are trying to just check off tasks, you know, on a to-do list.

Marlys Arnold: You know, it's like we gotta get our booth display ordered, we gotta ship things to the show, we gotta book our airfare. You know, all those kinds of things. But they're not looking at the overall picture of what they need to be doing. You know, how they need to be pulling this all together and having goals.

Marlys Arnold: And it's amazing how many exhibitors I talk to and I ask 'em, what are your goals? And they go, oh, we wanna get a [00:06:00] lot of leads. I'm like, okay, what is that? What is a lot, you know, because a lot to somebody could mean, you know, depending on what you're selling a lot could mean 25 a lot could mean 500, you know, or what kinds of leads or, you know, uh, are you showcasing a new product or are you, um, entering a new market?

Marlys Arnold: You know, I mean there's all these different kinds of layers of things that you might be doing. Um, one of the examples that I love to share. Was years ago I was doing training for a company for their national sales meeting. So all the sales reps were there. They, you know, they did shows all throughout the year, but they were getting ready for their big show, you know, the big signature show.

Marlys Arnold: And I asked them, I said, so what is your goal? And they're like, oh, well we, you know, we're big in this industry. Every, you know, in this association, everybody knows who we are. You know, we kind of go just to stay connected with our current customers and stuff. And, you know, I said, okay, wait a minute. You are gonna spend like a quarter of a million dollars to go do the show and you don't have a [00:07:00] goal.

Marlys Arnold: And the, you know, and the sales director's in the back of the room and she's like going, oh yeah, please come on. Yeah guys. And so we walked through it, we talked through it, and they finally, they set a goal and then she contacted me after the show and said, now that they had a goal, they not only met it, they exceeded it.

Marlys Arnold: So, you know, once they actually got it all into focus and they knew what they were going for and what they wanted to accomplish, there was something to work towards. It wasn't just, oh, let's show up in the booth and just hope people stop by. 

Chris Dunn: As mentioned, hope is not a strategy, right? Yeah. It's like, and also if you, if you're not measuring something like, or if you're not tracking something, how can you measure it?

Chris Dunn: Right. Just you come home and how was the show like It good people in, it was all good. 

Marlys Arnold: Yeah, exactly.

Chris Dunn: Dana, do you have more to follow through on that? 

Dana Esposito: I'm trying to think. Um, I'm looking at my questions. Um, do you have any [00:08:00] advice that maybe how to build a more strategic approach to that trade show participation? Part of strategy? Like when they're thinking ahead? 

Marlys Arnold: Sure. Well, when I'm working with exhibitors, I teach them that there's basically, there's three different.

Marlys Arnold: Parts to their exhibit three different parts to their strategy. They've got to think about how they're gonna design their exhibit, what it's gonna look like. Uh, they have to think about how they're gonna promote the exhibit. 'cause like I said, just taking the field of Dreams approach isn't gonna cut it.

Marlys Arnold: And then they need to look at what their staff is gonna be doing. You know, how they need to work with them and get them up to speed. And, you know, a lot of what I do is, uh. Is teach the, what I call the 10 Commandments of Boost Staffing. You know, things like, you know, don't sit, don't eat, don't be on your phone, you know, so stuff like that.

Marlys Arnold: But you know, they need to look at all of these pieces and it's not only what happens at the show, it's what happens before. During and after the show because [00:09:00] again, you know the follow-up. That's a key piece that a lot of exhibitors miss as well. So like I said, it's, it's an umbrella strategy. It's got, there's gotta be like a common thread that runs through everything of why are you doing what you're doing and how are you doing what you're doing?

Chris Dunn: Are there any, I hope, oh, go ahead. I'm, I'm sorry if I could jump in, like, I, I really hope that, um, exhibitors out there are, are hearing this. 'cause I think we deal with it all the time as well and the more reinforcement that's coming from I. Consultative professionals like ourselves to just listen. I'm not asking you to buy anything from me.

Chris Dunn: All I'm saying is like, you need to think about all of these pieces along the way. So from, you know, on the, on the front end, um, we're, we're helping our clients, you know, design and execute an exhibit, but then we're saying, you know, what are you doing on the, on, on the front end to promote? How are you driving traffic?

Chris Dunn: Um, can we create. Something from a campaign, can we take part of the design and make it into this preshow promotional piece? And then we're showing up and saying what's happening, you know, in the booth [00:10:00] itself as, as part of that strategic outreach. Um, and, and we, we also see this with content creation. I know, you know, using content that's created on site, and I'm getting a little bit off track, but it's, it's the before, the during and the after, and then how does that play out over time and the.

Chris Dunn: And anything that you're doing for one show can be created repurposed to help kind of accelerate those future events too. 

Marlys Arnold: Exactly. Exactly. And, and like you said, everything needs to flow together. Are you doing some kind of current campaign otherwise, you know, are you doing a social media campaign? Are you doing an advertising campaign and magazines or whatever, flow all of those things together?

Marlys Arnold: Too many companies, I think trade shows are like a separate part. You know, the, the trade show arm is not. In sync, I guess you would say with all the other marketing aspects. Trade shows are one avenue of marketing, but it's not a separate kind of marketing. It needs to [00:11:00] be, it needs to be consistent, you know, if you've got a overall campaign.

Marlys Arnold: Use that same message in your booth. Um, you know, use that same message to promote the booth, use that same message to follow up after the booth. You know, have everything flowing together. Present a consistent message. Don't just, you know, and I see so often, and I, I'm sure you do too, Chris, as people come to you to, to get their booth designed, they're like, oh, we just want this booth that looks great.

Marlys Arnold: Or, or they'll come to you and say, oh, we want a booth that showcases all we could do. And they want like all these. What I call a bulletin board of like a hodgepodge of everything, and it's like, no, you need something that's like big and bold and just like, you know, just resonates with the people walking the aisles to go, oh, I've got to go talk to that company.

Marlys Arnold: They, it looks like they have exactly what I've been looking for. Yeah, 

Dana Esposito: it always surprises me. Even, even when we've talked to, um, like, say marketing students, that oftentimes the, the trade show element of their future world isn't [00:12:00] necessarily talked about that much in their, their program when they're a student.

Dana Esposito: Um, and that it is oftentimes thought of as a separate thing. And one of the reasons why it surprises me, I mean, I'm immersed in this world, so I Why doesn't everyone know about it? But I mean, it's, it's because it's such an expensive part of their, your marketing budget right through the year. Right. It's, it's usually targeted to so many of their specific audiences that it just feels so important.

Dana Esposito: Um, and then when you're talking about like the, before the show, at the show and, um, before the show, during show, after the show, like in my brain, I'm thinking about what the experience is happening at the show, but what I want clients to think about is the experience and the message that's happening at the show starts before the show even happens.

Dana Esposito: Mm-hmm. And then it's still continuing on as with their follow up, that, that message and experience should. Be circling back around, um, so that it ties the whole thing together and Right. When you're talking about like taking these messages, uh, parts for continuity, for [00:13:00] me, the only thing that really has to change when they're communicating that message is considering the audience from show to show.

Dana Esposito: Sometimes their audience changes, so you may. Tweak things a bit for that to be absorbed for that specific audience, whether it's a demographic or a type of role that they execute. Right? But other than that, like we wanna help, I say we trade show companies want to help amplify their message and we want consistency.

Dana Esposito: Like we want everything great for them. So I completely understand what you're talking about. 

Marlys Arnold: Well, and you're wanting to build that memorability too. Yes. So the more that you reinforce the same message, the more memorable it's going to be. Because the whole thing is, yes, it's great to talk to people on the show floor and meet new people and get leads and, and introduce your company to new people.

Marlys Arnold: But the whole goal is you wanna be memorable later when they go, oh, you know, we really need to purchase, you know. X, Y, Z tools or whatever, and it's like, oh, remember that company that we met at the [00:14:00] show and we, you know, they had a really great. Tool that we need and let's call that, you know, so you want it to be something where it's not only just that it, your booth looks cool and is fun or whatever.

Marlys Arnold: And I know we're gonna talk more about that in a minute, but, um, you know, having a way that it's going to be really memorable. And I think the more consistent your message is, the more likely they're going to remember because they're gonna hear it over and over. They're gonna hear it in the pre-show.

Marlys Arnold: They're gonna see it in your booth. They're gonna hear it in your. Follow up, they're gonna hear it in your social media marketing. Everything is going to be presenting that same message over and over. 

Dana Esposito: Yeah. A trade show exhibit to me is essentially a playground is an opportunity to either reinforce, um, relationships that you already have, right.

Dana Esposito: Or just it's the beginning of a new relationship. So even if someone might not need you right then, mm-hmm. It's the beginning your relationship so that you're memorable. And if something's memorable, it means they've learned it so that when they do need you, they already feel like you have a relationship.

Dana Esposito: Like I already know [00:15:00] them. And if you start to feel like you know someone, you also start to feel like you trust someone. And that's where solid long-term relationships, you know, begin and thrive. 

Marlys Arnold: Exactly. Exactly. And the trade show is a great way to bring your message to life. You know, everything else is like, it's messaging online, it's messaging in print, it's messaging, you know, through direct mail or whatever.

Marlys Arnold: But the trade show booth is where you bring that message to life. So looking at what is our overall message, and you know, a lot of times I encourage exhibitors to have themes for their exhibits and. You know, having a theme to your messaging and then bringing all that together and bringing it to life in the booth makes it so much more memorable overall.

Chris Dunn: Absolutely. Absolutely. So just, I love where the conversation's going and just to kind of put a bow on it, or at least kind of get my arms around it is in general, right, data shows that. People in your total addressable market at any one time, your tam is maybe three to [00:16:00] 5%. That's probably skewed when you look at it from a trade show standpoint because people are at a show for a particular reason.

Chris Dunn: Right? So that number is likely higher. Um, but we've all, anybody who's ever done a show, I. Has had conversations with folks and they're, you know, like, Hey, we're gonna do an RFP in 2026. I'm just doing research. Or 20, 27, 20. Our contract ends in 27, we're going out to bid at that point, or whatever. So even with, you know, being, putting yourselves in a situation at a show, and again, this is just reinforcing what both of you guys are saying is that, you know, this is not a show up, take an order, you know, sell something.

Chris Dunn: And then, you know, wipe your, you know, wipe your hands and, and move on. This is. Building a long-term relationship, you know, you know, process. So, 

Marlys Arnold: right. 

Chris Dunn: All of those things. Right. Being memorable and using, um, engaging the census in order to do that. Um, so we, um, we are gonna change topics. Well, I was just gonna address, 

Marlys Arnold: [00:17:00] I see a comment in the, in the comments there.

Marlys Arnold: Yeah. I love a theme, but it's best when the theme makes sense with the brand. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes. When you're gonna do a theme or some kind of an overall message, it needs to make sense with your brand. It needs to make sense with what you're promoting. So, you know, you don't wanna be gimmicky, but there's a lot of creative ways to come up with a theme that actually reinforces your message.

Marlys Arnold: You know, if, if you're, uh, I'll just try to think of a quick example of, um, you know, if you're looking at. Trying to, uh, show how your demonstrate your product is better than the competition, for example. Mm-hmm. So you could use a theme like, you know, miles ahead of the competition or something and use a racing theme, you know, or you know, a lot of times people use sports themes, but again, it needs to tie in well and actually, um.

Marlys Arnold: I'll let you transition to the next topic, and then I've got an, I'll circle back to the sports thing when we get to the next section. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah, no, no, [00:18:00] that, that sounds great. And, and, um, and we're gonna circle back as well to just kind of how storytelling, you know, kind of plays part in that as well. Um, so on the, on the toolbox here, we kind of aim for about a 40 minute type of, uh, a, a, a layout.

Chris Dunn: So we're, we're closing in on about halfway through, so we want to kind of just. Move things forward a little bit, and one of the topics that we, we definitely wanted to touch on was kind of creative creating interactivity, uh, within the booth space. Dana touched on a little bit within, you know, what are you doing to build an experience that's memorable.

Chris Dunn: Um, so when I think about, you know, interactivity to me kind of, I think, um, a tactile experience where I'm touching or I'm, I'm, uh, engaging in something. Or maybe it's, um, maybe it's a, a, a, a touchscreen situation where I can self guide myself through a demonstration or participate in pieces. Um, but marlis, uh, everybody, everybody's going to determine, or they're gonna interpret that maybe a little bit differently.

Chris Dunn: [00:19:00] When you think interactivity, what do you think about and how have you seen maybe different aspects of that or different versions of that play out? 

Marlys Arnold: Well, when I think interactivity, when I coach exhibitors to evolve and get more interactive in their booth, you know, finding ways for people, first of all, to get interactive and engage with your product.

Marlys Arnold: Mm-hmm. So how can you ma instead of just, you know, even if it's software, instead of just demoing the software, have people actually walk through it themselves. If it's an actual product or a tool or something, let them actually use it and try it out. And a, a great way to do that is. Involve your product in some kind of gamification.

Marlys Arnold: So instead of just having, you know, like a Plinko board or Spin the wheel or something like that for gamification, involve your product. And so when I mentioned the, about the, the sports idea, um, one of my favorite examples is a company, they sell siding, you know, like siding for your house. Mm-hmm. And they have [00:20:00] one of those pitching, you know, uh, baseball cage.

Marlys Arnold: Pitching stations in their booth, but they're not just throwing the pitch to see how fast you know, they can pitch. They're throwing at. Wall of siding, you know, so they're demonstrating how solid their product is, how great it is, how durable it is. They're showcasing their product in that way. Um, you know, other things, like I've seen a lot of like, uh, timed race against the clock, like assembling something.

Marlys Arnold: If your product takes assembling, you know, let people assemble it in the booth and experience that. And then award like, you know, fastest time of the day gets a prize or whatever. So how, you know, thinking on how you can involve people and get them, you know, interacting with your product and if you don't have a product that you could do something like that.

Marlys Arnold: You know, Chris, you mentioned touchscreens. You know, I've seen companies do great job, a great job with having, um, I. You know, some kind of a quiz in their booth. And I've got an example, actually two examples, what, [00:21:00] what to do and what not to do from the same show. Uh, one was a small little 10 by 10 exhibitor, and they had a, it was a personality quiz, and so you took the quiz and learned, you know, like what your personality was.

Marlys Arnold: And then they had four different giveaways. So based on what your outcome in the quiz was, that was what your giveaway item was. Really cute, really clever. They got engagement in a 10 by 10 space. Um, which a lot of times that's what I hear from exhibitors is, you know, oh, our booth is too small. We can't do an engagement.

Marlys Arnold: We can't do an activity. Yes you can. But then the second one, again, same show. Big household name exhibitor. Uh, they had like a big, you know, great big touch screen panel and I walked up. Now granted, it could have just been, it was late in the day. Maybe nobody came over, but nobody talked to me the whole time.

Marlys Arnold: I was, I, I just self went through the quiz. 

Hmm. 

Marlys Arnold: And then when it popped up at the end, I got my phone out to take a picture of the, the [00:22:00] screen, the final screen that told me my answer. It was gone in a flash. I couldn't even, I, I didn't even have time to read it and there was no place for me to enter my contact information.

Marlys Arnold: So not only did they not capture my information, they never sent me anything after. So, you know, I didn't get a recap of here's what your quiz said, and, and here's how we wanna follow up nothing. And I was like, what a waste. Yeah, you had this big, beautiful touchscreen and people were engaging with it, but you got nothing out of it.

Chris Dunn: Yeah. Yeah. Failure to actually, you know, capture that. Hey, I wanted to hit on one of these questions. So, uh, James kind of asked a little bit, uh, ago about, uh, stories. So, you know, people do remember stories. It's a great way to communicate. How have we seen planners incorporate storytelling in their exhibits?

Chris Dunn: I think this is really, kinda plays into what we're talking about. Very well. Can it, because sometimes it will lean. On the interactive piece and other times mm-hmm. The storytelling takes place in other ways. But [00:23:00] anybody wanna, you know, whether it's Dana or, or Marli on that, just kind of talk about an example that where the storytelling really kind of played out and made a lot of sense.

Dana Esposito: Um, Marla, you wanna go first? Oh, go ahead. If you've got an example. Go 

Marlys Arnold: ahead, Dana. 

Dana Esposito: Um, well, I have a couple examples, but I'll keep it short. So, first of all, I think storytelling is one of the most important forms of communication ever because if you're trying to tell someone or teach somebody something, if they can put it into some sort of.

Dana Esposito: Something they can relate to, right? Mm-hmm. And that's what the story is. It becomes something that they, again, will remember. And I, a perfect example of this has nothing to do exhibits. It was seventh grade and I had a science teacher, and I just thought he was the best teacher because I didn't have to try to learn anything.

Dana Esposito: All I had to do was listen, because he told everything in a story, and it was just his way of teaching. And it made it memorable. It made it entertaining. And memorable. Mm-hmm. So then I was [00:24:00] educated and it stayed with me. Um, and the way that we can translate that into exhibiting is whatever that theme is or whatever the message is, if you can.

Dana Esposito: Put that into story form that mm-hmm. Is entertaining. You're gonna amplify the opportunity for it to be remembered. So that's my most favorite way of telling, uh, communicating something is in the form of a story, essentially. An example, because people can put themselves into the situation, and if they can put themselves in the situation and they understand like the why behind something, it goes from being like a headline.

Dana Esposito: To, to understanding because they see it in, um, in context and it becomes something that is, they can relate to and remember. Right, right. And 

Marlys Arnold: you know exactly people when you're telling them, when you're crafting the story. And it goes back to the whole idea of strategy and designing what you're gonna do before, during, and after the show.

Marlys Arnold: Figuring out what your story [00:25:00] is, what your. Theme is what your message is and crafting everything so that it reinforces all of that, you know, so, so you're kind of setting people up and teasing them ahead of time with those pre-show promotions, teasing them what the story is and what they're gonna experience in your booth.

Marlys Arnold: And then when they come to the booth, then the story comes to life. And then afterwards, then you're, again, you're reinforcing the story in your follow up and, and, you know. Incorporating and weaving the, the people that you've met, you know, that you met in the booth. Weaving them into that story and letting them see how your product or your service can help make, you know, create their story, write their story.

Dana Esposito: One, one really good example, and I've seen this done several times by different companies because it's just a great tool, is say you're trying to communicate, um, a particular, uh, new, uh, drug in its efficacy or a medical device, right? Oftentimes you're trying to [00:26:00] communicate to doctors, right? Well, a doctor isn't typically the patient, so what you're trying to do, you're not just trying to say like, here on this wall or this touchscreen is why this drug is better.

Dana Esposito: Right. Um, there was, uh, an exhibit where the drug was actually for ms. So what they had the experiences when the doctors would come in is the doctor would become the patient. Mm-hmm. And they literally, one of the interactives was they walking down this path, but they were only allowed to say, take steps.

Dana Esposito: Uh, the flow would light up when they were allowed to take the next step. And essentially what would happen is the doctor would be walking at the pace with someone with like, advanced MS, who was still able to be, you know, um, mobile. Um, on foot. Um, and so it really slowed the doctor down. And what can be quite frustrating 'cause you're just trying to walk in the line.

Dana Esposito: Mm-hmm. Nothing should be holding you back. So right there that in its simplest form, was a doctor could empathize with the patient going, well this stinks. Like I'm going from here to there. Why is this taking me so long? Um, so which [00:27:00] showing that this drug can actually slow the progression of that disease, right?

Dana Esposito: Mm-hmm. The doctor was. Empathetic. There was a journey. There was a story. So when they walked outta there, they didn't have just the data, which is super important. Exactly. They had, they had more of in context, I. 

Marlys Arnold: Yeah. Well, and I actually, one of my clients did that and, and she was, her arena was autism and so she created an experience, again, 10 by 10 space, little tiny exhibitor.

Marlys Arnold: But she created an experience in her booth where she had a video that they watched and they had headphones on, so they were listening an experiencing what it was like to be. Autistic and, and how the world, you know, how an autistic person perceives the world. She had the doctors were leaving, going and get somebody else and bringing 'em back and going, you've got to watch this.

Marlys Arnold: And she, again, another example, she blew her goals out of the water because she made it experiential. Multisensory. People remembered [00:28:00] that and it really, you know, it really brought her message to life. So, like I said, it doesn't take a ginormous budget. It doesn't take a mega booth. You know, you can do this in a 10 by 10 or 10 by 20 foot space as well.

Marlys Arnold: It just takes, again, strategy and thinking it all through and not just checking boxes. 

Dana Esposito: It reminds me of ever I ever experienced something. It could be just a movie, it could be you went to a movie and it was like, or a shattering, it was amazing. And you go home and you're like, oh my God, I gotta this movie.

Dana Esposito: It was so, and everyone just kinda looks at you like, yeah, okay. I'm sure it was great. And then like next week they go to this movie and they come back and I'm like, oh my God, that was amazing. You like, I know. I told you that, right? You can tell another human something all day long. You can tell them ad nauseum, you can tell, you can tell talk.

Dana Esposito: You can talk till you blue in the face if someone sees it for themselves or experience themselves. All the difference of the world. So I'd almost say like, stop trying to tell people and just give them the opportunity to experience it and that the experience do all the heavy lifting. Yeah, 

Chris Dunn: exactly what Zaia is saying in the, in the comments [00:29:00] as well.

Chris Dunn: So I mean, listen, you know, storytelling is baked into our DNA, right? This is how. Everything that we have learned as humans was, was passed down. It's only up until very recent that everything has become much more transcribed and so forth. And granted, you know, language has existed for a long time. Written language has existed for a little less.

Chris Dunn: Um. But, uh, this is how we did it right around the campfire after the big, uh, you know, Buffalo slaying, you know, the story, the stories of how everything went. 

Marlys Arnold: Yeah. Well, and it's interesting because you, you say that a lot of times, that's what I ha you know, a lot of times it's the show organizer, or like I said, the director of sales that'll hire me to come in and train for all their exhibitors.

Marlys Arnold: And a lot of times they'll come up to me afterwards and they go, you told them all the same stuff that I've always told them, but it's like, suddenly they get it, you know? Because I made it real. And it wasn't just like. Talking at them, but I was giving them like we just did, you know, going through examples and talking about, and brainstorming, how can we actually do this for your company?

Marlys Arnold: [00:30:00] And all of a sudden the light bulb comes on. It's like, I get it now. I can see how this actually will work. So it, it's, it's such a fun process when you get into it and you really start brainstorming and you think about how can we do this? How can we bring our message to life? And I mean, this is, this is what I love.

Marlys Arnold: This is what I've been doing for over two decades now. And I just, I love coming up with these fun ideas for exhibitors. 

Chris Dunn: And the same works for kids as well. Basically the parents tell 'em all day long about this and that, and they don't listen until they bring in a third party who tells it a little differently.

Chris Dunn: And the kids, oh my God, this makes sense now. Yeah. Not that I would know or my kids are, are perfect. They don't, that doesn't happen to them. So,

Chris Dunn: of course. Um, Dana, you were gonna talk a little bit about partnering with show organizers. 

Dana Esposito: Yes. So, um, what can you talk to us about? Uh, show organizers are oftentimes, you know, they're an untapped resource, uh, for planners [00:31:00] and just some other, some other things that, um, trade show managers can really think about when it comes to dealing with and partnering with the tr the, uh, organizers.

Marlys Arnold: Well, and again, this is a lesson I learned early on as an exhibitor because, you know, sometimes I would just because I, you know, I'm a solopreneur, I was really wanting to maximize my results and really focused on what can I do to make this really, you know, this show really work for me. And so I would go to the show organizer and I would say, what other kinds of opportunities do you have?

Marlys Arnold: What other kinds of promotions, you know, what else can I be doing? And sometimes I would find out about things. Sometimes they were even free. Opportunities and I would take advantage of them and other exhibitors didn't just because they didn't ask or didn't bother to check. Mm-hmm. One of the things that really, I don't get why.

Marlys Arnold: Every exhibitor doesn't take advantage of, at least fill out your exhibitor profile. I mean, you know, that's one of those no-brainer things. It should be quick, simple, should only take you about five minutes. You know, [00:32:00] these days most shows have the ability, you can even, you can embed A PDF in there. You can add a video, all these different elements.

Marlys Arnold: But as I scroll through the list of exhibitors at any given show, you know, like in the app or whatever. And I see all the ones that still have the show's logo on 'em. I'm like, well, I know they didn't bother to fill anything out. You know, I mean, at the very minimum to a brief description, add your link to your website, all that kind of stuff.

Marlys Arnold: Do whatever you can in this show pro, this exhibitor profile to, you know, help give you added visibility. Um. You can even promote if you're doing something cool in your booth, if you're having some kind of a, a, of a contest or, you know, experience, have that, you know, promote that in your exhibitor profile as well.

Marlys Arnold: So, you know, that's one thing. Um, another thing is speaking opportunities. I. I was just consulting with an exhibitor recently, and he was telling me he wasn't sure he was gonna go back to this one show. You know, he's, he's a service, he has a service business, so he doesn't have like [00:33:00] product to display. He has a small booth, and he felt like that, you know, he just wasn't getting people in his booth and he wasn't getting his message out there.

Marlys Arnold: And I said, why don't you propose. A session, an educational session, you can teach about what it is that you do. You know, obviously you have to be careful not to turn the into a pitch fest, but, you know, propose a session, maybe bring in a client, you know, do a, a co-presenting with the client and talking about how, you know, how this all works or what they need to be thinking about or whatever.

Marlys Arnold: And then do you know, and then you're gonna. Teach this session session and then people are gonna come into your booth afterwards. I've seen that happen with a lot of exhibitors as well. You know, they teach a session and then people come rushing to their booth afterwards and they're like, oh, we were in your session and we wanna learn more about this.

Marlys Arnold: And you know, that's that added level of visibility that puts you ahead of all your competition. Not only your competition, but all the competition on the show floor. Yeah. Is there 

Dana Esposito: anything else that, um, exhibitors can do to build [00:34:00] stronger relationships with show organizers? 

Marlys Arnold: Well, I think just reaching out to them, you know, and since I come from a background of, you know, I've been on the exhibit side, I've been on the show organizer side, so I always kind of try to build that bridge between the two because it should be a partnership, it should be teamwork, you know, until, until exhibitors and show organizers are all working together, they all have the same goal.

Marlys Arnold: In the end. Every, you know, the show organizer wants the show to be successful. They want all their exhibitors to be successful. And so, you know, by everybody working together. You know, promoting the show, you know, I talked about earlier that, you know, it's important to promote beforehand. Um, you know, I learned that early on too.

Marlys Arnold: That's not just up to the show to promote. When I promoted my own booth, I got people in, I got people coming in saying, thank you. I would not have known about this event if you hadn't invited me. You know, so promoting it, taking responsibility, teaming up, looking at what, you know, most shows have on their website.

Marlys Arnold: They'll have, you know, a whole list of, these are all the [00:35:00] promotional. Opportunities now. Yeah. Some of them you have to pay for, but you know, look at what these opportunities are and how you can get involved. 

Dana Esposito: So are those, a lot of those things you're talking about sessions and promotion, is there, is there anything else that you would offer as, uh, insight to help align booth goals with like show level programming?

Marlys Arnold: Well again, by having that conversation with the show organizer and asking them, you know, what you know, or, or looking at what's the theme of the overall show? You know, 'cause a lot of shows change their theme from one year to the next. How can you do something in your exhibit that reinforces that theme or reinforces that message?

Marlys Arnold: Or if it's an association show, what can you be doing to help, you know? Um. Show your support for the association and, and tying that message together. So there's just, there's a lot of different ways to do it, but again, it goes back to having strategy. Mm-hmm. You know, and, and not just checking to-do list boxes.

Dana Esposito: Yeah.[00:36:00] 

Dana Esposito: All right. I'm gonna bounce us to one of our last sections because we're getting close to wrap up time. Um, so Marlis, can you give us our audience three actionable ideas for exhibitors to implement at their next show? 

Marlys Arnold: Sure. And these are the three things that I have built my entire career around, and these are three things that I teach exhibitors all the time.

Marlys Arnold: The first one is you need to design your booth to be engaging and like we talked about, interactive and then memorable because you want, you want your booth to be something that draws people in, gets them involved, and most of all, like we said, help them remember your company and your product or service afterwards.

Marlys Arnold: When. When the time comes for them to make a buying decision. Ultimately, the second thing is you want to promote ahead [00:37:00] of time. I always tell exhibitors that. If you exhibit without doing any pre-show promotions, it's like throwing a party and neglecting to send any invitations. So you wanna make sure that you're getting the word out there.

Marlys Arnold: You know, like we talked about before, you don't wanna be the field of dreams and just hoping that people will magically discover you. Uh, you wanna actually invite them to come to your booth and give them a reason of why they wanna come. 

Chris Dunn: Right, right. 

Marlys Arnold: And then the third thing is you wanna educate your booth staff so that they know what to do and what not to do in the booth.

Marlys Arnold: Uh, you know, make sure that they're, they're representing your company in the right way, and, and that they know that and understand the message and the goals that you're trying to accomplish. And so that they can, uh, you know, convey that. All in a professional manner. Um, but also how to follow up afterwards.

Marlys Arnold: And I know we're not gonna get into that today, but that's another key part too, of making sure that, you know, that things don't end when the show closes. That's [00:38:00] just the end of phase one, and then you move into the follow-up stage. But those are what my, you know, that's the, the framework of my book Build a better trade Show image.

Marlys Arnold: That is the framework of all of my exhibitor workshops that I teach. That's, you know, it's those three things. Design, promote. And make sure your staff is doing what they're supposed to be doing. 

Chris Dunn: Those are three really strong pillars, Marli. That's awesome stuff. And, and you know what, so we're, we are here in, uh, I don't know, episode 22.

Chris Dunn: I feel like the training of the, um, folks, you know, involved is something that we come back to over and over again. That's just, that's, that's a big hole that people aren't hitting really well. 

Marlys Arnold: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it, you know, it's something that, it's not that. I always say it's not rocket science, but it's also something that so many people overlook.

Marlys Arnold: So it is, it is really key to have that, that all those layers of education. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah. [00:39:00] Hey, um, let's take an opportunity to do a little, uh, say that again. Shameless self-promotion of, uh, of your, your books. Yeah. I think you've got a cop or two kicking around, don't you? 

Marlys Arnold: I do, I do. I wrote my first book, build a Better Trade Show Image.

Marlys Arnold: Like I said, that was the, uh. The how to guide I wish I would've had as a new exhibitor. I basically walk through everything from what to do before, during, and after. And, you know, giving people a complete framework. I use the, the reason I call it build a better trade show image. I use the framework of building a house.

Marlys Arnold: I. So it's like, you know, we start with the foundation and then we put the walls up. And so I walk through that whole process comparing about how, how you need to do the same when you're building your trade show strategy. Um, and then I republished that one with the second edition a couple years ago, which now is an award-winning book.

Marlys Arnold: Uh, last fall I won the best indie book award for Oh, that's awesome. All the better trade volume or. Edition number two. So, so that was pretty cool. Um, and then my other book is [00:40:00] Exhibit Design that works, and that one is focused just on the design portion of what to think about. You know, we talked a lot about strategy.

Marlys Arnold: What's the strategy? What should your booth look like? What kinds of, um, multisensory elements can you add? All of those kinds of things. And then of course, my podcast trade show insights. Um. Chris, you and I have talked a lot about that lately. I was one of the original OG podcasters. Yeah. Back in, I started in April of 2006.

Marlys Arnold: Um, my very first episode was actually a review of the, uh, exhibitor show. So I had just been to exhibitor show and I did a, uh, a recap of that. That was my first episode. And so, you know, back then most people didn't even know what podcasts were. 

Chris Dunn: I know you were a true, uh, you know, true original on that innovator as it were.

Marlys Arnold: Yeah, 

Chris Dunn: I feel like, I believe me, 

Marlys Arnold: it's a lot easier now than it was, it was a lot more complicated to do. I can 

Chris Dunn: imagine. Well, you didn't have a fist bump to help you run everything, do all the heavy lifting, that's for [00:41:00] sure. Uh, cool, cool stuff. So, um, hey, Marli, what is the best way for people to get ahold of you?

Chris Dunn: Because after you've just dropped all these gold nuggets, I'm sure lots of folks are gonna want to. Try to figure out how to find you and, and, uh, engage and ask some more questions. 

Marlys Arnold: Sure. Well thanks Chris. I, um, actually a good way to reach me if you're on LinkedIn, I'm all over LinkedIn, so you can reach out to me there and my websites, I have trade show insights.com.

Marlys Arnold: Just posted a brand new episode yesterday. Today. So, uh, that's where to find the, the blog and podcast. And then my other website is exhibit marketers cafe.com. And that's where I have information about all my consulting and training and, uh, you know, tools that I provide for. Both exhibitors and show organizers.

Marlys Arnold: And James, I see you're asking am I on Good reads? Yes, I am in good reads. Uh, uh, my book is, you know, amazon bookshop.org, uh, you know, uh, all [00:42:00] those good places. So, 

Chris Dunn: okay. Are, do you have, are your books, uh, on audio version or just. 

Marlys Arnold: I have not yet done an audio. It's something I would like to do, but uh, you know, sometimes there's just not enough hours in the day.

Chris Dunn: The cobblers kids never have any shoes. Right. Yeah. 

Dana Esposito: As it were. I'm a huge audio person. I would, if you end up doing them, let me know because I'd love to, I listen while I drive all the time, so that would be wonderful. Yeah, it's definitely, 

Marlys Arnold: it's definitely on my list of things to do, but, uh, yeah, we'll see.

Chris Dunn: Absolutely. And Zaia and Sagel both agree that, um, when picking the folks who are gonna man your booth salespeople should not be the only automatically selected folks that are there. You really need to look at what are the strong suits of all of your people and make sure you're building a team that makes sense, right.

Chris Dunn: Not only, you know, sales are, sales folks tend to, you know, paint with a broad brush. We tend to be fairly outgoing, right? But we're not detailed people. We probably aren't really technical people, right? So you gotta have the whole gamut, right, to fill that field of [00:43:00] players really well. 

Marlys Arnold: I, I actually have done some blog posts and podcasts on that.

Marlys Arnold: So if you go to trade show insights.com, you can do a search for sales, uh, and you should be able to bring all those up. But yeah, I've got, I've got some thoughts on that. 

Chris Dunn: There you go. It sounds like some definitive thoughts as a salesperson. I, I may or may not go and read that 'cause I don't know what I want.

Chris Dunn: Well, what I'll see. Uh, awesome. Well this has been a, a wonderful, uh, conversation. Um, uh, appreciate you guys filling in. There was a couple areas, uh, where I needed to switch off my microphone. I have some work going on in my house here and, uh, you know, real life kind of sets in. My, my normal office was not available, and, uh, the contractors are moving around, but you, you know, we, we made it relatively seamless here today, so this is all good.

Chris Dunn: Do appreciate it. Um, Dana, thanks for joining me as, uh, as the co-host and Marli, thank you for joining us as our special guest. This has been a tremendous conversation and I look forward to, uh, to, I think, sharing this episode with lots of folks. [00:44:00] Obviously here we are on, on our live, uh, broadcast. Literally as soon as we, uh, as soon as we end it, it becomes available as a recorded piece.

Chris Dunn: You can come back to it and listen to it and watch us over and over again. And then we're also gonna gonna have the, uh, the episode shows up on our YouTube channel. And we're also across the board on all of, uh, all of the different podcast, uh, platforms as well. So I'm a Spotify guy. I listen to a lot of podcasts and every once in a while, our own pod, my own podcast comes up and I get to listen to myself and go, Ooh, I wish I didn't say that, or, I can do better.

Chris Dunn: Uh, awesome. So thank you so much. I appreciate everybody, uh, tuning in, being part of our, our, uh, event Marketers Toolbox Community. Marli, thanks so much for joining us. I hope you had a good time. 

Marlys Arnold: Yeah, thanks Chris and Dana. This was fun. And thanks to everybody for joining in and, and listening, and we'll see you around online.

Chris Dunn: Absolutely. Thanks everybody. Take care. Have a great [00:45:00] day.