One of my favorite ways to book gigs is through showcasing and trade shows. These are ways for me to meet people who book the shows in particular markets. On Wednesday I attended a trade show for librarians for a new geographic area for me. My summer this year is booked up, so I wasn’t there to book shows, but to meet people and start building those relationships that will lead to gigs in the summer of 2025.
All of the booths at this tradeshow were tables and had chairs behind them. The exhibitors were sitting in the chairs, or standing behind the tables. Since I’m basically unknown in the area I wanted to do a couple of things to stand out.
The first thing I did was push my booth back to the wall. That visually broke up the line of tables at my booth. Next I stood in front of my table, and that removed any physical barrier between me and the potential buyers. This allowed me to engage them and when I did close up magic for them, really let me showcase my personality better.
Having been involved with trade shows in other industries, I was prepared with a simple booth. I was amazed at how many exhibitors came up and asked to take pictures of my booth because of how professional it looked!
There are definitely better trade show booths out there, mine is OK.
There’s not much to it, the main elements are a banner and fitted table cloth. I’ve had both of those for a while and the total cost of both of them was probably less than $250. It may be a few bucks more now, but worth the investment as I use them all the time for all sorts of things, not just trade shows.
-Louie
