You will hear an adviser giving a talk to a group of purchasing managers about how to make good use of visits to trade fairs. As

Woman: Good afternoon. My short talk today is about trade fairs: not how to exhibit at them, but how to take best advantage of being a customer - a visitor to the fair. How can you make your visit really cost- and time-efficient? Firstly, an issue which is often overlooked is pre-exhibition preparation. It may be that the fair won’t be helpful, so find out as much as you can before you consider booking. As soon as you know it’s taking place, send off for the publicity folder, for which there is no charge. It contains information which can save you time and money. One particular thing I always advise clients to do is to look over the exhibitor list with great care and talk to line managers and colleagues about it. This will give you the best insight into whether this particular fair is right for your company. If it is, sign up for it.
Then, if you think the fair is for you, do take time to look into hotel arrangements. My advice is that you should try to choose a hotel yourself from the internet rather than selecting one from the trade fair’s recommended list. Trade fairs and exhibitions tend to use large chains because they’re easier to deal with, rather than ones with the most suitable facilities.
In due course, you will receive an enormous amount of trade-fair information - a lot of it you can throw away immediately. But not everything - the hand-outs to hang onto are the finalised list of visitors, and it’s also worth keeping the floor plan. Organisers seldom remember to supply extra copies, and you’ll be stuck if you don’t have one.
Then take a little care with your packing -don’t forget to take a large note-pad(fairs tend to supply tiny ones these days, and your jottings can get lost on small scraps of paper)and, whatever you do, don’t forget to take a good supply of business cards. There’s surely nothing more embarrassing than not being able to produce one on request. One other thing that I pack is a small pile of my own company brochures - not too many, they’d be too heavy -but to give out to selected personnel. Obviously you’re there with a view to buying, but an exchange of information helps everyone.
So now you’ve arrived and you’re standing in the exhibition hall with its bewildering array of people and exhibits. Where do you start? Well, my advice is to ignore the people at reception and go straight to the press office. They’ll be a good source of information about the really important events of the day and what the interesting new products and services are. After this, it’s worth taking advantage of what’s sometimes called ’the Fast-Track Service’. It can be costly, but it is personalised and independent - an adviser discusses your company profile and directs you to suitable stands.
After that, it’s just a case of wandering around, seeing what attracts your eye. And a key piece of advice - have a good look at the stands of small companies. These are often just starting out, and their stands frequently exhibit innovative products.
As you go around, look, listen, discuss, ask questions. Don’t be afraid to enquire about introductory discounts. You may be surprised at what companies are prepared to offer when they’re trying to set up a deal.
Now, obviously, you’ll be aiming to make plenty of contacts, and you should keep an eye on how long it takes the different companies to get back to you - sending the requested literature, quotations and so forth. With today’s communication techniques, you should hear from them within two or three days or even twenty-four hours. Any company that takes longer than a week is not worth pursuing, in my opinion. So, next, I’d like . . .
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Now listen to the recording again.
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That is the end of Part One. You now have 20 seconds to check your answers.