Exhibition planning!

It's official.

Im going to the 'Kidz in the middle' exhibition on the 19th March 2015 at the RICOH arena in Coventry.

My first major indoor disability exhibition.

I'm listed on the website and everything!

I went to the one in Reading as a visitor a while back and absolutely loved it. So now I'm starting to plan the stand and work out how to get the most out of the day.

I turned to google for advice -  'Top tips for exhibition stands' and the like.

But most of it was either stuff I'd already thought of - or not applicable. My favourite being "Don't sit down because it looks unprofessional". Chuckle. If you think my sitting is unprofessional, you should see my standing!

So I have returned to stand planning my way. Getting everything sorted early on so that when I arrive to set up the day before everything is planned, and everything has a home.

So far I've drafted a brochure showing all my keyring cards, sorted by topic, which will be displayed on a flip-poster stand-y thing. (I know what I mean!) A positive side effect is that I also now have a downloadable brochure of cards for customers to download and browse through or show to others.

If I sell all my products I'll clutter the stand, so I'll take samples of most things that people can play and hand out 10% off vouchers for online orders. And just have a few key items for sale. Like:

• the Autistic Spectrum keyring card pack because I have had really positive feedback recently from parents and school teachers.
• And the 'Positive Accessibility Symbol' stickers. Because happy, lively depictions of disability that are relevant to kids are few and far between - what better place to sell them than at a kids exhibition? Which probably means that most of my 'differently normal' stuff might need to come too.
• And my children's books 'Welly Walks' and 'Biscuit Baking' - again, the general lack of positive, joyous, normal depictions of disability makes me want every child to read them,
• And the 'Today is..' wristbands because these are one of my favourite (and best selling) items - so simple and yet such an effective communication tool.

And design posters showing my product types....

....and probably change my mind in 2 weeks.

All without visually overloading my 2x3m stand....I think I have my work cut out!