Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association
Exhibitor ROI Toolkit
Instruction for completing ROI
 Review and consider the purpose of each category and the importance it holds for
your organization. Remember
• Think beyond the immediate bottom line
• Consider how the outcomes may enhance your organizations overall
performance
• Develop an achievable, valuable goal for each of the categories. For
example:
• 10 new customers met,
• 20 qualified leads,
• learned new idea that will improve our organization,
• Each category should have AT LEAST one goal, but can
have as many as you wish. Keep in mind, you many have
immediate ROI expectations, near term ROI, and long
term ROI
 Identify actions that can and should be taken to achieve success in reaching your
goals (i.e. in order to meet with 15 current customers, preset appointments with
attendees/customers 15 days prior to the event).
 If you choose, you can weigh the importance of our categories and customize to
your organization with the table on page 4. You can then score the success of
each outcome.
– For example, a staff person new to the organization/field, their goals would
be weighted more toward education, while a more seasoned staff person’s
goals may be more weighted to reconnecting with customers or learning
trends and how it may impact the organization. The individuals would then
Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2017
New Orleans, LA
Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association
Exhibitor ROI Toolkit
rate their experience on a scale of 0 – 5 to determine the measurable
success
 After the event, be sure to revisit this document to measure your success and
share the information you learned along with the ROI with your colleagues.
Thought starters to customize your worksheet
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How many prospects were uncovered?
How many new relationships were established?
What industry trends did you learn?
What competitive intel did you gain?
How many clients did you meet with (existing account maintenance)?
How visible were you to attendees? How was your booth location/traffic?
How did you brand? How was your brand perceived?
Did your booth-hook work? Pre-mailer? Were attendees drawn in?
Were you approachable/informative?
What are my competitors doing well?
How well were you able to connect with your target audience?
Did the attendance meet your expectations?
What would you do differently next time?
What would you do the same?
What events/sessions outside of the expo did you attend?
What were the valuable take-aways?
Were the optional events offered in conjunction with the conference of value?
Did you sponsor any events? What was the client feedback?
Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2017
New Orleans, LA
Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association
Exhibitor ROI Toolkit
Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2017
New Orleans, LA
Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association
Exhibitor ROI Toolkit
Category/Value
How important is this category?
Lead Generation
Weight/importance
__25___%
Ideas Generated
Weight/importance
__15___%
Networking
Weight/importance
__20___%
Competitive Intel
Weight/importance
__15___%
Marketing/Branding
Weight/importance
__25___%
Goals
(List at least one goal per category
that you want ROI on)
Actions
Outcome
Score
(Immediate, Near, Future)
(0=low,5=high)
Bring back 100 business
cards
Follow up with all of them
within two weeks of
conference
Of those 100, we get a return
of at least 15%
5
Come back with a good
hook for our booth for our
next conference
Peruse other booths to see
what is working and what is
not
Propose a new booth idea
before our next conference
3
Meet with current customer
to establish new sales
Find companies that we can
partner with to strengthen
our brand
Pre-booking appointments
with current customers
Attended the majority of the
networking events at the
conference
4
Make contact with current
competitors and gain insight
on what they are working
with
Quickly pop over to
competitor booths to see
what is new
Coming back with at least 5
new orders
Get specific point persons for
these companies and follow
up within the first week after
conference
Make notes for items that
may be competitive to us
Choose a sponsorship/ ad
strategy for next year
Choose the items/events to
sponsor that stick out the
most at the conference
Aug. 29 – Sept. 1, 2017
4
Contact VPPPA to get onto
5
sponsorship/advertising list
for next year. Maybe
advertise in VPPPA
publications before the
conference to get people to
come to our booth.
TOTAL 21/25
New Orleans, LA
Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association
Exhibitor ROI Toolkit
Competitive intelligence gathered
 Cost?
I will bringing back competitor brochures and pricing.
 New products?
Brochures will cover this, as well. I have several pictures of booths and products
that we should think about incorporating
 What are others doing differently (creative ideas)?
Fun giveaways, traffic boosters, photo booth, interactive booths, games,
sponsorships
 What are the trends you noticed?
Drawings to attract people to booths, contests, giveaways, samples of products,
testimonials, engaging product demonstrations
 What are competitors doing in their booth to drive traffic?
Massage booth tickets, corner booths seem to be getting a lot of attention, prize
drawings at certain times, product demonstrations
What was the total cost of exhibiting at the event?
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$_1000____ Travel (hotel, air,)
$_120____ Client entertainment
$_300____ Exhibit cost (shipping, booth, electric)
$_1750____ Registration
$_700____ Promotional materials
$_50____ Other costs – Meals were catered and provided daily, so meal costs
were kept low
Total __$3,920____________
Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2017
New Orleans, LA
Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association
Exhibitor ROI Toolkit
How did this compare to other exhibitions you attend?
This was a more targeted audience interested in what we do. This is the only VPP
conference on at the national level, so it was definitely a great benefit to attend. It was
easy to network with both attendees and fellow exhibitors as we all had VPP as a
common thread. Also, there were so many activities and events that drove traffic into
the exhibit hall allowing for more interaction with attendees than we see at many other
conferences.
Going back to the questions on the first page, these were some of my major
observations:
- We are a bit behind on advertising. It looks like we do have the most advanced
version of our product as far as our competition. We need to be looking out for
this new kind of material that may be worth integrating into our products. I will be
bringing back information about it.
- We sponsored a game card square. We had great traffic boosting results with
that. After seeing some of the sponsored items they have available (phone
charging couch, massage booth, water bottles, bags,) I think we should talk about
choosing some of these things for next year, also. I saw so many great sponsored
items, banners, ads, etc. I wished our name was out there a bit more.
- Next year, I would bring along another rep. I dealt with a good number of people,
but feel like we could give them more personalized attention and explained our
products more if we would have another hand on board. More branding/
advertising efforts, also.
- We had great information hand-outs. Our team did a great job putting together
concise, easily-digestible information about our products that people did not mind
taking with them.
Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2017
New Orleans, LA
Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association
Exhibitor ROI Toolkit
- The majority of attendees at this conference were potential or existing customers.
I had interaction with people who expressed that they were glad they found us at
the show.
Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2017
New Orleans, LA