55: Trade Show Marketing That Converts with Chris Tonn

It's easy to assume marketing in 2026 means going all in on digital: automation, targeted ads, algorithms doing the heavy lifting. But Chris Tonn, co-founder of Rocket Drones, is proof there's still real money on the table when you show up in person.

We talk about why trade shows and conferences remain one of the most underrated ways to convert leads, especially if you sell something complex. Chris shares how Rocket Drones turns booth visits into genuine conversations using hands-on demos like their inflatable drone cage and flight simulators, and why that kind of engagement builds trust faster than any ad campaign can.

If you've been wondering whether trade shows are still worth the investment, this episode makes the case for why in-person still works, and how to make the most of it.

Transcript

Welcome And Rocket Drones Explained

SPEAKER_01 0:00

All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Practical Rebels podcast where we talk about marketing, branding, and a little bit of everything in between. Today we have a friend of the show, a two-time guest now, his second time on, Chris Tunn. He's the co-founder of Rocket Drones. Um, yeah, say hello, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Hello, hello. Thanks for having me again. It's great to be back.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Yeah, thank you. And just like a quick caveat too, Chris is not only a client of Hatchmark Studio, but also happens to be my neighbor. So know him very well. I have the curse of knowledge, I would say, in a lot of things, because I know him so well. So I'll try not to leave anything out that wouldn't be too obvious to all of the listeners out there. But basically, I wanted to bring Chris on, because with Rocket Drones, and for those of the people who haven't heard of Rocket Drones, give us the elevator pitch, Chris. Like what's Rocket Drones? What's it all about?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yeah, so Rocket Drones is a drone education company for schools that kind of solves the problem of the FAA commercial drone certification requires zero stick time on a drone. So you can literally take a test and you know pass and congratulations, you're a commercial drone pilot at the age of 16 or older. But we think we want to make a little bit more of a more attractive hire that has the flight hours and the understanding uh of the drone operation. So we gamify that experience, simplified it for classroom use, and uh really gave a pathway from a foundation to certification with experience and uh just having a blast doing it.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Yeah, and if anyone's out there listening, just kind of wanting to know more about it, definitely go check them out at rocketrones.com. Shameless plug, honestly, just because it's really cool what they're doing in the educational space with drones. But really why I brought you on here, Chris, is I wanted to talk about, you know, since we do talk about marketing and brand, something that we've noticed with your product is that you and your team, you guys are on the road constantly at trade shows, conferences. Y'all are killing it out there. I'm I get tired just watching you sometimes. But yeah, just talk to me about trade shows because I really want to dig into that and talk about like how trade shows conferences sort of had their moment post-COVID, I would say, where people had missed that human connection. But what you found, and I'll let you speak after this, is that you found great success with your marketing and sales at trade shows and conferences. So when was it that you decided

Why In Person Events Still Win

SPEAKER_01 2:40

that this was going to be a thing that you wanted to do with Rocket? And how long have you been doing this?

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Yeah, no, that's a great question. And it's um it's something that goes really far back, actually, to family businesses uh doing consumer shows and the the power of of observing firsthand growing up that you know, wow, people really appreciate going, you know, experiencing in person, asking the specialist questions, the touch and feel, the whole enchilada. So, you know, over in our world of trade shows, and you know, really the value that it adds for us is the you know, anytime you have an opportunity to get your product in the teacher's hands in our case, it really starts to drive engagement style questions. Okay, you know, when I start with this, when do they start playing drone basketball, or how does the simulator come into play? And all of that kind of really starts to come full vision focus while we're in the trade show space. But it's a battle because you're in there with, in some cases, in a national trade show, there may be 500 exhibitors under one roof. I mean, stuff that you can't literally see in one day, which is often why these trade shows are multiple days. Um and so you have to stand out. And uh that's something that I think really hit us early on that we were, you know, really enjoying some of the simulator stations and the tabletop displays, but we realized, ooh, we've gotta we've gotta get these teachers flying with us. And so we took a big jump in the future or the in the in the past, and we we added a uh inflatable drone cage that allows us to fly with a lot of the teachers. So that's one of the things I'm sure we'll dive a little deeper, but that's one of the things that really opened the door to us seeing the the light bulb moment of okay, yes, you can do the table and tabletop setup, but if you're gonna go and you're gonna bring your whole team and you're gonna, you know, bring the trailer and everything else, you might as well go big or go visually big, as I might say, to at least get the attention or have a giveaway. One of one of the two is a nice way to uh entice folks over.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Yeah, and um Chris was kind enough to bring myself and Verenika along for the ride at one of the shows that y'all went to in Nashville, and going big is an understatement with that inflatable cage. It's pretty awesome. But I was wondering if you could walk through, just like talk a little bit more about that, because you know, I think whenever people think about trade shows and stuff, they think of the classic 10 by 10 backdrop with the table, with the cards on it, and the stress balls that have your logo on it. All good things, right? But like you said, sometimes there's three, four, five hundred people exhibiting. What are the things that you've noticed that have worked the best at getting people to approach you and to interface with your product and what it you know, what are some of those tactics?

Stand Out With Giveaways And Demos

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yeah, so we go all in. You know firsthand, but there's layers to our effect. So one, we do a giveaway each day for a classroom drone, and we scan each of the people that we interact with, and we have huge QR codes on each of the four sides of our display, letting folks know to sign up for this giveaway. Two, we're in costume. So we've got an inflatable rocket suit. Our founder, Brandon Turk, who's full of energy and uh, you know, just a fun person in general, engages with folks, takes pictures with folks. Obviously, they can't not look when you've got someone in a giant inflatable rocket suit, you know, outside doing uh slap bracelets and other fun uh little swag items. So that is, you know, always be engaging and and positive. You know, people don't want to, you know, if you're on your phone as you're walking through a trade show, you know, they're not gonna engage with you versus if you're having fun and offering a little free test flight of a drone or a chance to win a drone, just a moment to get their attention. The other thing is the environment that we've created really allows us to do the flying. So in our case, and in other companies' cases, it could be something else. So if you own a simulator company or if you own a product that tastes wonderful, you're gonna want to get those folks to get that experience going. So one of the things that I really appreciate about the the big cage is that we can do exactly that. We can get multiple people up and flying and experiencing the product because then all of a sudden the confidence levels boost. They say someone that was otherwise not really familiar with drones or does it fly drones, all of a sudden they're having a blast playing drone basketball, and now we're talking about you know how we can build their program out at their school and so on. So for me, it's keep that positive energy up front. You know, have a little fun with it if you if you feel comfortable. Get creative with your space, you know, get whatever means of product trial out there that you can do, uh, whether you're, you know, have free product samples or simulator trials or a little video loop going of your product so you can easily reference it. All of those things help so much more than just a brochure, a table, and some squeeze balls.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Yeah, and that's one thing that I noticed because you're right, people do they get into these big exhibition halls and they're sort of I don't know if it's their, I don't want to say that they're kind of afraid to engage, but whenever you pass by a hundred, two hundred booths that kind of look the same, you kind of just go on autopilot. But whenever you arrive at an exhibit that looks quite like yours, that is extraordinary, I would say, and you almost it's like I have to see what's going on in there, right? Or and I also like that you have the games, or whenever we were there, you had the um stuff around the edges so that if someone doesn't necessarily want to go into the net and start talking right away, they can just kind of play with the simulator and then they can kind of warm their way up. Or if you're busy talking to someone else, it's like there's plenty of stuff to do around your exhibit so that no matter what someone's personality or comfort level is, they can go there and they can engage in some way.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yep. No, absolutely. Um, and the last thing too, just to tag on one more idea of bonus points, is anytime you can get a speaking session, you know, just because you're an exhibitor at a show doesn't mean that they don't have informative speaking sessions. Obviously, bonus points when you can combine it with industry or in our case, teachers for their first hand experience as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Yeah, and that was something that y'all took advantage of too, because I know Brandon did a little breakout session whenever we were there, but it was just it was another way too, where maybe it was, you know, hey, I'm at the booth right now. We're also going to be doing this session. And I what I noticed that even people who had been to the booth previously, whenever they were at the session, it became more of a classic QA style. And I felt like the questions and answers really started flowing at that

The Aha Moment For Teachers

SPEAKER_01 9:50

session.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

It was fun. Do you have like I know that you said and you alluded to something previously, talking about how maybe once they get the product in their hand, they might start asking questions that they probably wouldn't have asked otherwise. What does that look like? And what would you say, is there an aha moment where it clicks? Because you have I would what I would call a pretty complex product. This is not a product that, you know, you're not selling a plunger. This is something that's got multiple layers to it. Is there a moment whenever you see it in their eyes where they're like, I get this, you know what I mean? And I want I'm ready.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Yeah, you know, it's it's really fun to watch it happen multiple times with teachers, you know, because a lot of our audience they want it for their kids in their class, you know, they want their kids to have the latest and greatest technology access, but the teacher needs to ultimately feel comfortable with the latest cutting-edge technology area of focus. So for us, having that experience to fly with them, run them through a drone game because we heavily gamify everything, which kind of lowers everybody's you know, sense of uh, I don't know, uh, we're all just having fun here at the end of the day, but also it gives us an opportunity to demonstrate how safe our drones are. So we can always just grab our drones mid-flight, turn them upside down, kills the motors instantly. Uh, teachers love seeing some of the challenges in real time be solved, and also kind of building their confidence that they're now flying and starting to envision this in their classroom. So the questions quickly shift from initially, oh, I can't do this, I don't really fly drones at home, you know, this isn't really my cup of tea, to okay, what other games are there besides drone basketball? And how long does it take them to get ready for their certification? And what if I want to add this next year? So you see some of them building the program in their mind, and I think that's the aha moment that we kind of allow them to, you know, really you know, let us know where's that happy path for them, and we just try to, you know, align with product recommendations and of course the assistance to get them up and running.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Yeah, and I think that for anyone else out there who's marketing a product or trying to sell a product that you might have that is a little bit complex, right? I think having that face-to-face interaction is super it's it's a unique opportunity, right? To be able to answer all of those complex two, three-part questions and to be able to put people at ease who might be intimidated by it. You know, we've seen that with other products that some of our if it's like AI, you know, related, a lot of people are feel like I don't know how to use that, or I'll I'll never understand it, or you know, it's it sounds too complicated for me, but being able to show people and to like kind of get their guard down in person is super valuable.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

It is. It really, really is. And that's why we end up probably paying a little bit more for this level of marketing than in other forms. How else do you tear down a barrier of getting to know their interest levels better than in person? So that aha moment in person is a lot easier to go along with than it is virtually.

ROI, Leads, And Faster Buying Decisions

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Yeah, and you you that's kind of a great segue into what I wanted to talk about next is you know, I know that rocket drones and many other companies obviously y'all aren't putting all of your eggs in this basket, right? You're doing pay-per-click, you're doing organic, you're doing cold outreach. This is, you know, trade shows and conferences are just one one piece of the puzzle. But how what would you say if someone is out there because you know, I know that y'all are paying, you know, a good amount to get there, not only in travel, but to actually have the space. How are you or is are you able to kind of calculate your return on investment? Do you just say, hey, we got this many leads from this show? Or what does that look like? Because I know that if there are naysayers out there about this, they that would probably be the first thing that they ask about, right? Is it is it worth the spend?

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Yeah, absolutely. And and some of it does come back down to the core product, right? You know, if we're if we're selling life insurance or if we're selling, you know, some less uh interactive uh products, let's call them. You know, you will want to really lean on your strengths of your products capabilities and how it can fuse into these trade shows, number one. You know, if if you've got some vanilla interactive side of house, we need to think in a different direction of potentially you know giveaways, product demos, why what makes you different, those types of things. But for us, you know, going into this this spend and why it's really worth it is the interactive layer to our fun factor with the gamification, the you know, easy-to-fly starter foundation, you know, getting into you know our simulator stations. There's a lot going on. So, you know, for those that are on the fence a little bit, you know, I think it comes down to you know just evaluating that level of interaction that you feel comfortable. You know, we've seen some people really get into layers of of because shows are multiple days. Some people add in, like, hey, we're giving away shirts this day, and then if you wear the shirt the next day, we'll give you this. Uh, and now you've got free marketing all over the trade show hall from all the people that wanted that that free swag and and and high visibility for you. Uh, and it also stirs some of the interest of what's going on over at that booth in general. Uh, some people bring in celebrities to do little signings for an hour. I've seen everything under the sun, you know, but at the end of the day, the reason we spend the dollars that we spend to go to trade shows and why it works for us is that you know, uh when you're in person, we're able to really streamline conversation straight to purchasing decisions. We are able to prioritize where you know somebody's sense of urgency is in the budgeting process. You know, in the school world, we have some folks that are you know ultimately waiting for these trade shows to make their decisions so that they can see all the latest and greatest. So for us, it it not only is great to do the in-person connection, but it's also a very good way to then take the sale to the next level, along with, hey, I gotta introduce you to so-and-so from the neighboring school district. She's here too. I'll bring her over. You know, there's a there's a contagious component to the trade show, but there is also just a little bit of uniqueness to how you're engaging with these attendees and what you're doing to make sure your product is front and center, but fun and engaging.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Yeah, and you mentioned the interactivity of your product, but you know, even if someone does it, you have the the benefit, I would say, or the advantage of being able to take a controller and stick it in someone's hands and let them have fun. Not everyone's gonna have that product. But to your point, there are other ways that you can dial up the fun factor of your product in an in-person event like this. And I do think that, you know, it's it's in it's not to overstate the obvious, but you know, there is a lot of excitement around these. You know, they're for some people, this might be their one big outing for the year. Yeah, but you also kind of have this fish in a barrel scenario where you know everyone who walks through the door is a potential customer, you know, in if these if you pick the right show. Yep. But not only that, but they're in a good mood, right? Like you you rare you rarely see people walking around these trade show floors looking mad. Everyone's having a good time. So it's the perfect opportunity to not only have your target audience right in front of you face to face, but you know that they're ready, they're in a mindset just by way of being there, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Yep. It's exactly that. And and and the mood is everything too, like you mentioned, you know, people walking around with their other co-workers or neighboring districts that they don't get to see all the time, or uh some of their favorite, you know, products that they love to, you know, just keep in touch with. It's it's just a fun environment. Plus, in our case, a lot of PD or professional development training is able to be accomplished for the teachers. So one session to knock out all their PD for the year and and uh discover all the new stuff.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

So yeah, that's awesome. What would you say? And I feel like we've kind of already, you know, we've already sold the trade show experience pretty hard. But if there was a naysayer who was saying, like, you know, I would rather rather than invest the 10 grand or the 20 grand, whatever your whatever your show is gonna cost, I'd rather go ahead and redirect that or allocate that budget to PPC. I'd rather allocate that budget to creating content online. What would you say to that person who was just saying, you know, I think that I hear what you're saying, but also that's a lot of money that I could use in a lot of different ways right here from behind my computer and not have to get up and go?

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Well, I would say that you should do that stuff. Like we say, it's not one, you know, all-in direction of marketing, but you have to experiment. But I think the tricky part of experimenting in the trade show world is you know, again, it goes back to what you're doing in the first place. You know, it's easy to buy the trade show booth, right? You just click on it and you just buy it. It's another thing to have a display that's interactive, a message that carries through that's contagious, or a product demo setup, or a speaking session, or you know, these costumes or ways to get their attention. You know, if you're not all in on the marketing mind and the sales energy, then I would definitely encourage you to lean into to pay-per-click. I've seen some vendors pack up early at a show that literally showed up with a backdrop and some brochures and they were just miserable. And I was like, what you know, what what do you think is gonna happen, you know, with just brochures and a and a backdrop? You've got to have that next layer. So if you're in it to win it with sales and marketing at the forefront of your you know design and interaction layers to what you're gonna be doing at that trade show, do it. If that's not your comfort zone, maybe lean on an external source to bring that. There are creative services that can help design some of the themes, like old hatchmark over here. You know, they can bring to life some of the things that help energize that display, that help come up with a theme for a giveaway and other things if that's not your comfort zone, but at least try it once, but don't do it half-assed.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Yeah, I think that's a great piece of advice there. And you know, you have to, we talked about the excitement on these exhibition floors. You have to be part of that, right? You can't just stand there passively and watch people walk by. You have to be part of it. And I know you mentioned Brandon, he's got no shortage of being able to dial up the fun factor. I wish I had a a fraction of what he has sometimes to be able to go out there and do that. It's definitely not my comfort zone, but I appreciate the fact that, you know, I would know it's like, hey, that's probably not my forte, but I know that there's someone out there who can help me do that and to and help me deliver. And if it's not you, maybe it's someone on your team you just haven't thought of yet. Or maybe it's maybe that's bringing that person into your team, right? Like maybe it's like, hey, we really need a high Energy salesperson to be able to go do that type of stuff because it for what's hard for you might be someone's like might be their regular mode, you know, that might be what they love to do. Agreed. Agreed. So what do you think about, you know, if if someone were to follow you around or someone who hasn't been to one of these conferences or trade shows in a while, or maybe they've never been before, what do you think would be a surprising takeaway for them or something that they may have not expected?

Lead Capture Systems And Vendor Friendships

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Yeah, so from an attendee standpoint, probably sensory overload, from the exhibitor side, I think that there's a lot of like you start one conversation and you literally turn to your left and or right and you start another. And it's so fluid that don't forget to capture the lead. You know, that's one of the things that I would just start talking. And and there would they would go. And I'd be like, oh my gosh, I gotta scan them. We have little QR codes on on the badges of everyone that you can you can scan for their contact details. And we have a little system, and and uh the system is you know, we we scan them sideways or take a photo sideways if it's a high priority or urgent purchase related uh order, and everyone else is just vertical. And so we have some some tools that help us differentiate the lead process and so on. The mindset of you know, when you're when you're in the trade show floor, there's so many things going on. So, you know, when it is slow, um, because there will be times where people are in training sessions and and so on, you know, I I I'd say one thing that you don't always think of is some of the friends that you'll make with other vendors and companies and how that can turn into more business. Like the areas that you're not looking into, which obviously you know you're gonna talk to attendees about potential opportunities and sales, but you don't always realize that maybe that vendor that's selling school furniture might also have this little crosswalk of opportunity with your esports simulator that you don't sell computers or furniture over here, but you sell the simulator for it. And you know, sometimes there's this full circle relationship where people remember, oh yeah, you're looking for for a drone simulator? Well, we know the guys over at Rocket Drones, they're great folks. We were neighbors with them at the you know ISTE conference or whatever it may be. So that's a fun observation in addition to you know meeting all the attendees and the folks. And of course, you know, something else you might see is just the adrenaline, right? You're you're going all day and you're speaking to person after person. So it's amazing how that gets you that's your cup of coffee, really, is is the next person to speak with and and and speak about your product. You will crash at the end of the day from all that adrenaline. I don't know how some folks go out for further entertainment and stuff afterwards. I'm I'm dinner in bed, but but yeah, that's that's a little fun extra insight there.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Yeah, those are great insights, and uh the adrenaline is real. I didn't necessarily get caught up in it too much because I was there sort of in like a support role, but I definitely noticed the moment where whenever we first got there, it people kind of ease into it, but there was definitely an apex moment where I saw that it was all hitting the fan all at once, and you guys were kind of getting mobbed. And I kind of saw this like moment where you it's like you had to have three heads to to catch it all, and you could definitely probably get caught up in the excitement and just kind of you know miss miss the easy part, which is oh, did I get that person's information by the way? Right, right, exactly. You talked about adrenaline and maybe, you know, hey, I'm gonna crash at the end of

Choosing Shows Without Burning Out

SPEAKER_01 25:56

this. If someone's listening, you know, I'm not set, I I don't want to speak for you, but I I don't think that the uh the suggestion either is to go out and book every single conference, you know what I mean, because you will burn out. How do you keep you have to be strategic about it? How do you keep the pace without burning out? And how do you, in this kind of a two-part question, are there any things that you won't do? Like, is there any no-go zones that you found where it's like, you know what, if it's if it's this many miles away, not worth it, or if it's this type of conference, not gonna do that, or if there's two conferences too close together, we won't do it. What does that look like for someone who's like, maybe I am gonna start doing some conferences, but you know, I I want to make sure I do it the right way?

SPEAKER_00 26:41

Yeah, no, that's a that's a great question. Uh, you know, for us, some of the limiters might come down to the alignment of the audience more than anything. You know, we love you know the education space and it's uh opportunity to have isolated events that cater to just the teachers versus this the teachers and the students. Obviously, we have a drone competition each year at Space Camp. We get that FaceTime with the students throughout the year and at our competitions. So, you know, just finding that alignment of audience. We had some student heavy related events that were intermingled with some of it, and it just wasn't a an alignment for us because the students they love it, but they're not the decision makers, even though they have some influence. You know, other things do come down to logistics and overlap of scheduling. If we can't make it physically work with between shows, then we're just not gonna try and overload the team. We've gotten to a chapter now where we really book this stuff early. It comes down to you know, the first layer is you know being you know, that marketing and sales mind of of a plan, but the the next layer is really getting in early to get a good spot, right? You wanna you don't want to be up against the wall in a corner, you want to be in the middle somewhere where people are kind of really focused. So, you know, for us that little bit smaller show audience, we do lean on our reseller networks because we also want to support them and we don't want to double up in areas where they're representing us. So we'll rather send out materials for them to have extra love on the rocket side. But at the same time, they're great shows to start with. You know, a smaller show really can give you the experience before you go to a bigger show, too. So don't don't sway away from the small shows. Just in our case, we want to support our resellers. We've had amazing connections with the small sell uh shows as well. So I say that. And in addition, you know, we keep it going with with caffeine. Um I spoke earlier about some of your vanilla company categories that aren't as experiential. They have oftentimes brought in some really cool, not gimmicky ideas, but rather things that people are craving at a trade show. So a high-end coffee barista might be inside of a you know uh printer paper supplier, you know, company there, which is doing a great product, but to spice up the marketing and sales side, they'll put that coffee barista, and that is completely free to whoever walks up. And guess what? Now you're waiting on a coffee for at least three to five minutes, depending on how fancy of an order you did. And I might as well show you a few things while you wait for your coffee. So it's uh there's some interesting layers there that not just coffee keeps us going, but another trick in the the box there to keep things exciting from the exhibitor side.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Yeah, that is great. It reminds me, I think it was the show Parks and Rec where there's they do a farmer's market and the guy's selling like beats or something like that, but his booth at the farmer's market has like a bunch of like dancers and stuff like that, or like cheerleaders or something. And his booth is like hot, you know what I mean? Like it's he's selling like crazy. And you know, they're like, Do you really have to do this? And he's like, People aren't gonna just buy beats, you know. I have to do something to make it interesting. Yeah, I probably butchered the delivery on that, but um, those out there who have seen the show will know what I'm talking about. But yeah, it's great to be able to, you know, kind of say, hey, how am I gonna dial up the interest if maybe my product, maybe I think it's interesting, but maybe the average person walking around this show floor isn't gonna necessarily be super compelled to approach you just based on the product alone. How can you make it interesting? And also I love the advice of you know, starting out small, right? Like anything, practice makes perfect or near perfect. And if it's maybe a local show that's got a hundred to two hundred attendees to kind of get your confidence up and practice, I think that's a great idea to not write it off because you might get you might walk away from that show with you know maybe a handful of leads, but you got a ton of value out of the practice and getting the reps in.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

To be sure.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

Yeah. Any I we've kind of talked about the things that you won't do, but any any lessons along the way anytime where you've gone into something and said that didn't really work out, or you know, I'm I I won't do that again at a trade show.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

Oh, yeah, there's a lot of learning curves at at trade shows, you know, asking, you know, what other things are going on that uh allow for exhibitor involvement, because some people just stop the thought process at the trade show booth itself, but there's event items related to check-in and and goodie bags and having, hey, can I put some of our swag in the goodie bag? Oh, yeah, we would love that. You know, if you don't ask, you don't know. So always be asking, you know, what are the extra things that y'all are doing for the attendees this year? Are there any extra layers for exhibitors to be involved? Sometimes instead of doing an individual giveaway at your booth, the show may have a giveaway hour where all the vendors can kind of join in on one big happy photo and giveaway session in time so that nobody misses out. It's on the official schedule. So be on the lookout for those extra pieces to be even more involved than just manning the booth. Same with the speaking sessions as mentioned earlier, too. You know, I um I also like you know getting into some of the marketing leading up to the show. These are your opportunities to create awareness of whatever you may be doing. You know, if you're having that coffee bar and want to put awareness out to come by booth 1102 for a free coffee or a you know a test flight of the drone, those are going to be things that just layer you within the audience that may not be in the trade show floor. They may be in a session, but they're on their phone and they're like, oh, I can use a coffee. I'll go to booth 1102 right after this session. We we actually layer in some geo-targeted ads to teachers within a mile radius of the convention center during the show hours and just fun things to layer again the exposure of what you're doing there in the first place. There's other things, you know, every show is different. Moving in and moving out. Pay attention to those details. You can't just show up at the time the show starts and start setting up your booth, but people don't read, and and I encourage you to ask questions, read those details. Uh, the better you plan, the better your week goes. You know, nobody likes mad dash last minute runs to Walmart and you know, whatever to go grab a table or something that you should have brought in the first place. So double check your your pack out, be prepared for some learning curves in the loadout and load-in, and um figure out your logistics too. You got to get there on time. So you're in a foreign city, usually a big city, and you you always want to get there early because they're ready.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Yeah, I know people say think outside the box, and I think for the trade show, think outside the booth, if you know what I mean. Right? Like I mean, I know the one that you brought us to in Nashville, that was at the um the Opri place, right? That was the name of it.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

Opri Land, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Yeah, and that was, I don't think I was, and this is a perfect, I wasn't even an exhibitor, but I had no clue how massive that place was. I mean, that place was huge. So uh you you know, to your point, if you just show up to a place like that that has Yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be bad. I mean, because just just finding the entrance for me personally, and I think I'm I'm not necessarily like directionally stunted in any way. I feel like I can get around all right. I was really struggling just finding where I do I walk in the front door of this place. So um definitely do your research beforehand and map out a plan and give yourself plenty of time to reduce that stress level so that you're not you know rushing to get things set up whenever all the exciting stuff's happening already.

Follow Up, Drip Campaigns, And Content

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Yep. And and just the last thing too is be thinking through the whole picture of post-show too, right? You know, we went to the show, made some great connections. Now what are you gonna do to follow up? You know, there's always a follow-up, and in our case, you heard us say, you know, some leads are we take photos of them sideways, and that indicates high priority. So those are gonna be our first follow-ups as soon as we get home with a good old-fashioned you know, text or phone call or email. And then, you know, others are gonna go into drip campaigns. You know, we're gonna make sure that they get the information that we we said we would send them, and then of course we'll engage with them as they continue. But we may also revisit some other little, hey, did you know moments in our drip campaigns? You know, don't keep it always so salesy. Try to just introduce a little bit more informative style of you know fun into the equation, too. So we pride ourselves on low pressure sales on on our side because we're dealing with you know what ultimately is a customer that is going to use this, and if they don't like it, it they're gonna they're gonna not like it times 10 to other schools and stuff. So we just crave the feedback and the understanding of their use case more than anything so we can set them up for success. So you get that opportunity each and every time you interact at these shows, and and um, anyways, that's just another bonus territory to be aware of.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Yeah, and one thing that, and I'm not even gonna pretend to be the expert on trade shows, but I do know marketing, and whenever the one you brought us to, we had an opportunity, right, to get some people on camera to get some testimonials or to get some content. Or, you know, I was working with Brandon about doing content, but just the trade show atmosphere in general, right, is very unique. So if you have, you know, your phone or if you're if your team is lucky enough to have a social media person, that person should definitely be tagging along, not necessarily to sell, but to capture a bunch of content because that could turn into ads, that could turn into social content, you could make videos, you could make testimonials for your website. Who knows? Because you have all these people who are one, they're excited to be there, right? And um whenever I was there, we were lucky enough to bump into a customer who was already a Rocket Drones customer. And you know, I he was approached and he's like, Oh, yeah, I'm already using the product. I'm just I'm here like you know, so I was like, Oh, this is perfect for a testimonial um to get someone on camera who's already using the product. So definitely be thinking to your point, post-show, it's like, what can I get out of this outside of leads content?

SPEAKER_00 38:05

Yeah. Well, and and you know, it goes back to again, why are we even talking so deep about trade shows and in general from a marketing side? But remember that you know, in addition to the leads, it's the in-person connections and the reading of the situations that might be more urgent. It's the the friends that you make with your vendor circles that might even come full circle into some sales opportunities, or just good old-fashioned uh catch-up time at the next show. There's the layer of building you know in-person moments with your team. Some in our case, our team is not all in the same place. But when we have a trade show, we're able to get everybody together and have uh those team dinners and those team trainings, along with opportunity to kind of get to know you know some of these uh situations a little bit more in depth, so that if you're curious about something related to product feedback, you can literally go into these sessions with folks of like, yeah, let me show you, and then you learn something about something that you may want to hone in a little bit more refinement on or everything under the sun, plus the social media, just like you ended with there, you know, you can create content at these events. So when you look at the price and you look at this just as a lead retrieval tool, I think that you're missing a really cool, you know, way to look at the value that can be combined in other areas. Everybody's different too, you know. Some folks they may be sick of seeing their office team members every day in the same office. We're we're in a situation where we we just love that opportunity to get together and and catch up in person because we don't we don't get to do it as often as we'd like.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Yeah, that's a great point um that I hadn't even really thought of is that so many people are working remote now, so this is a great team building moment, right? Kind of catch up with some of the people you don't usually get to see in person too much, team building, and you know, you get to have fun doing it.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

Well, I mean, I'm uh I'm sold personally, but I think that if anyone's out there, you know, they were on the fence about trade shows and conferences, just because we know that, you know, and I and I I would fall into this trap myself, maybe, you know, it's not necessarily the first thing that I bring up to most of our clients, right? I'm not necessarily coming out of the gate saying, have you done a conference? Have you done a trade show? We're usually starting in other realms. We're starting in organic social, we're starting in paid per click, we're starting in email marketing, but it is something to keep in mind if you have a product that you want to sell, or if you have a service to, you know, keep it in mind, you know, like start thinking about it, start thinking about um all the benefits that you've listened to here on this episode because it you're right, Chris. It is so much more than just a lead gen opportunity. It's multifaceted and it's layered, and you can find these little moments where you're getting these boosts that you may have not even thought that you would get whenever you walk away from these opportunities.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

Exactly. You nailed it on the head there, and uh I I look forward to maybe getting y'all out to another trade show in the near future. It's uh we'll we'll pick a fun destination. They're always they're always changing, uh, which is another fun part to the equation if you haven't been to some of these markets. But yeah, it's uh it's always a good time.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

Yeah, it's a fun way to see the country. You get to eat dinner at cool places that maybe you haven't been to and hang out because it's uh that's another trend, right? Is that the conference isn't just for the attendees and for the exhibitors, I guess. Um you bring the family, right? Like turn it into a like, you know, say like, hey, we're gonna go to this show, but we're gonna hang out for a couple days after just to kind of uh check out the city and you know, get out of get out of town for a while.

SPEAKER_00 41:47

Yep, and hence again the good mood vibes uh that you'll encounter. So uh yeah, it's all good energy, but uh you won't know unless you try and do your research, find the right show, have a good marketing and sales plan, and have some fun with it and make friends and tear down those barriers. And I think uh folks at least will appreciate knowing what was on the other side of that unknown and uh see if it's a fit or not for the long haul.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Nice.

Closing Advice And Share Request

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Well, if you've listened to this and you know someone who needs to hear this, or if you um want to take this to your colleagues and say, hey, we need to be doing trade shows, please pass this episode along. Thank you, Chris, for coming on and sharing your expertise as a trade show grandmaster, I would say, because y'all are killing it. Any last words, um, not last words, that sounds a little dark, but anything you want to leave us with, um, the floor is yours for the final word.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

No, just uh, you know, get out there, try a trade show out, see what you take away from it, and um, if you enjoy it, always be refining the process and making it even better for for the next year. And uh yeah, I look forward to seeing y'all out there, and thanks for having us on the show.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Yeah, love it, man. Like I said, if you listen to this episode, you liked it, drop it a like, share it with a friend, listen to it as many times as you need to. It really helps us out. And um drop a comment if there's anything you have questions about. I'm sure either one of us on our team maybe could ask Chris to answer a question. I'm sure everyone would be happy to help out. But yeah, thanks again, Chris. And um, until next time, we'll see you on the next episode.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

Love it. Take care.