If you want to see the core of exhibitry at work, come to a show like the Texas Rural Water Association (TRWA) which just concluded its run today at Fort Worth’s Omni Hotel. It is a place where you will see the small exhibit shine.
The TRWA is the meeting place for the people who manage water utilities in rural Texas counties. For the most part, they run like they have for years: as a local utility, run by a long-time employee answering to a local board.
There show runs just about as simply: a conference of current topics of interest coupled with an exhibit hall filled with tabletop and 10×10 exhibits from companies and associations related to water. Exhibitors range from equipment suppliers to related associations to chemical companies to consultants.
One of those exhibitors was Rural Water Impact of Arlington, Texas. Rural Water Impact provides water utilities with a simple but effective web solution.
“These association shows are the best way for us to reach out and talk directly with our potential clients,” Shelly Howay told us. Shelly, along with her partner, Shannon Farmer, build affordable websites for this niche market.
“Because we are working in a niche market,” Shelly continued,” the most effective way for us find and engage clients is at a trade show. These very traditional business people have limited budgets and are used to making decisions face to face with the partners they hire. That’s why shows have worked well for us,” Shelly said.
Rural Water Impact uses a strategy that includes exhibiting at rural water shows in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Shelly and Shannon’s fellow exhibitors who make the “circuit” include a padlock company, several valve suppliers and companies that make and market water treatment systems.
But the approach is similar for all of them: a small exhibit with simple graphics and usually a pad of paper and a fish bowl for collecting business cards.
Sometimes simpler is better.
TTSG
