After the fair
Learning for the next fair
Uğur Yılmaz · Brand & Visual Communications Manager · 3 min read · Last updated:
Short answer
How do you learn from a fair?
Keep three records. First, site notes: on tear-down day, while everyone is still there, write down what did not work. Second, a three-question review: what do we repeat, what do we drop, what do we change. Third, a decision log giving every change an owner and a deadline. Without those three, the review meeting is a conversation and the same problems return at the next fair. The final step is copying the decisions into the brief file for the next show.
Taking notes on tear-down day
The most accurate notes are taken on the last day. That the store door was too narrow, that two people did not fit behind the counter, that a cable stayed visible, is fresh in everyone’s mind. A fortnight later half of it is forgotten and the other half misremembered.
The method is simple: a sheet of paper or a shared note, one heading, everybody writing on the same list. Sales, the site crew and marketing all add to it. Sorting, prioritising and arguing come later; that day is only for recording.
Take photographs the same day. A photograph of the problem beats a sentence about it, and an image of a passage that turned out too tight shortens the argument at the next design meeting.
Some of the notes should be positive. A list that records only what went wrong leads you to change something that worked, without realising it. Recording what worked matters as much as recording the fault.
Three questions
The review asks three questions and allows at most three answers to each. What do we repeat: unless what worked is recorded, it gets rediscovered next year. What do we drop: the brochure nobody took, the corner nobody sat in, the video nobody watched.
What do we change is the hardest, because the answer usually carries a cost. The discipline here is that every proposed change is written with a reason, and the reason comes from measurement. Not "the meeting area was small" but "three meetings could not run at once and two people waited standing".
The limit of three is deliberate. A fifteen-item improvement list is never implemented; a three-item list is, and next year brings three new ones.
One person chairs the review and gives everyone a turn. When the loudest voice sets the agenda, the person who observed the most on the floor is usually the one who says nothing.
The decision log and the next brief
Every decision carries three pieces of information: what changes, who does it, by when. A decision without an owner is not implemented; one without a date waits until show week. Keep the log in one file, and start preparing the next fair by opening it.
Some decisions concern the stand: a bigger store, the counter somewhere else, more light. Those go to the builder as a brief. Some concern the team: the rota, headcount, what the briefing covers. Some concern the fair itself and feed the decision to attend.
A reusable stand makes some of these easier and others harder. On a modular layout, enlarging the store is a matter of adding panels; on a bespoke carcass the same change means remaking it. We compare that flexibility by type on the stand types page.
Who should attend the review?
Everyone who was on the floor. Including one person from the build crew brings problems to the table that the sales side never saw.
When is the decision not to return taken?
After two shows below target where the cause is neither the stand nor the team. The call has to be made before the early space booking discounts close.