One of the most important decisions you can make when attending a trade show is working with a reliable full-service exhibit company. However, once you’ve cleared that hurdle, you’ll still have to decide how you’re going to manage your trade show experience, and one of the more important but subtle choices you’ll have to make is deciding how many people should be operating at your exhibit.

Overstaffing Is Bad

While the idea of “more is better” can sometimes be true, that’s certainly not the case when it comes to staff present at your trade show exhibit. If there are too many people present, this can do the one thing you don’t want, and that is actively discourage other visitors from arriving and staying. Too many staff members on hand can crowd out an exhibit, especially smaller ones, and if visitors take a look and see that things appear already at or over capacity, they may decide to pass you by.

Understaffing Doesn’t Work Either

However, it’s also not a good idea to bring too few people. The chief reason for this is long wait times. You want your staff to spend time with visitors, who may be potential new clients or customers. Doing this means focusing on the person in front of them and giving them quality time and attention. With too few staff available, this can mean that people who arrive stand and wait, and wait, and wait some more. If they realize that everyone is too busy, they will likely decide to leave, and your staff will have just lost out on another potential opportunity to generate leads.

The Right Number

The general rule of thumb for calculating space for staff at a trade show is to try to allocate approximately 50 square feet per staff member. So if you have a smaller exhibit space of just 10’ x 10’, then that’s 100 feet, or two staff members. If you have a larger space of 20’ 20’, now up to eight staff members could provide decent coverage to that space.

Also, remember that while you bring staff to a trade show, they might not all necessarily be staffing your exhibit. There may be appointments, additional meetings to make, and coordinating other activities that don’t require an exhibit presence, so be prepared to account for this.

If you want to work with an experienced full-service exhibit company to ensure you get a good return on your investment, contact Lighthouse Exhibits.