The Social Trade Show: Leveraging Social Media and Virtual Events to Connect With Your Customers

V: Problem-Solving Sponsorships

Now is my chance to get up on my sponsorship soapbox. I find myself up here quite a bit. Sponsorships are an incredibly valuable piece of your trade show marketing strategy, but only if they are done correctly. If you haven’t taken full advantage of all the opportunities given to you as an exhibitor, then don’t even go here. Real sponsorships don’t just require you to write a check. When done the right way, they are an investment of employee time across your entire company, so make sure you are ready for that responsibility—a responsibility well worth the effort.

The days of slapping a company logo on a banner or lanyard and calling it a sponsorship have passed. Unfortunately, many show organizers are stuck in ...