SofTEC started providing trade show registration services in 1994 and has been improving the registration systems and services ever since.
Trade Show Registration Services:
- Pre-show Registration Services - Database generation, web registration, badge and ticket design & production, pre-show mailing, etc.
- On-site Registration Services - Complete system for small to extremely large shows. Split registration hotel/convention center linked to central database. On-site registration badge and ticket printing. Lead retrieval coding and lead retrieval systems for your exhibitors.
- Badges & Tickets - Fast printing, easy to read, detailed graphics, bar coding, all go into making the SofTEC registration fully capable for your show.
- Lead Retrieval - This is your exhibitors show, help them out with a state-of-the-art lead retrieval system.
- Reports - Get the registration information when you need it in an easy, readable, fashion.
- After Show Services - The jobs not done at the end of the show. Keep your exhibitors and attendees interested for next year.
Select your interest areas and read about SofTEC's capabilities. Call to discuss your needs or request a quote on-line and experience the one-stop efforts for your Trade Show Registration needs.
Pre-show Registration Services: Pre-show is probably the most important time because if it isn't planned and done before the show by the time the show starts it's just to late. The more you can get done before the show the smoother the show goes once it starts. With full and detailed planning before the show your exhibitors and attendees will have a good feeling at the start of the show have a great outlook on attending the show. Pre-show services include:
- Database Design: Get the right information in a format that you can use. Make sure you are asking the right questions to qualify your show attendees and to make it easy to identify the different attendee types for your exhibitors.
- Pre-Show Registration: On-line, email, fax, and mail, registration services to make it easy for your attendees to sign up in advance of the show. This service is most important for any successful show.
- Badge & Ticket Design: Are your badges just plain badges or do they meet the needs of your exhibitors and show management. Get your badges designed so it is easy for your exhibitors to pick out who they are interested in talking to. Include graphics on your badges that identify your show. Design admission tickets to go with your special sessions and events, lunches, dinners, awards ceremony, you name it. Use special tickets to draw attendees to certain booths on the exhibit floor. And most important, pre-print all the badges and tickets for pre-show mailing or print these badges and tickets out instantly on site when the steps up to the registration booth.
- Pre-Show Badge & Ticket Printing & Mailing: The best way to get your exhibitors and attendees into the show without any delay at registration is to pre-print their badges and tickets and mail them out just before the show. SofTEC can handle this task for you along with stuffing additional advertising material in the envelope to highlight special events at the show that might be of interest to your attendees. Depending on the number of exhibitors and attendees, pre-show mailing is a necessity.
On-site Registration Services: On site is where all the prior planning comes together. For registration systems you need something fast and flexible that has the data immediately at hand and in an easy to understand format so the temporary help can sit down and get to work with minimal training. SofTEC's on-site registration system provides:
- Flexible & Fast Computer System: SofTEC uses the number one multi user operating system, UNIX, to provide the best and fastest service were it counts, on site. The SofTEC system is custom programmed to meet your data entry needs and tailored to print your badges and tickets at the press of a key.
- Easily support multiple registration sites - Simultaneously! Take your registration services to your attendees at their hotel by setting up satellite registration services right in your block hotels and connect them to the central server over a single phone line. This is not just a single computer but multiple terminals and printers all over a single phone line. The system response time will have you thinking the central server is right under your table. This is the power of UNIX at it's best.
- Fast Badge & Ticket Printers: After the verification and data entry, the exchange of money, and the attendee's decisions as to what extra classes and events he/she wants to sign up for, the last think an attendee wants to do is wait while some printer from the dark ages is printing his badge and tickets. With the SofTEC registration system there is no wait. We use the fastest Zebra badge and ticket printers available. We spit badges and tickets out at the rate of 6 inches per second (that's 1.5 badges/tickets per second) and that's only ONE printer. Most systems will use 4 to 8 printers. You do the math, that's a lot of badges and tickers per second. And don't forget, not only do these printers print the individual and company names but graphics on the badges as well. All of these badges and tickets are custom designed for your show with your wording and graphics.
Split registration - no problem
Trade Show and Conference Facilities separated - no problem.
We can do it!
Badges & Tickets: Well, the ski is the limit here. You could have your trade show attendees walking around with a gaggle of badges around their neck that would even confuse the gate guard at the Pentagon or you can keep it clean and neat with a well designed badge for identification and entry control. Tickets are just as important and can save you $$$ as well as headaches if their printing is linked to the attendee record in the database and printed at the same time as the show badge.
Remember, Badges serve basically two purposes:
- Entry Control: Entry onto the show floor or entry into the different conference sessions. The badge must be easily and quickly readable and the persons qualifications for entry must be immediately apparent.
- Identification for Vendors: A trade shows purpose is to marry up vendors and customers. The trade show badge is the first introduction between the vendor and the customer and thus must be easily read by the vendor. The vendor must be able to quickly categorize the customer to make sure his presentation is on track with the customers needs and doesn't waste the customers time at the show. The badge must also have a barcode or mag-stripe on it to make it easy for the vendor to capture the customer's critical contact information.
Also remember, after the show the badges end up in the trash.
- Badges: Keep your costs down and use plain white badge stock and print your graphics at the same time the customer info is printed. Take a look at some of the sample badges below to see what can be done. You can see that the graphics and the badge info was printed at the same time. By using fast Zebra badge printers the customer is not kept waiting for slow printing or waiting for a batch of badges to print.
- Tickets: Just as badges control access and provide information so do tickets.
- Sample Ticket Pages: Take a look at these sample badges and tickets. We can do different color badges to help control entry into different classes or sessions. Let us know what your needs are and we will design your badges and tickets to suit your needs.
Lead Retrieval: Yes, SofTEC does provide lead retrieval services to all the trade shows and conferences we support. This is coupled with our on-site registration services and the many other services that are available. We have supported very small shows/conferences (hundreds of attendees, few exhibitors) to very large shows/conferences (many thousands of attendees and hundreds of exhibitors). With all of these, lead retrieval services have been included at no charge to the signing company or show manager.
You might ask why you need to worry about lead retrieval, well, suffice to say it's a very important service to provide your exhibitors. Your exhibitors need the lead retrieval service to collect and process the attendee/visitors information in a fast and orderly manner so the exhibitor doesn't have to interrupt that first meeting with a prospective customer and go through the name, address, ..., phone, drill. He should just either jot the attendee's badge number down or scan the attendee's badge with a laser scanner and get on with developing a connection with his new prospective customer.
- "Low Tech" Lead Retrieval: The "Low Tech" solution provides the exhibitor with simple multi-part card forms for jotting down the attendee's badge number along with any marketing codes he wants associated with that particular attendee. The exhibitor them turns in the top copy of the multi-part card form at the Lead Retrieval counter for data input and report printing. The report provides the name, address, etc info of the attendee along with the additional lead codes the exhibitor might have written down with the attendee number. These reports are then passed back to the exhibitors on a daily basis. A final wrap-up report can be provided at the end of the show or the final report can be emailed to the exhibitor. The attendee info can also be provide back to the exhibitor on disk if they desire for integration into their lead tracking system. This "Low Tech" solution is inexpensive, easy to implement, and provides the exhibitors all the information they need to track leads at the show.
- "High Tech" Lead Retrieval: The "High Tech" solution consists of laser scanners that record the attendee information and either store the attendee information for later download and/or print the attendee information at the time of scanning for the exhibitor. These systems are more expensive that the "Low Tech" solution and provide a more "High Tech" solution to the lead retrieval service than the paper and pencil approach of the "Low Tech" solution. The services of providing the exhibitors leads on disk is also available with this solution. Because this solution requires a bar code (1D or 2D) be available for scanning, you need to consider this when designing the attendee badge. Most 1D bar codes may be placed on the main attendee badge without interfering with the appearance of the badge. The larger 2D barcode may need to be printed on the next badge after the main badge and then folded over in the badge holder and be visible through the back of the badge holder.
Reports: Every show manager always asks the question "What are the numbers?" and they ask that question about a zillion times during a show. Don't worry, we are ready for that question as well as many others concerning the registration data of a show or conference. We know how important those numbers are and we guard them closely. We will not release any numbers to anyone except the show manager or our registration point of contact. The "numbers" are protected on the registration system through a special login & password combination that is not released to anyone. It's your data and we treat it that way. We guard and protect the data as if it were our own.
We can also provide up-to-the-minute class rosters or reports on the number of attendees signed up for that special awards luncheon or the golf outing that you are leading. We can do this whenever it is needed without interrupting the flow of the registration process.
After Show Services: Before you leave the exhibit hall we will hand you a diskette of your on-site database in a format that is readable by you and your home system. We will also provide detailed reports on the data for your use based on your stated requirements. We can further analyze and break down you data and provide written and graphical reports on your show attendance for your use and review. Best of all, we can be ready to do it again next year for you, your exhibitors, and your show and conference attendees.
Give us a call and let's talk about your needs or fill out our on-line request for a quote. If we do your show you are really going to like our Christmas basket, don't miss it!
