For the youngest visitors of the 53rd STROIKO exhibition, the University of Ruse has planned to hold a children's workshop, in which the possibilities of applied block programming will be shown in a language accessible to children.
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Participation in STROIKO is an opportunity to create new contacts and meet with customers, says the manager of the famous furniture factory
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If your business manages to attract new customers with word-of-mouth advertising, it may be too tempting to think that you don't need trade shows to expand your market. Trade shows are far from easy, but they can be one of the most profitable forms of marketing when approached with the right strategy, say experts from one of the most renowned British companies in the exhibition and exhibition industry - Display Wizard.
Veterans of trade fairs will testify to the fact that the return on investment from a successful trade fair is impossible to compare with other forms of outbound marketing. This view is shared by Display Wizard, which has been trusted by brands such as the BBC, Trustpilot, Bank of England, Royal Canin and many others to take care of their participation in professional exhibitions.
So before you write off trade shows as secondary to your current marketing tactics, it's worth learning about their benefits. Display Wizard has identified ten reasons, each of which is extremely important for the sales-oriented business. They perfectly explain why trade shows should be the radar of trade-oriented businesses.
1. Meet and connect with prospective customers
Have you ever tried to follow up on a sales lead, only to end up leaving one message after another in their voicemail inbox? Getting your voice heard is the most difficult part of outbound marketing, and when your business is one of many trying to gain a new client or customer, ignored messages and a lack of interest are the norm.
One of the greatest advantages of exhibiting at a trade show is that it allows you to meet and connect with prospective customers in person instead of communicating with them over the phone. On the phone, you’re just another voice – in person, you become someone that they know, recognise, and want to connect with.
Although some prospective customers will buy your product or service on the trade show floor, many won’t. Those that don’t commit to a deal in person, however, will become far more responsive to your sales efforts once they know you as a genuine individual instead of just another salesperson.
2. Strengthen your bond with existing customers
Just like trade shows give you the opportunity to better connect with prospective customers, exhibiting at a trade show also allows you to meet existing customers face-to-face. While most of today’s business is conducted over the email inbox or phone, face-to-face meetingsare undeniably a fantastic way to do business.
The Wall Street Journal agrees. Citing a study by Oxford Economics, the well-known financial publication reports that face-to-face meetings are the most effective way to strengthen relationships with both prospective customers and current customers.
Have you ever had a customer double their monthly spending over email? While it’s rare for customers to commit to large deals over email or a phone call, trade shows are often a place for customers to approach you with their long term plans and big orders – orders that can be incredibly lucrative for you as an exhibitor.
Technology has made it easy to write off face-to-face meeting as a thing of the past, but the data doesn’t lie: face-to-face meetings at trade shows are excellent for your business’ relationship with its customers
3. Learn about new developments in your industry
When your business attends a major industry event, it puts itself at the centre of the action. Trade shows are a place for businesses to announce and display their latest innovations and developments – often developments that can have major effects on your industry as a whole.
"...keep your customers close and your competitors closer..."
In a competitive industry, would you rather be aware of your competitors or out of the loop? Exhibiting at a trade show doesn’t just give you the opportunity to make new sales and connect with existing customers – it gives you the chance to look at cutting edge developments in your industry and the opportunities they create.
Because of this, it’s worth sending more than just sales staff to a trade show. Invite your technical staff to trade shows and let them attend presentations that keep you up to date with new technologies, techniques, and industry trends.
4. Meet new companies that can help your business
Whether you’re attending a vertical or horizontal trade show, you’ll have the chance to interact with both prospective customers and prospective vendors. This makes a trade show more than just an opportunity to expand your distribution, but a chance to expand your supply chain.
While your sales and marketing team focused on connecting with prospects to make new sales, your Purchasing Manager can connect with new vendors and contractors that can help your business grow. This makes a trade show a two-sided opportunity for your business – one to expand its sales, and to expand its supply chain.
5. Close deals with new customers during the show
There are few situations more tense than the average outbound sales call. From the endless objections of the prospective customer to the stress of losing a valuable sale, it’s natural to face rejection and nervousness as a salesperson.
At a trade show, however, the atmosphere is different. According to the Simmons Market Research Bureau, almost half of trade show attendees make purchases at trade shows. A staggering 91 percent of all trade show attendees claim that shows are ‘extremely useful’ to their product and service sourcing efforts.
When you speak to a Purchasing Manager or Director on the phone, you’re often dealing with someone that’s already juggling a variety of obligations and deals in their mind. As such, they’re understandably disinterested. At a trade show, you’re dealing with prospective customers that are there solely to find good deals.
Unlike traditional outbound marketing, in which rejection is the norm, trade shows are one of the few environments in which your sales team benefits from an audience of prospective customers that are genuinely interested in buying your products and services.
6. Strengthen (or establish) your brand
Trade shows are one of the few environments where you have the same amount of access to prospective customers as your larger competitors do. This makes them a valuable opportunity not just for direct sales and marketing, but for strengthening your brand and positioning your business as a leader in its industry.
From free giveaways to trade show displays, there’s no better opportunity to give your brand a sizable boost than a trade show. If you can design an exhibition stand that attracts the right type of attention, a single exhibition can be all it takes to change your brand from up-and-comer to established industry leader.
7. Learn what your competitors are doing right
In the world of business, it pays to keep your customers close and your competitors closer. Exhibiting at a trade show allows you to observe what your competitors are doing right and apply their tactics to your own business.
Is there a particular competitor in your industry that seems to be growing at a rapid pace? While your sales team uses the trade show as an opportunity to meet existing customers and connect with prospective ones, spend a moment looking at the other exhibitors to see what they’re doing differently from you.
Great businesses are aware of their competitors, and trade shows are one of the best opportunities to connect with competitors and understand their sales strategy, their pricing, and the reasons for their success.
8. Rapidly expand your database of sales leads
While skimming through the phone book might give you thousands of unqualified phone numbers, nothing gives you qualified leads quite like a trade show. If you’re exhibiting at a show with tens of thousands of attendees, you can expect over 200 visitors per day at your exhibition booth.
That’s 200 prospective customers that you’ve personally connected with – a number that you could never hope to reach using outbound sales calls. This gives your sales team a valuable resource to market your products or services to while you focus on fulfilling the deals that you’ve closed during the show.
While cold calling and online marketing might not have the same initial expenses as a trade show, there’s no greater way to fill your contact book with prospects than a successful trade show effort.
9. Speak directly to your target market
Email surveys are a fantastic way to learn more about what your customers want and don’t want. Unfortunately, their low response rate makes them useful only to businesses with a large enough email list to tolerate very few responses.
Trade shows, particularly vertical trade shows where you’re able to speak directly to people within your industry, allow you to solicit a huge amount of feedback that can help your business expand and improve.
A great way to get useful feedback and valuable sales leads at the same time is by conducting a short survey on your exhibition stand, and rewarding participants with vouchers or gifts from your business. Where else but a trade show can you generate new leads and valuable feedback at the same time?
10. Optimise your sales and lead generation strategy
Trade shows are an excellent opportunity to expose your sales team to hundreds of different prospects in a short period. In many ways, they’re advanced sales training on fast-forward – a quick experience that allows you to rapidly test new sales tricks and marketing strategies in a very responsive environment.
If you want to test and optimise your lead generation strategy, you’ll find no better place than a trade show. Try several different sales pitches on prospects and you’ll quickly learn which ones work and which ones don’t, allowing you to perfect your sales strategies in just a few days for future trade shows and industry events.
High technology in the service of sustainable living, responsible for the protection of nature and the urban environment
There is a joke: "Smarthome, that would mean how can we be smart at home?" Unfortunately, it still reflects the popular understanding of the concept of "smart houses". In recent years, the concept known as "smart home" is gaining more and more meaning, but for the mass consumer it still has far and foreign.
Innovation cannot be used to control more aspects of this home from more places and with little by little.
The smart house has different dimensions: Front door with front layout; a car powered by solar power; A "smart" mower that understands when the lawn needs mowing and is activated; a robot vacuum cleaner that will also wash the windows; a refrigerator that orders the products itself; a special transformer that takes the forms and performs the functions of the items you order - at one moment it can be a laptop, and at the next - a stove; care for pets as well, including food, water and light regulation according to a set program; child control - you can restrict the switching on of the TV and computer and capture any special children's moment such as a photo or video while watching your child via smartphone or tablet.
The smart home will always be in touch with you. From anywhere in the world, you can watch or manage what's going on in your home. Your smart home system will always inform you about important news or warn you of dangerous and unusual situations.
Everyone has their own idea of the home of the future, but we all agree that it will be completely subordinated to the individual needs of its inhabitants.
For 10 years, technology has come a long way and modern applications are much more intriguing, more practical and last but not least, significantly more affordable. That is why the biggest exhibition for architecture, construction and furniture STROYKO EXPO from this spring includes a new section - STROYKO Future. It will give a real outline of the smart home and will present practical solutions that anyone can implement at home in the next renovation.
Focus of the spring edition STROIKO EXPO 2020, March 25-29, the National Palace of Culture is the HIGH-TECH HOME. The ambition of our team is to debunk the myths that smart homes are expensive, that smart technologies are complex to install and manage, that classic and new cannot go hand in hand through exhibitors and an accompanying program. We will also present the idea of a "passive house" - one of the fastest growing standards for energy efficiency in the world.
STROIKO will build a bridge between high technologies and time-proven classic techniques and techniques. While urban planners, architects, builders, engineers, programmers and designers are looking for a scientific formulation for the "house of the future", STROIKO allows this formula to be created in dialogue with its real users. Therefore, the Marble Lobby of the National Palace of Culture will become a kind of Hyde Park, where everyone will be able to share with experts their vision of the presence of high technology in the home. The accompanying program is divided into 5 discussion modules: SMART CITY, SMART HOME, SAFE TOWN, SMART SOLUTIONS FOR THE SMALL TOWN, CIVIL NETWORKS IN ACTION.
In the spring of 2020, STROIKO EXPO will also develop the STROIKO Safety section. The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry joins the exhibition with its SECURITY exhibition. In this section, the partners of the exhibition are the Ministry of Interior and the Sofia Municipality with its Directorate for Emergency Aid and Prevention.
Specialized security companies will present the latest digital security developments. Apart from a safe home, we will also talk about a safe city. The structures of the Ministry of Interior, the Emergency Aid and Prevention Directorate and the Bulgarian Red Cross will be presented with separate stands and demonstrations.
The 53rd STROIKO EXPO exhibition will present a complete cycle of living in the modern world, including Fintech industry, financial instruments management, housing loans, real estate market, new trends in food, cosmetics and household hygiene products, composting and management of waste.
The Pantone Institute relies on simplicity and elegance in colors, the furniture seeks a balance between functionality and its own style in the new year
Classic blue 19-4052. This is the code of the modern color for 2020, according to the color legislator - the Pantone Institute. He replaces the living coral that ruled in 2019. For more than 20 years, Pantone's Color of the Year has influenced many industries, most notably furniture fashion and industrial design.
Classic Blue 19-4052 according to Pantone experts is inspiring calm, confidence and desire for connectivity. This lasting shade of blue emphasizes our desire for a reliable and stable foundation on which to build, crossing the threshold of a new era. This lasting shade of blue is elegant in its simplicity. It brings the calm of the evening sky, a feeling of peace, offers refuge. Classic Blue redirects our thoughts and helps concentration.
STROIKO EXPO is the only Bulgarian exhibition for architecture, construction and furniture, where exhibitors and visitors check the clock for new trends in furniture.
In furniture, 2020 tries to reconcile the minimalist functional design and the individual understanding of coziness and comfort.
2020 encourages eclecticism, the search for unusual combinations of different styles and eras. Every detail in the home can carry the spirit of a different era and have its own character and history. The symmetry is in a delicate balance with abundance. Measured and tasteful, every old armchair, loaded with memories and experiences, can find a place next to our "smart" fireplace, which we put on our phone on the way home. The handmade wooden chest of drawers can beautifully complement the kitchen island with high-tech antibacterial coating, for example. Grandma's lace can soften sofas with nano-textiles.
And in 2020, the Scandinavian style, based on minimalism and functionality, remains dominant. However, its concept is personalized, complemented by warm shades, smooth transitions and careful zoning. The classic open space gives way to light partitions, creating a cozy home interior. Combinations of modern with old are encouraged.
The ideas for creating a bridge between high technologies and the classic postulates in the furniture made the team of STROIKO EXPO to dedicate this year's spring edition to HIGH TECHNOLOGICAL HOME. The ambition is to find the important questions through the exhibitors and the accompanying program: How do innovations practically help for harmonious interaction between people, their homes and cities? How do new technologies create a secure environment and a safe home? How to achieve a "passive home" and how to manage a "smart home"? How can established quality and new businesses in architecture, construction and furnishing interact?
In the era of global digitalization, people cannot escape the tendencies for multifunctionality, smart management and saving of natural resources when choosing new furniture, but they can "warm" it with handmade accents.
STROIKO EXPO will be held from 25 to 29 March 2020 at the National Palace of Culture. The 53rd exhibition brings together all the innovations for harmonious development between people, their homes and the environment in which they live, presenting a full cycle of sustainable interaction with green technologies and innovations.
STROIKO EXPO will also include leading real estate brokers with market analysis and review of trends. A rich accompanying program is envisaged, which in discussion with leading architects, builders and designers will present a VISION FOR THE HIGH-TECH HOME.