Pro 9 Exhibition - Fiona's first exhibition with i name it.

When Tina first told me I would be going to the Pro 9 Exhibition with her in Amsterdam, I felt both excited, and nervous. It had been less than 6 months since I had started as an office junior within the I name it team and I hadn’t imagined I would be going to work abroad at an international trade show! I couldn’t wait!

As I had never been to an exhibition before, I was very eager to start talking to people about our products and I couldn’t wait to see what other stands people would be exhibiting there too.Not only did I see this as an opportunity to get our products known across the European Market but I also wanted to learn new attributes about the promotional merchandise industry and how to get the best out of exhibiting at such a big show.

Fortunately, there was a British Pavilion area where all the UK exhibitor stands were based; this initially made me feel more comfortable because everybody was really friendly and helpful and I met lots of new people. As it was the first day of the three day exhibition, we decided to arrive early at the RAI centre and get our stand set up so we were organised for when customers started arriving.
We were wearing orange t-shirts so we were very popular with the Dutch. As the hall began to get busy, I watched Tina stopping passers by and I listened to her telling them about how great our products were and how they are more than just a calendar, but an innovative and effective marketing tool.It didn’t take me long to get into the swing of things. I couldn’t wait to speak to my first customer and before I knew it I was also enticing customers and explaining to them the concept of taking personalisation to a much deeper level by including unique dates within their calendar and also our birthday scripting idea. Everybody was fascinated by, what they initially thought of as “just a calendar” when we explained to them about how our products are completely niche to the promotional products market and that our ability to use variable data printing can be used throughout all of our products to deliver something exclusive to their customers. There was one man that even commented on our calendars as “the best product he had seen all day."

As the exhibition progressed, I found myself becoming more confident about talking not just our products, but other solutions that I name it can offer. Tina and I didn’t let anybody walk past our stand until we had spoken to them about our products and we were both happy with the positive reaction we were getting from everybody.I could not have imagined the exhibition going any better and I have noticed a huge boost in my confidence towards selling our products so it was a great learning experience for me. At the end of the exhibition we had a huge jar full or business cards which we have since sent samples to and had an amazing response! Pro 9 was definitely a success for I name it and I hope next year will be even better!

Visit www.pro-ep.eu.com to find out more about the Pro exhibitions!