Are You Ready to Make the Most of Trade Show Season?

Trade Show Season has arrived and we’re gearing up to attend some of our favorite industry events in the coming months. (And looking forward to attending our first Connect conference with PioneerRx this weekend!)

We’re excited every year to attend conferences like Connect, Amerisource Bergen Thoughtspot, and Cardinal RBC. We love seeing our customers, putting faces to names, and introducing new friends to our team and suite of point-of-sale products.

While every conference is unique, including different themes, new takeaways and lots of new industry contacts, they always have one thing in common. They are over in the blink of an eye. Packed with CE courses, user group meetings, dinners and entertainment, it’s hard to find time to sleep, let alone make enough time to see everything on the trade show floor.

Here are our favorite tips to help you make the most of whatever shows you plan on attending this year.

1) Set aside time for the show floor. While you may be able to visit the show floor at your leisure, scheduling time means you’ll be less likely to skip it and miss out. And you’ll know that while you’re visiting the show floor, there isn’t somewhere else you need to be.

2) Decide in advance what problems you want to solve. It’s easy to get sidetracked at a trade show. After all, there are a lot of awesome things to look at. But it’s much easier to come away with positive outcomes if you know what your biggest pain points are and what areas of your pharmacy you need help in.

3) Make a “must see” list. Once you’ve made your list of problems to solve, make a list of vendor categories that are applicable to your needs. Then do some research on the different vendors in that category to decide which booths you absolutely need to visit. Prioritizing will help make this seemingly overwhelming task much more manageable.

4) Put together a list of questions. Ever go to the grocery store without a list, thinking you’ll remember the 5 things you need and then get home with 7 things, only 3 of which you actually needed? Lists are there for a reason, so if you have questions you really need answered, write them down so you can make sure to check all of the right boxes as you visit with different vendors. If you’re looking for point-of-sale solutions, you can pack our pharmacy POS buyers guide to help you evaluate options.

5) Leave room for new things. Having your lists of problems to solve, vendors to visit, and questions to find answers to will help you make the most of any trade show. But one of the best things about shows can also be finding new things. Like that favorite pair of shoes you stumbled across when shopping for a new pair of jeans. So leave some space in your schedule to wander. See what catches your eye and talk to your existing vendors about what’s new.

6) Make time for follow up. A show is a great place to make connections, learn about vendors and products and determine if further conversation is beneficial. But there’s so much more to any new business partnership than can be covered on a trade show floor. Put aside some time in your schedule after you return home for follow up with all of your new contacts for more in depth discussion, product demos, etc.

We hope you find these tips helpful to make the most of this year’s pharmacy conferences and trade shows. And we hope you’ll take the time to stop by and say “hello” at one of our upcoming events.

Connect 2019: May 31st through June 1st in Orlando Florida – Booth Number 406

Cardinal RBC: July 18th through the 20th in Nashville Tennessee

Amerisource Bergen ThoughtSpot: July 26th through the 27th in Las Vegas Nevada

(Stay tuned to the RMS blog for more details on our upcoming events!)