What’s the most stressful job in the world? If your answer has ‘trade show’ anywhere in the title then you’re onto something…
Being involved in the exhibition sector is one of the most stressful roles you can be involved in, according to research by U.S. firm CareerCast. Working as a trade show operative (or ‘event coordinator’ as the study calls it) falls behind jobs as high-octane as military personnel, fire fighter, airline pilot and police officer.
It’s fair comment to say that you’re much less likely to lose your life at an exhibition than by fighting fires or serving in the military. Despite that though, workers in the exhibition industry ranked it as the fifth most stressful job, giving it a stress score of 51.12. The highest ranked was military service at 72.74.
Is trade show work really that stressful?
The least stressful role was working as a diagnostic medical sonographer which has a stress score of just four. So, what factors make working as an event coordinator such a trial? 11 stress factors were present in the CareerCast survey including travel, physical demands, working in the public eye, interacting with customers and many others.
Though lives are very rarely at risk, we can see why so many people label the events industry as one that can test your sanity, especially when B2B marketing. The manager who takes a team to a trade show has to give the ultimate first impression; they have to create a visual identity that draws people in, organise their people, all read from the same script, create an interesting and immediate user journey and more.
With the right approach, a successful strategy on the day can help you generate and nurture new leads across your industry. Not many marketing managers have the time, inclination or know-how to create such a strategy though, and instead are distracted by training their internal team up to try and become highly-personalised sales experts in environments that are totally new and potentially uncomfortable to them.
The enormous benefits of working with a trade show staff agency
That’s where a lot of the stress comes from. You may have a perfect plan but without an experienced team of trade show professionals on hand to help you execute it, results on the day will likely always be disappointing.
So instead they turn to other ideas to try and boost their success such as investing in trade swag, gamification, live streaming and more. An obvious train of thought for managers desperate for B2B event marketing success, but that money could be better invested into a trade show staff agency that’s as committed to seeing you succeed as you are.
The right agency can provide you with hugely experienced, multilingual and passionate trade staff that will enhance the pulling power of your booth and floor space, sticking to a creative and bespoke strategy that draws targeted leads in, promotes your products, services and business message, and collects lead data with a clear ROI.
The biggest benefit, though? Reducing the stress levels of senior managers, allowing them to concentrate on their own jobs while professional booth staff generate strong B2B leads and provide you with 24/7 support.
Expo Stars is a trade show staff agency who have staffed more than 3,000 exhibitions in over 100 cities across 53 countries. Contact us today to find out more about exhibition show lead generation.