Five Travel Safety Tips Every Trade Show Professional Should Know

Traveling to a trade show is fun and exciting, especially if your event is in a city you haven’t previously visited. While you should enjoy checking out some local insight about where to stay and what to do while you’re in town (as well as how to fill up those precious breaks away from the show floor), it’s also important to protect yourself during your trip. To help you have a stress-free experience all the way from packing your bags to jetting around your new environment, here are some travel safety tips from trade show professionals.

1. Research the Area Around the Show Venue and Your Hotel

First and foremost, do some online research and get to know the area you’re traveling to. This can certainly involve the best restaurants to dine in or some local taverns to grab a post-show drink at, but you should also do some safety and logistics-based research. Here are a few questions to answer:

• How far is the airport from your hotel?
• How close is your hotel to the trade show venue?
• If you’re renting a car during your stay, where will you park? And if you’re not renting a car, how will you commute between the hotel and the convention center?
• What do social reviews, like Travelocity and Yelp, say about the neighborhoods the convention center and the hotel you are in?

Additionally, it can’t hurt to locate a few key locations or services you might need. Before you even start packing for your trip, find places like a pharmacy in case you forget your medication at home or need some toiletries. And as a just-in-case measure, look for nearby urgent care clinics or the closest hospital. The best trade show managers are prepared for virtually everything, and this includes planning for the worst-case scenario.

2. Organize Your Wallet

One of the most important travel safety tips that’s often overlooked is organizing your wallet or purse and getting rid of the stuff you just don’t need. Important documents like your passport, photo ID, and credit cards should be easy for you to quickly find when you need them. The longer you have to dig through your personal belongings, the more vulnerable you might be to theft.

So shred those old receipts that you’ve already entered into your personal banking system, and recycle last week’s grocery list that’s now a crumpled-up piece of paper. Clean out your wallet or purse before you leave for your trade show trip so your personal belongings aren’t open for the public to see any longer than absolutely necessary.

Bonus Tip 1: be sure your most personal or sensitive belongings never leave your possession. Keep them with you on the airplane and—if at all possible—on your person while you’re on the show floor. If you need to stash them away at any time and don’t have secure storage in your custom trade show booth, consider using the safe in your hotel room.

3. Pack Appropriately for Your Destination

Part of staying safe is staying healthy, and this starts with bringing the right supplies to your trade show. Be sure to bring any prescriptions (in their original containers), vitamins, and over-the-counter medicines like aspirin that you’ll need during your time away from home.

And don’t forget to check the weather! The United States is huge and encompasses a wide range of climates throughout the year. For example, if you’re traveling to a January trade show from a wintery place like Chicago or New York to a hotspot for trade shows and sunshine like Orlando or San Diego, pack appropriately. Bring clothes to keep you comfortable getting to and from the airport in your hometown’s temperature, and of course, pack up clothing that’ll keep you comfortable in the climate you’re traveling to.

When you start packing your suitcase, give special consideration to your footwear. Long days on the show floor can make for aching feet, legs, and backs if you don’t have the right gear. Bring a couple of different pairs of shoes so your feet aren’t stuck in the same ones the entire trip, plus some extra socks and a pair or two of supportive insoles.

Bonus Tip 2: Snap shots of your prescription medication labels and keep them on file in your phone, in case you lose them or ever forget to pack them.  Also a good idea to take photos of your passport, driver’s license, and any other important papers.

Bonus Tip 3: Arrange your complete outfits on your bed before you leave (including underwear and accessories) and take a photo of each one. That way, when you are getting dressed at your hotel you won’t have to remember what you packed to go with what.

4. Always Travel in a Group

Travel safety tips for just about any excursion—whether it’s a vacation, a trade show, or an out-of-town client visit—often include traveling in a group. Unfortunately, tourists and other traveling visitors can sometimes be vulnerable to pickpockets or muggings, but there’s often safety in numbers. As much as possible, stick with your colleagues and coworkers when you head to the convention center, your hotel, the restaurant for a team dinner, and anywhere else you might go.

If you must go somewhere by yourself, be safe, smart, and proactive. Let someone know where you’re going and when you expect to return. If possible, share your smartphone’s GPS location tracker with someone else on the trip. If you end up checking out a few different spots and will be out and about longer than anticipated, communicate that to the rest of the group so they always know where you are.

Bonus Tip 4: Make sure someone in your group has your emergency contact information. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

5. Practice Safe Online Habits

Trade show travel often requires you to jump onto different Wi-Fi networks, from the airplane to the hotel to the convention center. However, these networks aren’t always secure and might leave your personal data—or your company’s proprietary information—vulnerable. Here are a few travel safety tips and tricks to protect your online data during the trip:

• Make sure the software on your phone, laptop, and any other devices you’re bringing with you is up to date.
• Consider changing your device passwords, especially if you haven’t updated them in a while or if they’re on the weaker side.
• Back up your information onto the cloud and remove any unnecessary files or data from the hard drive.
• When you’re on an unsecured network, avoid logging into websites that contain any sensitive information about you or your company.
• Make sure any websites you visit start with HTTPS, as these sites are more secure than those that start with HTTP.
• Always keep your devices locked and password protected when you’re not around them.

As a final tip, keep your home safe while you’re out of town by limiting social media posts about your trip. It’s usually not a problem to send some pictures to close friends and family during the trade show (especially if you’re out enjoying the local scene), but there’s no need to advertise to the world that you’re far away from home by posting on Facebook and Instagram (or even LinkedIn). In other words, while you’re keeping yourself safe on the road, you can keep your dwelling safe, too.

You Plan Your Travel Safety Tips and We’ll Plan Your Trade Show Exhibit

There’s a lot to do to prepare for an upcoming trade show, including learning the latest travel safety tips so you can have a fun and stress-free trip. While you practice safe travel habits, we’ll make sure the show itself is a huge success for you and your company. We’re the experts in innovative booth design, exhibit fabrication, show services, transportation logistics, and everything in between.

Contact us today to learn how we can make your next show a success!