Trade Show Survival 101: Your Guide to Staying Healthy on the Show Floor

Sure, trade shows are great opportunities for exhibitors to enhance their brand awareness and earn leads that generate sales from the show floor. Let’s be honest, though: trade shows can really wreak havoc on the people working them. There are long days with barely any breaks or opportunities to sit down, let alone enjoy a nutritious and fulfilling meal. Fortunately, you can take steps toward staying healthy during even the longest or most hectic of shows.  

Why Staying Healthy on the Show Floor Can Be Difficult

Trade shows are professional events. As an exhibitor, you are representing your company, and you likely often serve as a show attendee’s first impression of your organization and its products or services. This makes for long, fast-paced days full of quick but impactful conversations with booth visitors. A bit of mental stress can add up which, coupled with being on your feet for hours at a time, makes staying healthy both mentally and physically difficult at any convention.

You want to put your best foot forward and impress each and every person who visits your booth space, but you can’t be at your best unless you take care of yourself. If you avoid certain on-site pitfalls, appropriately prepare for long days at the convention center, and practice some self-care outside of show hours, you’re taking steps toward staying healthy throughout even the longest and busiest of trade shows.

Show Floor Pitfalls to Avoid

It’s so easy to fall into bad habits when you’re at a convention center for a few days. Since you won’t always get much of a lunch break, you might grab a quick hot dog and a soda from the exhibit hall’s concession stand. And if there’s a steady stream of attendees walking through your booth space, you may be stuck inside for countless hours without getting to take a breath of fresh air outside of the convention center walls.

Fortunately, you can take steps to avoid these pitfalls altogether by being proactive. Talk to your company’s trade show manager about scheduling staggered breaks for the on-site team so you get a full lunch hour and a few other bio or fresh air breaks sprinkled throughout each day. Additionally, you can bring key items to the convention center to stay healthy and relaxed throughout the entire show.

Packing Your Personal Trade Show Go-Bag

Once you’ve taken care of the emergency supplies you might need for your trade show exhibit, you can focus on packing up a personal go-bag aimed at proactively staying healthy throughout the event. Here are some items to include:

• Footwear. Bring comfortable shoes and socks, and maybe toss an extra pair of insoles into your go-bag.
• Hydration. Instead of relying on the (often overpriced and always wasteful) disposable bottles of water from the concession stand, pack an insulated water bottle that you can refill throughout the long show hours. For a nutrient boost, consider putting a vitamin powder packet in your water as well.
• Healthy snacks. Granola bars, fruit snacks, nuts, and frozen yogurt treats that’ll thaw but stay nice and cool are great to nosh on while you’re working your booth. If possible, bring along a padded lunch bag and an ice pack to keep your healthy snacks cold and refreshing. 
• Pain management. Your feet and legs might start to get sore after a while, and sometimes the show floor can be chock full of headache-inducing sounds and lights. To stay pain-free throughout the day, toss some aspirin, Advil, or your favorite over-the-counter pain medicine in your go-bag.
• Toiletries. You never know what you might need during a tiring day at the convention center, so be as prepared as possible. Travel-sized saline solution or eyedrops are great for contact lens wearers, and having some hand sanitizer, cleansing wipes, and breath mints on hand will be appreciated by your entire on-site team.

With a well-packed go-bag, you’ll be prepared for just about anything that you—or your on-site colleagues—need during the show.

Staying Healthy Between Show Hours

Staying healthy during a trade show isn’t limited to taking care of yourself when you’re inside the exhibit hall. You might need to set aside a little time for self-care outside of the convention center hours as well. One of the best ways to do this is to make sure you treat yourself to a healthy, nutritious breakfast before the show and a filling, vitamin-packed dinner after show hours. Fried foods and a giant steak during a dinner with customers or colleagues may sound tempting, but you might not feel so great when you’re back at the convention center the next day.

Additionally, try to set aside some time to explore the city and have some fun with the coworkers who traveled to the show with you. See the sights, stroll the streets, and let yourself enjoy being a tourist for at least a few hours during your trip.

Finally, try to get a good night’s sleep before each show day. Prop your legs up on some extra hotel pillows, and help your feet recover by filling up the hotel room’s ice bag and letting your tootsies enjoy the cold. Or go warm when you bring a blow-up foot bath and some epsom salts. Take a few deep breaths, relax, and get your mind and body ready for another productive and successful day on the show floor.

Adding Personal Wellness and Enrichment with Conference Events

On top of staying healthy physically during your trade show, try to enrich your mind as well. Many conferences and conventions offer a long and diverse list of events that are open to both exhibitors and attendees, and they’re aimed at everything from wellness to industry education. If your on-site colleagues can run the booth without you for a little while, try to take advantage of these sessions.

Here are a few examples of what your show might offer:

• Networking breakfasts
• Yoga or meditation sessions
• Panel discussions about industry breakthroughs
• Speeches by thought leaders about new technologies
• Workshops for company advancement and professional development

In many cases, these opportunities and events are free to exhibitors and attendees, and they can really add value and depth to your overall trade show experience.  Plus, it’s somebody else’s job to be “on” for a while!

Let the Experts Handle Your Trade Show Exhibit While You Focus on Staying Healthy on the Show Floor

Trade shows are wonderful networking and sales opportunities, but they can also take a toll on the individuals who work the exhibit hall day after day. Staying healthy and stress-free on the show floor is a main goal for many trade show professionals, and we’re here to help. You focus on personal wellness and we’ll focus on designing, fabricating, shipping, and installing a custom exhibit that’ll give you maximum impact and ROI.

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