Since the economic collapse in 2008, all industries have been cutting corners and rethinking their budgets. Businesses who use tradeshows are trying to find creative ways to cut back on expenses, without giving up the quality of their trade show exhibit. Here are some things you might want to think about to help stay within your budget.

If you have already contracted to exhibit at a trade show, you probably won’t be able to back out without forfeiting your exhibitor’s fee. You still can negotiate with the tradeshow managers about downsizing to a smaller sized exhibit instead of pulling out all together. Most trade shows will work with you because they do not want to lose your business.

If you exhibit at a lot of trade shows you might want to concentrate on the shows that have gave you a good return for your investment in the past. Instead of not going to show at all, you might want to consider getting a smaller trade show exhibit to save money. Another idea is to consider substituting lighter weight or less expensive exhibit displays for big heavy custom displays.

You want to think of ways to cut back on expenses but you don’t want sacrifice your market visibility. Another idea is to use rental exhibits rather than building custom exhibits. If you compare the cost of a turnkey rental with a new custom exhibit, the rental can be bought for about 30% of what a new one would cost. That is a huge saving and rental exhibits usually come with graphics and include set up and freight costs.

Using a smaller space will reduce overall costs. If you use smaller lightweight displays and portable displays that your staff can set up you will save on labor and shipping costs. If you do these simple things you can reduce your cost and still be able to attend trade shows. By simply downsizing your trade show exhibit space and by using lighter more portable displays you can still afford to exhibit at trade shows.