Find the Perfect Staff Size for Your Booth

Posted by Bill Barrett in Tips, Trends

It can be difficult to estimate just how many booth employees you’ll need for your trade show. The amount of time and money invested into training and transporting staff can quickly add up. Marc Goldberg, Blogger at Skyline Trade Show Tips, outlines the best ways to decide how many people you’ll need at your next event.

When your booth staffers are appropriately trained, they can provide a positive return on investment by capturing leads. A good rule of thumb is to employ one staff member for each 50 square feet of open booth space. Take the total square footage of your booth, subtract space occupied by your exhibit or displays, and divide the remainder by 50.

EXAMPLE:

• Your booth is 100 sq. ft.
• You have 16 sq. ft. for booth displays and 12 sq. ft. for two tables: 16 +12 = 28 sq. ft. of occupied space.
• 100 – 28 = 72 sq. ft. of open space.
• 72 / 50 = 1.2. You would need 1 or 2 booth staffers; two would be preferable.

Another method is to determine staffing based on objectives. If your goal is to gain 100 qualified leads, use that as a baseline and work backwards. Say your staffers can engage over 10 attendees in an hour. That amounts to at least 60 potential leads in a 6-hour event. If you factor in an estimated 30% qualification rate, each individual staffer can qualify about 20 leads over the course of the event. This means you need 5 staff members to reach your goal of 100 leads.

Once you’ve selected your staff, the next step is to assign a “Booth Captain” This position will be responsible for on-the-floor execution as well as training and organizing the staff. The Booth Captain will need to make sure the booth is correctly staffed and scheduled, taking peak traffic times and slow periods into consideration.

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