Conferences and Seminars are a good way to promote a healthcare product. These places provide a platform where the target customers are all present under one roof. Traditionally, people promote their products by hiring a stall at these conferences ans distributing brochures to the interested prospects. However, with changing times, we need to improvise this practice a little, so that favourable results are achieved. Here is a plan to make significant gains out of participation in conferences.

• Always book stalls well in advance. This gives you time to think about your strategy and plan.
  
  
  
• Make sure they provide you with a ?visible? stall. The place has to be at an eye-catching situation rather than one remote corner of the place.
  
  
  
• Start preparing at least a month before the actual event. Send out letters to the prospects. Let them know that you will be there. Encourage them to get in touch with you well before you are actually there. This way you will win half the battle even before it starts.
  
  
  
• Get the local press or the media in that city to print an article by someone about your product. The article printed should be from a neutral person. This lends credibility to your cause. You must try to create a buzz about your product before you are actually there.
  
  
  
• The stall when put up has to attract crowds. From personal experience, I have seen people going to a stall just because everyone else is going there. Psychologically, we are interested to find out what everyone is interested in.
  
  
  
• A presentable female model is an excellent idea to add glamour to a stall. In addition, you can also put a big screen with a power point presentation at the stall. Moving slides on the screen will surely catch the eyes of the delegates. Exciting quizzes, coupons, games, on the spot contests, etc. will also make the stall a hit. You can also consider distributing small attractive bags or folders or pens to the delegates who visit the stall. These things are in demand at seminars and will be kept for a long time by the ones who get them. Needless to say, that all the memorabilia should have your brand name and contact numbers.
  
  
  
• Make sure the lady in the stall is taking down the names, phone numbers, addresses and even birthdays of the prospects that have shown interest in the product apart from disseminating important information.
  
  
  
• Make sure you book a lecture for yourself at the conference. Normally, the organizers will grant a small speaking time for a small fee. You can tell people about your product and also about your stall and its attractions.
  

These small innovations will help fetch orders and your efforts will be worthwhile, even if you have to incur some expenses. Afterall, winning battles is about preparation and not about how lucky you were on the given day.

-Vivek Shukla
Healthcare and Marketing Consultant