Calamities happen at trade shows. It's not a question of if; it's a question of when and how bad things will get. So exhibitors can't just have a plan B in mind. They need a plan C, D, and E as well. And if a natural disaster ruins all of your back-ups, you need a plan for that, too.

Several years ago, I held the position of West Coast marketing analyst for EquiFirst, a Charlotte, NC-based mortgage lender. We had just built a beautiful new booth and were launching it at one of our biggest shows.

I arrived on site for booth inspection an hour before the show opened and was not happy with what I found.

One of the exhibit coordinators told me the can lights that were supposed to run along the top of the booth were broken and there was no way to get replacements in time. Without those lights, our entire booth looked like a dark basement, so you can imagine my reaction: I saw red.

I couldn't understand why I hadn't been notified of this problem the moment the broken lights were discovered. Plus, I just couldn't accept the idea that there was no way out of this snafu.

There's always something you can do to at least try to remedy your situation. So I got on the phone with our exhibit house, told the reps about our problem, and asked if they had a partner in the show's host city. Working with the local exhibit house, we found enough of the lights we needed to replace the broken ones. Our booth manager drove a rental car to pick up the new fixtures, and the problem was solved.

The crisis was averted, but the frustration generated by the situation spurred me to devise a way to avoid such a mess in the future. I resolved to develop a number of solutions for the most common trade show tragedies, and train my team to create contingency plans. With that goal in mind, I began hosting in-office training sessions every three to six months. The half-day sessions were a combination of interactive problem solving, teamwork, role-playing, and brainstorming. I worked up three different disaster scenarios, aka "fire drills," and asked my trade show team to figure out realistic fixes for each one.

My teams have included marketing managers and assistants, graphic designers, trade show coordinators, booth staffers, sales reps, and any other internal stakeholders I can convince to participate. But no matter who's taking part, this is not your typical booth-staff meeting. We do not sit around a conference table for three or four hours and simply discuss the scenarios. To set the drills apart from the daily norm and infuse a sense of authentic urgency, I email the scenarios to the team members at their desks, and give them 30 minutes to find a solution.

Each scenario replicates a problem that could happen at a trade show or event, usually compounded by phone calls from me in the role of an annoying boss or ineffectual contractor. During the first two drills in the three-part training session, my team members can work together to find solutions to the show-related snafus. But the final drill is completed individually.

The following step-by-step method will help you host your own trade show fire drills and train your staff to handle worst-case scenarios, while also arming your team with a laundry list of contingency plans. These simple training sessions are fun, low-pressure, and no-cost exercises that just might save the day at your next show.

1. Map Out a Plan
Put an initial plan together, including some ideas for the scenarios you'd like to address, what you want to accomplish with the project, and who will be involved. Then schedule a meeting with your boss to pitch the idea. It helps to have your boss involved with the project from the beginning. His or her participation indicates that the training sessions are an important part of your program – a message that will likely increase the attendance and participation of stakeholders who do not report to you.

If you have trouble getting your boss on board, explain the importance of having contingency plans. For example, discuss how, absent a plan B, your exhibit might suffer due to lost graphics or damaged exhibit components. Or, speak the language of dollars and cents and describe how a trade show tragedy can bite you in the budget if you're not prepared with a back-up plan. Once your boss sees the kinds of very real problems you may encounter at a trade show – and understands the potential impact to your effectiveness and/or overall expenses – he or she may be more supportive of your training sessions.

2. Develop the Drills
I created three drills for each training session, including one drill involving a small 10-by-10 or 10-by-20-foot booth, another for a larger 40-by-40-foot booth, and one for an off-site event calamity. Your scenarios will depend on your individual program. For example, if you exhibit in a 10-by-10-foot booth for most of your shows, you should probably focus more on small-booth challenges.

Consider including scenarios you've personally faced, such as ruined graphics, missing collateral, or delayed shipping, as those issues are likely to hit home with your team. That said, don't be afraid to concoct some unusual or natural-disaster scenarios as they will stretch participants to deal with problems that range from logistical hiccups to major tragedies. Once you know what types of scenarios you'd like to include in your training sessions, write up detailed accounts that provide participants with as much information as possible.

3. Get Ready to Rumble
With your scenarios in hand, it's time to get your training session onto your team's calendar. When you send out the meeting invite, give participants an idea of what to expect, why the exercise is important, and how it will benefit them. And, if possible, include a note from your boss lending his or her support to the project.

My training sessions typically run three hours in length, with 30 minutes of time for each of the three scenarios and a 90-minute review session during which we discuss the pros and cons of the solutions. This format allows the team enough time to brainstorm workable solutions and only takes up about half of the workday.

Just like in a real emergency, your team members should be able to call on their traditional sources – including your exhibit house, freight contact, internal employees, or a business-service center – to help find a feasible solution. So once you have a date and time scheduled, contact each of the sources prior to the drill and let them know they might get a call. Briefly explain the exercise, and ask that they treat the situation like a real emergency. If they're not able to assist, you can assume those roles yourself or assign them to colleagues (providing parameters and talking points if they are not particularily familiar with the trade show world).

4. Ready, Set, Disaster
On the morning of a fire drill, I give my team members three Help Cards, similar to the three "lifelines" on the TV game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" The first card is redeemable for an answer to a single question they ask me. They can use the second card to call on the executive who oversees our department for assistance.

The last card earns them a 15-minute extension, as long as they request it before the 30-minute drill is up.

Then email the first scenario to your team, start a 30-minute timer, and let the games begin. I usually stay out of the picture, but I'm not above creating additional twists to make things more challenging. During some of the drills, I make phone calls from the conference room and pretend to be an irate sales manager – or ditzy exhibit-services desk clerk – to throw an unexpected wrench into their plans, forcing them to modify their solution and come up with a plan C instead.

Five minutes before each drill ends, I email the team a warning that time is almost up. And when the 30 minutes is done, I use a small siren to signal the end of the drill. As soon as the signal sounds, they must email me the solution immediately. When I receive the group's email, I send the next scenario, and they're off again. After the second drill is finished and the solution is sent to me, each member of the team returns to his or her desk and receives the final scenario, to be completed individually.

5. Regroup, Recap, and Results
After completing the three scenarios, we all meet in the conference room for a 90-minute review session. I ask team members to review the solution they presented for the first drill and to discuss what works and what they can improve. At this stage, I help them develop the best possible solution, so if they are ever faced with a similar situation, they know what to do. Then we do the same for the second drill.

For the individual drill, we rank the solutions presented by each team member. The premise is that there are no bad ideas, but as a group we want to choose or create the best, most cost-effective answer. Typically, the team cherry-picks elements from different solutions to form a single plan of attack that addresses the problem in the most effective and efficient manner.

6. Wrap it Up
After our review session is complete, we compile all of the best-practice solutions, someone volunteers to type them into an email, and we send them out for everyone to file away for future reference. Over time, team members have compiled their own fire-drill handbooks, which have saved the day when they've encountered real-life exhibit hiccups.

For example, when a member of my staff was in the office overseeing a remote show, he received a call that our collateral literature had been quarantined and would not be released until long after the show opened. Drawing on a past fire drill, he emailed the on-site contractor electronic files of the literature. The contractor took the files to the show's business center and made copies. Problem solved.

I firmly believe that these drills train my team to face whatever happens on the trade show floor, and actually help prevent potential problems from ever erupting. Participants better understand what can go wrong at our trade shows and events, and as a result are more diligent about pre-show and at-show preparation.

The fire drills have even made an impact beyond my own team. A former employee contacted me to say that periodic rereading of his fire-drill handbook had paid off for him at a recent show. When his company's booth was still missing two hours before the show opened, he didn't panic because he had just reviewed an almost identical scenario in the handbook. By putting the solution from the fire drill to work, the crisis was averted.

Always Be Prepared
By following the preceding steps and adapting my methods to suit your program's specific needs, you can host your own fire drills. That way, when the next trade show calamity rears its ugly head, you and your team members will have already survived a baptism by fire drill and will have plan B, C, D, and E ready to remedy the situation. There is no guarantee that the solutions you come up with in the comfort of your own office will solve all the problems you encounter on the trade show floor, but by keeping your team on their toes and one step ahead of disaster, you'll be better prepared for almost anything this industry can throw your way. E