Spring fair season: booking, staffing, and the follow-up plan

Spring is the busiest window for education fairs in Vietnam, and the institutions that do well have usually made three decisions before booking anything.

One: what the table is for

Volume of conversations, or depth with a smaller number? These need different staffing and different materials. A table optimised for both achieves neither.

Two: who staffs it

At least one person who can hold a full conversation in Vietnamese. Not a translator standing behind — someone who can answer. The difference shows in what parents are willing to ask.

Three: who follows up, and when

Named, scheduled, within 72 hours of the fair, before the team flies home if possible. Leads collected and left for the following week are worth a fraction of their value. If nobody can be assigned, the fair is a branding exercise and should be budgeted as one.

Practical details that get overlooked

• Printed material in Vietnamese, in quantity. Running out on day one happens constantly.
• A way to capture leads that does not depend on handwriting. Transcription errors lose contactable families.
• Consent text on whatever you use to collect details — a fair lead is personal data like any other.

VNIS staffs institutional tables at Vietnamese fairs from US$950, which is worth considering when the alternative is a senior team flying for two days.

Fair options: Education Fairs & Events →