TRADE EXHIBITION PROJECT

Project Plan
Attending the National trade
exhibition of Maldives

Author: Zihuna Faiz (13185)

Creation Date:09/23/2010

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INTRODUCTION

The company that I have chosen for this assignment is a distributor of Resort-ware, XYZ Resort
Suppliers Maldives, is one of the distributor of Resort-ware in the Maldives. Established in
2002, it is a privately held company, employing more than 50 staffs. It is the distributor and
importer of high-end resort-ware, kitchen ware and electrical items in the Maldives. The
company is a supplier of cost effective and quality resort ware. The company covers a huge
range and variety of products and offer quality and efficient service. The company provides
premium brands, after-sales support, quality spare parts and excellent technical service for the
machines and equipment.
Keeping in line with the well-known brands of “Illy” Coffee, Food Service Range of “Paderno”
kitchen utensils, “SIRMAN” food service equipment, “NuovaSimonelli” Coffee Machines,
“Candola” refill lamps, “SIRMAN” kitchen machinery XYZ company provides high-quality
solutions coupled with consultation for the tourism industry.
We put a great effort to provide and deliver tailored solutions for our customers in the hospitality
industry in which the quality and brand of the products, equipments and machinery are
concerned. We have always valued the relationships with our current and future clients through
our
However, the company has been facing difficulty in reaching the main segment of the target
market. Particularly, there has been a serious gap in the awareness of the services provided
by the company.

Purpose of Plan

Since, it is a key initiative of the company to grow our customer base and promote our services;
the company has decided to participate in a trade exhibition held in Maldives. Trade fair is an
important tool, as it involves face-to-face communication. It is a means of displaying products to
persuade and remind prospective buyers about the enterprise. Participation at exhibition’s events
is an excellent opportunity to present the company to the targeted audience.

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This is a project plan prepared for participation in the Maldives Hotel & Trade Exhibition which
will be held at Dharubaaruge, the premier convention and conference facility in the to be held in
6 months time.

The Project Plan defines the following:

 Plan purpose
 Scope definition
 Project deliverables
 Project Milestones
 Technical Requirements
 Limitations and exclusions
 Work Breakdown Structure of the project
 Network Diagram
 Reflective summary

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The scope definition

To deliver a trade exhibition project plan in order to gain the attention of the target
customers (business and resorts) of the company and expand the customers base.

Deliverables

The Project will

 Demonstration of sample products.

 Well-trained staffs.
 Presentation of products demo using video clips.
 Printed materials (brochures, banners, order forms, business cards)
 Show give-away
 Exhibition stand prepared.
 A lead review will be prepared

Milestones

The following represent key project milestones, with estimated completion dates:

Milestone Estimated Completion Date

Budget prepared 01/08/2010

Budget Approved 18/08/2010

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 Project plan prepared 28/08/2010
Confirmation of stall 01/09/2010
Stall layout sketched 20/09/2010
Staff selected 25/09/2010
Staff trained 01/10/2010
Promotional plan prepared 15/10/2010
Promotional materials prepared 25/10/2010
Printed materials 10/11/2010
Stand assembled 03/10/2010
Conducting promotion 03/10/2010
Launching the exhibition 01/02/2011
Packing up Stall 04/02/2011
Lead review 10/02/2011
E-mail to visitors 12/02/2010

Technical requirements

 The demo presentation requires visuals and graphics with use of projector and pc.
 All displaying banners and posters should meet the criteria set in the designing stage
 Negotiation with the trade fair organizers for one of the busiest sites when confirming the
stand.
 While training staff members have to be thoroughly briefed on issues like: the objectives
of the fair; their duties; the products to be exhibited; rules of the trade fair.
 The furnishing and decorations of the stand have to be suitable and adequate; creating
good flows of traffic and displaying the products and materials appropriately
 Promotional activities should include E-mailing customers & key prospects and sending
passes to best customers
 Printed materials should include brochures, price lists, order forms, and business cards.

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  During the launch of the exhibition, staffs should create a professional image and all
times, one person should work directly with customers while the other should keep an
eye on the booth
 When reviewing the leads, the contacts, sales goals, profit, new ideas, and information
gained should be considered

Work breakdown structure

The work breakdown structure of the project is map of the project to be done. It is used to assure
that all the work elements in the exhibition project are being identified. The WBS will also help
to integrate the project with the current organization and to establish a basis control.

The WBS includes the major area of work; concept development, promotion, training, HR
allocation, organizing materials, setting stall, launching the exhibition and post-show activities.at
the top of the charter is the project end item. Note that the different levels of the structure
represent information for different levels of work elements. The level one represents the total
objective of the project and level 2, 3,4, 5, 6,7 represents the tasks and subtasks to be performed
in order to achieve the objective of the project. It it’s divided in to subtasks and work packages.
The WBS us generated around the deliverables. An additional key attribute of the WBS is that it
is a hierarchical decomposition of the work. This decomposition (or subdivision) clearly and
comprehensively defines the scope of the project in terms of individual sub-deliverables that the
project participants can easily understand.

During the first stage of the project as represented in WBS involves concept development, which
requires planning and budgeting. In the planning stage, the nature of the enterprises and their
marketing problems should shape the specific objectives that the show. should try to achieve at
the trade fair. For trade exhibition careful planning is vital because trade fairs involve many
details. Detailed budget should be drawn up immediately after the decision to organize a trade
fair is made. Although it may be difficult to decide on the exact budget, it is necessary to have

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detailed information and quotations regarding the overall accrued costs. Cost estimates should
therefore be obtained on time. These both activities are drawn in the same level as it.
The HR allocation of the project is of importance as coordination of the trade fair; stand
designing; registering; taking care of communications; controlling passes; cleaning; taking care
of security needs to be well managed by knowledgeable staffs. All staff members have to be
thoroughly briefed before the show starts on issues like:
The objectives of the fair; their duties; the products of the exhibitors; rules of the trade fair in the
training session ot be taken. Choosing an appropriate stand location is a major factor involved in
the trade exhibition planning setting stalls and confirmation is important.

Other sub tasks in the WBS are as follow:

Identifying Budget, Approve Budget, Produce plan ,Selecting staffs, Assigning task to staffs,
Conduct training, Sketch Layout, Prepare promo- plan, Design materials, Printing, Order give-
away, Prepare video,Stall setup ,E-mail customers & key Prospects, Send passes to best
customers, Package materials, Material transportation to location, Materials unpacking,
Arranging materials, Exhibition, Lead review, E-mail to show visitors.

Project integration management

The project integration Management knowledge area is concerned with coordinating all aspects
of the project plan and is highly interactive. It involves project planning, project execution, and
change control. All these processes occur through out the life of the project and are repeated
continuously while working on the project. Project planning, execution, and change control are
tightly linked. The processes that constitute Project Integration Management include the
following:

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  Develop project charter
 Develop preliminary project scope
 Develop project management plan
 Direct and manage project execution
 Monitor and control project work
 Integrated change control
 Close project

It is recommended that the Project Change Management and Project Change Planning documents
be referred to and used to address these concerns at a more detailed level in the management of
the trade exhibition project..
Projects almost always bring significant change to organizations and are therefore disruptive.
People inherently dislike change and are skeptical towards those things that bring about the
change. Those that aren’t directly involved with the project team are likely worried about their
role and what might happen to them as the changes take place in the organization. It’s up to the
project team to recognize this as a serious matter and plan the appropriate communications to
ensure correct expectations.

Integrated Project Management sets the path for companies large and small to meet their goals
faster, more efficiently and with higher-quality results - whether embarking on a major capital
project or developing a new product or critical initiative.
IPM can help to tighten timelines and reduce risk through laser-focused planning and disciplined
execution.
Integrate Project Plan (IPP). The specific parts of the IPP related to the inputs for Controlling
are: Some of the important areas in context with our organizations include:

 Overall Change Management Plan. Defines how changes to the project’s

scope/requirements, costs, schedule, quality, and risks will be coordinated for
understanding and possible impact in all of the planned areas. Ensures the ongoing
integrity of the project’s Integrated Project Plan.

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  Quality Management Plan. Addresses how Quality Control will monitor the specific
project results to determine if they comply with relevant quality standards and identifies
ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance.

 Risk Management Plan. Addresses how Risk Response Control (mitigation and
contingencies) will respond to changes in risk over the course of the project.

 Communication Plan. Addresses the collecting and disseminating of performance

information. This may includes status reporting, progress measurement and forecasting.

Furthermore, it is important to understand that in some organizations, selections, and

management of projects often fail to support the strategic plan of the organization. So a the
integration of the project management system is one in which all of the parts in the project
are related. A change in any on of the parts will influence the whole. Every organization has
a customer it is seeking to satisfy. The customers set the raison d’etre for the organization. In
with

Some of the benefits that our company will gain with the use of IPM include the following:

 Knowledge is transferred from project level to the organization

 Improved planning through better understanding of process performance
 Lower cost of process planning in projects as reuse is promoted
 Improved coordination among people involved in a project
 Commitment to the organization is improved as communication & sharing between teams
is facilitated
 Institutionalizing key management practices
 Reuse of knowledge
 Integration of plans
 Tracking dependencies & collaboration issues
 “Post mortem” analysis

There are two dimensions in the IPM. The first is the technical side of the management process
which consists of the formal, disciplined, pure logic parts of the process. The technical side
relies on the formal information system available. This dimension include, planning,
scheduling, and controlling a project.

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The second dimension is the socio-cultural side of the project management process. In contrast to
with the orderly world of the project planning, this dimension involves the much messier,
often contradictory and paradoxical world of implementation. It centers on creating a
temporary social system within a larger organizational environment that combines the talent
of a divergent set of professionals working to complete the project. I as a project manager
have considered this as crucial and have planned on giving training for the participating staffs
of the projects. Further it will be recommended if other staffs in the organization are made
aware of the effects of attending the exhibition. Their work load may increase due to increase
in customer basse, more sales needs to be generated, bigger transactions will take place.
Thus, they all need to be part of the project taking place directly or indirectly.

Network Diagram

A Network Diagram is a visual representation of a project’s schedule. Well known complements

to network diagrams include the PERT and Gantt charts. A network diagram in project
management is useful for planning and tracking the project from beginning to finish. It
represents a project’s critical path as well as the scope for the project.A good network
diagram will be a clear and concise graphic representation of a project.

The network diagram is a technique for illustrating how impacts are related and what the
consequences of impacts are. For example, it may be possible to fairly accurately predict the
impact of increased diversions or higher irrigation efficiencies on the low flow regime of a
river. However, there may be many and far reaching secondary or tertiary consequences of a
change in low flow. These consequences can be illustrated using network diagrams. For
example, reduced low flows are likely to reduce the production of fish which may or may not
be of importance depending on the value (either ecological or economic) of the fish. If fish
are an important component of diet or income, the reduction may lead to a local reduction in
the health status, impoverishment and possibly migration. Also, reduced low flow coupled
with increased pollution, perhaps as a result of increased agricultural industry, may further
damage the fish population as well as reduce access to safe water.

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CPM Benefits

• Provides a graphical view of the project.

• Predicts the time required to complete the project.

• Shows which activities are critical to maintaining the schedule and which are not.

CPM Limitations

While CPM is easy to understand and use, it does not consider the time variations that can have a
great impact on the completion time of a complex project. CPM was developed for complex
but fairly routine projects with minimum uncertainty in the project completion times. For less
routine projects there is more uncertainty in the completion times, and this uncertainty limits
its usefulness.

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Activity dependency table

Activity Description Dependency Activity Duration (Days)

A Identifying Budget 10
B Approve Budget A 7
C Produce plan B 10
D Selecting staffs C 4
E Assigning task to staffs D 3
F Conduct training E 7
G Sketch Layout C 20
H Prepare promo- plan C 8
I Design materials C,H 20
J Printing I 6
K Order give-away I 20
L Prepare video H 15
M Stall setup G 2
N E-mail customers & key Prospects H 1
O Send passes to best customers H 4
P Package materials k,L,J 10
Q Material transportation to location M,P 1
R Materials unpacking P,Q 2
S Arranging materials M,R 3
T Exhibition N,O,S 3
U Lead review T 7
V E-mail to show visitors T 7

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 Reflective summary

The project undertaken for the planning of the trade exhibition was a very knowledgeable experience. The
whole planning and budgeting helped to understand various aspects needed to be concerned in terms if financial and
handling resources. The scope development and deliverables identification and especially the development s of the
WBS was a great experience. Major difficulty was in making the network diagram and the WBS, effective planning
helped to overcome this.

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