Real-Life Lessons About Designing a Trade Show Booth

We have been in the trade show booth design business for quite some time now, and in that time we’ve learned a lot of real-life lessons about designing a trade show booth.
. We’re happy to pass that hard-earned knowledge along to our loyal clients and prospective partners, so you, too, can avoid mistakes and find success in all of your trade show endeavors. As you can read in our reviews, it’s something we’ve worked hard to attain for our clients past, present, and future.

Each trade show and each organization exhibiting at a show is different, but through our time in the industry, we have found some common truths across trade shows and companies of all sizes and types. Read on to find out more about what we’ve learned along the way so that you can apply this information to your next booth. And, as always, we’re always available to put our expertise to work for you so you can sit back and relax knowing we have your booth design under control.

Design with a Purpose
It’s not enough to make a generic booth design with your company logo and graphics here and there, with no real objective or purpose to what you are doing. Displaying your business is part of what a trade show is all about, but it won’t help you stand out in the crowd, and it won’t have any kind of edge to draw people in.

When you are setting out to design your trade show booth, consider what you want to accomplish. Is it media coverage, is it networking with other industry professionals, is it generating new leads, or is it something else entirely? Your booth should make that happen — for instance, if you want media coverage, it makes sense to offer something a little bit over the top and exciting, to attract both the press and trade show visitors. We will work with you to outline your goals for your booth, and bring them to life.

Get Started Early
If you cut things too close to the deadline for your trade show, you may end up having to cut corners, pay more, or scramble and stress to get it done when you should be taking that time to prepare your marketing, promote your event, and get your on-site staff ready to engage with visitors.

We recommend trade show exhibitors work well in advance to understand the space they need, the venue they will be exhibiting at, and what kind of design and products they need to pull it off successfully. In fact, researching by attending the event prior to your own entry can be more helpful than anything else, which means you need to be thinking in the long-term.

That being said, we have definitely helped many organizations pull through in a pinch, so if you are running short on time, don’t despair, give us a call and we will work with you to ensure your trade show booth turns out how you want with as little stress as possible. Otherwise, get in touch with us as soon as you are thinking about entering a trade show, and we will help you generate a timeline that works for your needs.

Invest in Graphics and Lighting
A bad trade show booth design is easy to spot in real life, especially in contrast to high-quality booths. Trying to save a few bucks can be unfortunately transparent, especially when it comes to bad graphics, cluttered designs, and poor or non-existent lighting. The next time you are at a trade show, consider which booths you are drawn to immediately — odds are, they are well designed, with compelling graphics, quality lighting, and carefully chosen accessories to make the experience memorable.

Choose the Right Size
We’ve seen it all — organizations that want to save money by cramming into a too-tight space, suffering for it with a crowded display everyone is avoiding, to organizations that overestimate what they will need and clearly have too much space for their display and visitor traffic. The size of your booth design is a careful art, balancing budget, trade show goals, and your expected traffic, which in turn depends on the show itself, where it’s located, how established it is, and what type of demographic the show is expected to attract.

If it sounds complicated, that’s because it can be — but as professionals who have been in this business long enough to know booth design inside and out, we take the complexity out of the equation, consulting with you to understand your needs, and helping you choose a trade show booth design size that makes sense.

Work with the Pros
In all of these scenarios and more, trade show exhibitors are needlessly suffering and getting bad results because they are trying to do too much heavy lifting on their own, or are relying on old strategies, old trade show booth designs, and old information that may have worked in the past but is too outdated to be relevant these days. Enter the professionals.

We are good at what we do because it’s our focus, day in and day out. While your business may exhibit at several trade shows, it’s all part of a larger marketing and outreach strategy, and in all likelihood, the experience and skill of professionals outstrip that of even your most dedicated, capable staff.

We are not here to take over your design or tell you what to do, but rather to apply our real-life experience to your specific situation, to help you hone your design and make the most of your investment. There’s little to lose in working with a professional for your trade show booth design, yet a whole lot to gain. Why not give it a try?

Are you ready to put these lessons into action? We’re here to help! Contact us for a free quote online, or call us toll-free at 800-576-0018.