Eight steps for a successful event experience
Experience is everything.
These are our eight key steps to consider when creating event experiences that engage and inspire.
1. Location, location, location!
The first question should always be: Where is the booth situated on the tradeshow floor? Location drastically influences the design and function of the booth. Check your proximity to the show entrances, main aisles, refreshments, the conference hall, and networking areas. Some locations come with a higher price tag, so it may be worthwhile sacrificing some floor space for a better positioned booth. Also, see if you can find out where your competitors are and who is located around your booth so that the design can be targeted at making you stand out.
2. The objective
Secondly, consider the main objective of the booth, and how you can form an experience aligned to the objective. For example, are you launching a new service or product? Are you building general capability awareness to enter a new market? Do you have a recruitment agenda? Do you need to use the space to host meetings with existing clients or to network with prospects? Do you need to demo some new tech or capabilities? Determining 1-2 objectives for the booth space—and sticking to them—will help make the design and messaging process much more cohesive and the outcome aligned to the objective.
3. The configuration
There are four major booth configurations at events.
The perimeter booth—positioned around the edges of the trade show floor. You will likely have three walls for design and messaging, but audience traffic is generally low.
The in-line booth—you are deep in an aisle, and depending on the trade show, you will either have a single wall, or three to brand.
The peninsula booth—only one wall, but you have three frontages and a lot of traffic from all directions. You can take advantage of this with multiple smaller ‘focus stations’ in your floor plate, or block off one side for the creation of a meeting room to give you some extra walls for branding and messaging along the aisles.
The island booth—no walls, but you can create them to focus traffic into a particular flow, or embrace the ‘entry-from-any-side’ flow with a ‘start anywhere’ experience.
The objective of your booth should inform your choice of configuration. Sometimes it’s worth saving on purchasing space and repurposing that budget into other activities surrounding the event for better overall exposure. Consider the following questions to ensure your booth meets your objectives for the event. Should it be open or closed? Do you want multiple entry points or a controlled flow of traffic? Do you need privacy for networking or openness for presentations and demos?
Now that you have location, objective, and configuration sorted, it’s time to move on to design.
4. Design for crowds
Design for crowds by keeping your walls really simple. Your fully branded walls and messaging may look perfect in a designer’s presentation, but come show time, you will have booth furniture and people crowding in your space, covering up all that hard work. Outside your booth, you will have people crowding in aisles or queueing for food and coffee if you are near refreshment stands. This will further obscure anything you have on your walls. It bears repeating, keep your walls simple—not plain—but simple and mindful of what they will look like in the context of a live event.
5. Design for motion
Booth branding and messaging should be able to be quickly read while in passing. Think billboard, not flyer. Let the creative breathe and serve the objective you landed on when defining the objective of the booth. Blank space provides clarity and conveys confidence in your creative execution and accounts for crowds.
Flatten your booth walls out like a flat piece of paper and plot key spots. Where will logos go, where will screens sit, what furniture will be where, look at ways to tell your story consistently across all the walls. Don’t rely on a passer-by having to read everything from left to right in a 3D space. Billboard, not flyer, remember? We don’t have to say everything at once, we can take them on an individual journey of discovery.
6. Identify focal point/s
For elements in a design to stand out, other elements must fade into the background. Have a clear hierarchical structure to your messaging, branding, and imagery. Consider the tradeshow floor plan, your booth positioning, and booth configuration. Map the expected traffic flow, and determine the spot in your booth that is going to have the highest visibility. This is the single focal point. You may be able to identify additional focal points after looking at your booth floor plate and in-booth traffic flow, however, you still need to consider points four and five, and question whether more focal points would dilute the experience.
7. Use build constraints to your advantage
Constraints—be they construction or tradeshow enforced—can become advantageous if you use them correctly. Trade show spaces are notorious for bad lighting, so adding custom lighting to your booth will help it stand out from the rest and act as a subtle draw on the eye for a passer-by, simply because it is brighter.
Creating walls inset from your booth boundary within an island or peninsula configuration can give you extra branding space you would not have had otherwise.
Can you go up? Depending on restrictions, you may be able to add a second floor, an extra tall wall, or hang a screen from the ceiling, giving you an additional focal point for your booth from anywhere within the conference centre.
8. Engagement, engagement, engagement
The most popular booths are those where visitors can participate instead of just watch. Make them part of the story with interactivity, such as demos, competitions, polls, merchandise etc.
Events are not just in the physical world today. Think about how you can expand your booth experience to social and create a shareable wow. What wold make event attendees drop by if they see something on social. What would make those following along online feel part of the experience. This can create a lot of buzz and give you another channel to engage.
Also, think outside of the booth. Depending on your sponsorship package, you may be able to tap into extras such as directional or promotional floor tiles, digital screens, kiosks etc., to generate traffic to your booth, and expand your engagement.
It goes without saying, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Hopefully these eight tips can help you achieve the outcomes you are looking for at your next event.
Do you need help planning the best booth experience, balancing both your budget and objectives, we'd love to hear from you.
