Stand Out in the Crowd – Making the Most of Your Exhibition Stand
If you are looking to exhibit this year, you need to make sure that every penny is well spent and that means making sure your exhibiting process and your stand are well thought out.
Before you begin working out the look of your stand, it is important to identify its function and your objectives for the exhibition. If the aim is to meet with existing customers and build relationships with them, it may be important to have a comfortable seating area or even a private meeting room within the stand. If the objective is to gather information and data from as many visitors as possible, you will need to attract visitors to your stand and make sure you have the right equipment in order to quickly and easily take their details.
One thing that your stand will allow you to do, whatever your objectives, is to showcase your products to potential users or buyers. To this end it is important to make sure that you give your stand a USP, something to differentiate it from all the others around it. This might be as simple as identifying a new product or it might be placing something large and wacky on the stand. There is a hotel in Chicago with a large cow sculpture attached to the front of the building. I can’t remember the name of the hotel but I will be able to find it again because of the cow. There are hundreds of stands at any exhibition. Give your stand a reason to be remembered.
Choose a stand space that will give you traffic flow from as many directions as possible. Corner positions are ideal but there are never enough of them. Alternatively choose a position en route or close to a cafe, the entrance/exit or close to another key company that you know will have plenty of visitors!
As soon as you register for your chosen exhibition, you will be provided with a floor plan from which to choose your stand space. There are two types of exhibition stand space – Space Only and Shell Scheme. Space Only stands give you just that, the space. It is then up to you to build your entire stand from the floor up. This will undoubtedly give you the potential for the most eyecatching, exciting stand design but will also come with a fairly hefty budget requirement.
Shell Scheme stands are basically three flat walls, a floor and a facia panel into which you can put your own graphics or use your own Pop-up stand within the structure. This is a far lower cost option than Space Only, However, the end result will not give you the freedom to be as eyecatching.
If you have the budget to play with, then the Space Only and bespoke stand will have the best impact.
Choose your exhibition stand position to gain as much exposure as possible. Being on a corner is good as you get people coming towards your stand from different directions. Positions close to cafes are generally good, providing they are not tucked away in a corner. This also gives you the opportunity to grab a coffee with prospects or customers without needing to go far from the stand which is helpful if there are not many of you manning the stand. Choosing a stand close to a ‘popular’ stand, or known brand /attraction can be helpful as you know it will attract visitors to your area.