Your biggest decision will be choosing your exhibition stand design, so start the process 4 – 6 months before your show date.
Be sure that the design you choose for your stand works by not only looking good to attract visitors, but considers your exhibiting objectives to make your stand work for you.
Hints, design tips & questions to ask yourself
Create an exhibition brief
- Put your objectives, messages and ideas down onto paper.
- Share your brief with stakeholders and your team to get everybody on board with your plans early.
- Use the brief to communicate with your design and build contractor or agency what you want to achieve with your stand.
- Download our guide to help you create a great exhibition brief and make your planning easier.
Knowing your objectives
- What do you want to achieve at the show? Make sure achieving your objective/s is the core influence behind all your stand design decisions.
- What’s the desired outcome for exhibiting at the show?
- How will you measure if you’ve achieved your desired outcome?
Understanding your audience
- Who’s attending the show? Consider the audience profile – gender, the size of company they work for, industry, their job title.
- Will you mainly be greeting current customers or finding new prospects at the show?
- How similar are the show’s audience to your own customers. Will you appeal to everyone or will you need to seek out a select few?
What’s your key message?
- What’s the one thing a visitor should know after visiting your stand at the trade show?
- Do you have a specific campaign theme?
- Do you have any marketing activity or advertising coinciding with the show you can use to raise awareness of your presence at the exhibition?
- How will you communicate your message before, during and after the show?
- How will you get your message to the right people?
On stand activity
- What’s the desired visitor experience on stand look like?
- Prioritise stand activities. E.g. lead taking, hospitality and demonstrations.
- Are there any specific considerations to facilitate your on-stand activities?
Insider tips and tricks
- Consider demonstrations and presentations as they create movement, and movement attracts visitors.
- Use chairs for visitors only; if your stand staff start getting too comfortable, they’ll have a tough time getting up to speak to prospects.
- Use height – most organisers will allow you to build to 4m high. Some will allow you to go to 6m and/or to suspend overhead signage.
Choosing the right design and build stand contractor
- What is the history and reputation of the supplier? Stand design for exhibitions is a specialised field and should be undertaken by a professional organisation with experience in this field.
- Do they offer the type of product, design service, field service and product guarantee required to create your ideal exhibit stand?
- Are you attending more than one show? Can the contractor deliver value and flexibility for these future shows?
And finally...
- Remember – your goal is to deliver on your objectives via a clear message to the show’s visitors. It’s the role of an agency or contractor to design a stand suitable for this purpose. You can judge their work by asking: ‘Would I stop to visit this stand?’
Start your planning today by downloading our guide to creating a great exhibition brief.