Ideas to help bring your exhibition stand to life

• Matthew Larcome (B2B Expos UK)
• Monday 6 July 2015

Bringing your stand to life at an exhibition can be tough, but essential if you are to succeed. A lifeless stand can quickly become dead space and visitors will not even notice it within the theatre around you.

Demonstrations and samples are a big draw at any type of exhibition. If you have an interesting product that you think visitors will be interested in, one of the best ways to have the wow factor on your stand is to demonstrate how it will improve the visitors' lives and businesses. People like to see products and when they do and they understand how it will help them, you may be able to sell some items there and then (or at least collect orders and add people to a waiting list).

Putting on an attraction will definitely give your stand the edge. Think about things you can hire to use on your stand to create a buzz. Previously, exhibitors at our events have hired a candyfloss machine or a popcorn machine. We've even had exhibitors with game consoles, racing car tracks and giant board games. Visitors love playing games and winning prizes - it helps make the event more fun for everyone involved and interactive attractions allows you to build relationships with delegates in an informal way.

Competitions are another great incentive to attract audiences to your stand. Whether you're giving away an experience day or a special hamper, make sure that you're shouting about your competition and that everyone walking by your stand knows that the competitions exists and how they can enter.

You can also bring your stand to life by introducing fancy dress. In the past we've had exhibitors that have dressed up as Sherlock Holmes and another exhibitor once came in an owl costume. Dressing up is an easy way to stand out and help create an energy within your space that other exhibitors will find hard to compete with. Visitors also love getting pictures with people that are dressed up at an exhibition and they'll often share the images on social media - so it's a really powerful and creative way to benefit from all the additional exposure that you may get.

When exhibiting remember your end goal and your objective for being at the event. Don't fall into the trap of organising an attraction that doesn't mean anything to your business or industry - it has to make sense. Be original, but not random. The best exhibition stands are the ones that breathe life into a booth by putting their message at the heart of everything they do.

www.memoevents.co.uk

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