#show exhibit

Booths are more than a mere address or token of participation in a trade exhibition and have voluminous reasons and results in their operations. While they let your competitors know that you are in the battle, it lets your customer know that you are no less to your rivals. Given their benefits such as brand awareness, lead generation, networking and returns on investment, let us check out a less than dozen ways to improvise booths and optimize results.

Define Your Objectives

What do you expect to attain from the exhibition show participation? It may be generating leads, demonstrating and launching products or fortifying brand recognition. If it is for generating leads, focus on call to action elements. Encourage visitors to enroll for newsletters, participate in giveaways and quiz contests that demand contact information.

For product launches, make your product the centre-piece with larger than life images accompanied by videos that tells how the product makes a valuable impact in the buyer’s lives. In case you wanted your brand to be recognised, align the booth colours with the brand's logo, fonts, colours and design. Add brand taglines and mission statements.

Create An Attractive Layout

To ensure that the booth layout is inviting and feasible to enter, avoid tall walls that act as a barrier. Use curved shapes instead of rectangular ones in exhibition booths so that they invoke interest. If possible incorporate double decker design so that you optimize the space and get more space for meetings and product demos.

While you ensure that furniture could be rearranged, avoid dead end areas. Minimalistic booth designs add sophistication so that the entire space is appealing and modern. Always remember that the attractive booth design should align with brand identity and values.

Focus On Branding

Blend branding in the booth design at trade show exhibitions by including the brand’s style in the booth elements. By doing so, the booth imparts familiarization among attendees and draws more attention. Use brand colours in signages and furniture and place taglines and messages in key areas.

Besides insisting staff to dress in brand colours, include the brand's values and achievements in the story telling. While adding brand logo and message in promotional giveaways, encourage attendees to share their experiences with your brand.

Display Relevant Visuals

Make sure that high quality images, videos and graphics are part of the display, which have the capacity to draw visitors even from far places of the trade show. The visuals must carry ‘Call to Action’ elements and prompt engagement with the audience at trade fairs and exhibitions. Such consistent visuals fortify brand recognition and leave a lasting impression among the visitors.

Use high resolution images instead of pixelated ones and larger format displays like video walls since they provide an immersive experience. Animations and slide shows hold the attention of the visitors and make the booth stand apart from the crowd.

Add Interactive Elements

Employ touch screens and virtual reality demos and gaming elements that enhance an interactive experience which in turn engages a larger number of audiences. Such interactive elements differentiate your booths at industry trade shows from other static ones.

Ensure that the entire mood is relaxing so that interactions flourish. Be aware that the staff should be interactive enough to answer questions and foster connections with potential leads. Never take these interactive elements lightly because they strongly spell business.

Display Products And Services

Emphasize on product display in the booth design, which is an important factor in lead generation. Focus on key benefits of your product and avoid overcrowding of product information which might confuse or avert visitors.

Keep the booth organized and display products above eye-level which would draw more attention and interest at trade shows and exhibitions. The visuals must impart the features of the products, specifications, price and other important advantages. Use flexible shelves which can stage products of different sizes and shapes.

Seating Areas To Relax

Add charging stations in the lounges and place live plants or artificial ones so that the place is relaxing enough. The seating facilities should be comfortable enough to elaborate conversations with potential customers. They encourage attendees to take a break and spend more time in your booth.

Make sure that this space which has different seating provisions like sofas, chairs, stools and benches looks spacious instead of being crowded. The product demos should be visible from the seating areas. Add storage compartments so that this unit of the booth at the industry shows sound more functional.

Technology Works

Include touchscreens, tablets, VR and AR experiences to make your booth give an immersive experience and stay in trend with technological updates. Such technological elements at trade shows and expos foster engagement with attendees and give immersive experiences of your products and services.

Video walls which tell brand stories and product demos, social media walls which give live updates of the event, digital contests and live streaming in social media are smart use of technology in booth design. Also mobile apps which connect visitors with product marketing, virtual conferences and beacon technology which generates location based notifications are other important technologies incorporated in booth designs.

The Power Of Lighting

Lighting creates a remarkable change in a trade show booth design and can draw a good deal of attention to your products and services that are displayed here. Employ strategic lighting or some colour changing lights that enhance prominent areas of your booth and your product displays at exhibition trade shows.

Use LED lighting which not only saves power bills but also illuminates graphics, displays and signages pertaining to logo and key products. Use warm lighting for a relaxed effect and bright lighting for an energetic feel. While avoiding glare, check out if you could control lighting and adjust them at different times of the day.

Impact Of Well-Trained Staff

Train your staff to be brand ambassadors who enthusiastically elaborate on the brand’s history and what it proposes to offer. Since the booth design is obsolete without the staff’s interaction, ensure that they are friendly and approachable.

Recruit only staff who are wholeheartedly interested in the job, since they represent your company and its energy. Station a dedicated staff at the lead collection area so that they assist attendees to easily provide contact details.

Winding Up

Diversity and inclusion are more than being mere noble gestures since they enhance convention centres or any communities for that matter by gaining a balance in the voices. When diversity is exhibited in convention centres, guests identify themselves with the hosts and feel more welcome to attend the event. Thereby the services of the host resonate with the needs of the guests and facilitate leads and conversions more rapidly than ever. The discussion about the methods in which the convention centre supports diversity and inclusion should be useful to those aiming such ventures.

Accessibility

While moving towards providing the next gen experience, convention centres in India focus on improving accessibility for the differently abled. The infrastructure has ramps, elevators and restrooms that support the needs of the physically challenged.

Besides this, they also provide wheelchairs and wheelchair friendly entrances, assistive listening devices, sign language interpretation, captioning and providing subtitles for hearing impaired attendees, braille print material for the visually impaired. Some convention centres allow visitors to bring inside assistance animals.

Gender Diversity

Convention centres in our country are on par with the social trends where women are acknowledged for their achievements. The practice of noticing gender at official places is diminishing at a rapid pace. Speaking about Kerala and its prominence in MICE tourism, one could observe that any Calicut convention centre boasts of events in an equitable environment.

Starting from speakers and panelists in diverse genders, the policy goes on with provisions like gender inclusive pronouns in event’s communication materials, topics that concern all genders and hosting women empowerment events.

Inclusive Programming

The best convention centres in India ensure inclusive programming so that events appeal to all genders and their requirements. Strict anti-harassment policies are implemented so that none of the events hosted would hurt any gender.

Convention centres host workshops for event organizers and their staff which support gender diversity and inclusion. They also conduct sessions which hail the leadership qualities of women and elaborate on their achievements. Women’s lounges and hygiene products for women in their restrooms are other pro-woman provisions in the convention centres.

Inclusivity In Staffing

The trade centres have adequate gender representation in their staff and encourage inclusion in their work environment. They also have employees from different backgrounds and ethnicity who have a host of experiences to their credit.

A convention centre in Calicut for instance practices diversity and inclusion while hiring staff so that employees feel respected and valued. Flexible work arrangements like remote-work and part time working are also provided in this regard.

Cultural Sensitivity

The staff are also trained through sensitization programs to be aware of cultural sensitivity throughout their job routine and respect traditions and beliefs among colleagues and with guests. The exhibition halls also recruit races and those with disabilities who are all protected by law.

While affirmative action programs are held to hire from underrepresented groups, trade centres insist on unbiased recruitment procedures. Besides offering mentorship programs for such groups, feedback is also solicited from them to identify scope for their improvement and to establish better inclusivity and diversity.

Language Support

Inclusive language in all communication at the workplace ensures employees with a sense of belonging and abstinence of bias of any sort. Thereby language barriers do not hinder participation or comprehension of the event proceeding in the exhibition halls.

Dispatching multi-lingual event materials and simultaneous interpretation services, providing translation services and including multi-lingual staff support the convention centre’s inclusion parameters. Multilingual signages and directions, language specific information desks, translation apps, language centric sessions, multilingual social media engagements and translation of live captioning are other measures that support diversity in this regard.

Family Friendly Facilities

These days, the exhibition centre which conducts convention meetings has provisions to keep children engaged while attendees participate in events. There are designated services for both parents and children who accompany guests to the trade events.

Besides play areas equipped with toys and other play materials, convention centres have nursing rooms and family restrooms. They also provide family lounges where the accompanying family members can unwind and refresh themselves.

Anti-Harassment Policies

The anti-harassment policies ensure that all stakeholders of a convention centre including the staff and guests feel safe and respected within the premises. Apart from a zero tolerance approach, convention centres offer multiple channels like emails, hotline and in person provisions to register such complaints.

The convention centre events, on receiving such complaints, protect the privacy of those involved in such controversies and conduct an unbiased and neutral investigation. The offenders are punished with warnings, banned from the event centre and subjected to legal action according to the intensity of the offence.The staff are trained to prevent and handle such harassments through regular training programs in this regard.

Conclusion

The role of convention center in the successful execution of events is indisputably and unanimously agreed upon and correlated to the quality of the canvas that should influence an artwork. Besides making a significant contribution to the economy of its destination location, convention centres evolve from the competition with improvised facilities, attributes and enhanced services to give a wholesome and result-oriented experience to events.

Marketing and business are the keywords around which events revolve. That being said, the convention centre reduces the labour of the event manager and increases the success quotient of the mission by its compatibility with the purpose. What follows is a brief discussion of a few crucial elements that should be identified while probing a convention centre’s eligibility.

The Staff

An attentive and accommodating support staff is the best attest to a convention centre without whom any technical know-how of the venue is incomplete. The ideal support staff is calm throughout any volume of activities and efficient in troubleshooting the worst situations. The venue staff helps the event manager with the latter’s plans and besides giving suggestions, believes in ‘room for improvement’ throughout event management.

 Packages

Check out the packages that a convention centre offers and their contents. Besides chairs and technical assistance, some convention centres offer in-house catering and other essential equipment which the event manager must otherwise outsource. An attractive package may save money for the host.

 Catering Services

Catering at a convention centre is not just another part of the venue, but an important one. It is here that every visitor recharges and rewards themselves after demanding work hours. The catering division must be capable of delivering any cuisine in a tasty and healthy format. They must also accommodate special health requirements and ethnic types like Jain food for instance.

Accommodation Capacity

The venue must not only accommodate the expected number of visitors but also be flexible enough to adapt to different types of layouts. It should also be calm and detached from external noise. The parking facility at Calicut Trade Centre for instance has 1000 plus dedicated parking slots, while its main hall is sufficient for 8000 people.

Any drawbacks such as crowded halls with poor ventilation and noisy surroundings might turn out to be irreparable mistakes.  Breakout space that allows visitors to relax and rejoin events turns out to be an interesting attribute of an ideal venue.

 Infrastructure Amenities

The convention centre must have a gated complex that controls the entry and exit of visitors and information booths to guide people. Stationery shops, first aid with doctor-on-call arrangements, a security office, fire safety provisions, locker facilities and well-maintained and hygienic restrooms are the must-haves of an ideal convention centre.

 Budget

After choosing a venue based on its location, one must streamline the search based on the funds allocated for the venue. If the event venue is available at less rates during off-peak season, the event manager can consider those dates.

The venue expenses may be fixed or variable in nature. The rental fee which includes the space, amenities, insurance coverage, parking and Wi-Fi is not disturbed by the number of attendees and hence is deemed a fixed expense. However, hiring utilities like tables and chairs are variable expenses that are based on the number of attendees. The budget for the venue is ideally 20 percent of the total expenses.

 Accessibility

The convention centre must be located in a prominent city which is easily accessible by airports or other transport modes. The site should also be easily reached from good hotels where delegates can stay.

The invite by itself should encourage visitors to inquire organizers about the nearest airport, railway station, hotels or any other amenities that delegates would like to use. Speaking about accessibility, the venue should be amicable to the physically challenged even in visual, hearing and mobility terms.

 Technology Upgrades To Look For

Bandwidth capacity for wifi in event space, distributed antenna system for wider coverage of networks, VR booths in convention centres, smart building systems to control gadgets, digital signage, 4K ultra high definition LED screens and virtual venue tour app. The hall must possess sound-dampening provisions along with insulated sound-absorbing acoustic panels so that audio clarity is assured.

 Bandwidth Capacity

After the advent of the pandemic, hybrid events are getting popular by the day which demands the need for elevated streaming capacities and bandwidth. The event manager must inevitably check in person about the audio and video quality of presentations and discussions. In simple words, the event venue must possess high-speed internet with a 1:1 contention ratio.

 Lighting

The event venue should have lighting systems that match the mood and purpose of the events besides being compatible with the designs and decorations. The lighting should be distributed for the stage and the audience or ambiance. The stage lighting must possess programmable effects for events such as those pertaining to music shows.

Final Points

Events and exhibitions promote not only large businesses but also enable MSMEs and startups to gain clientele overseas. Events are known for displaying innovation and as a medium to test market response to experiments. Reportedly, the Indian event industry is valued at USD 3,674.95 million as of 2022 and is expected to grow massively in the decades to come.

Causes For Mistakes

However, brands may suffer failures during trade event, owing to defects or carelessness in design, marketing and financial planning. While cluttered space, unfocused content and missing to make an effective first impression are design-based flaws, lack of staff dedication on the event floor are marketing flaws.

The absence of follow-up and lead generation is a poor marketing mistake that makes the entire project and the money invested in it a sheer waste. The inability to track costs well in advance and the shabby planning of logistics make the entire project go haywire.

Checklist Entities Of A Successful Event

Before browsing the following script that draws a checklist for an event’s success, the event organizer must understand the impact of events on visitors and the ability to churn leads out of them. A well-designed event in a convention and trade centre makes customers recognize brands and strongly convince them to approach the solutions that the booth offers, discover the functionality of the brand and associate themselves as an ambassador of the brand.

 Promotion

Promoting trade events enhances brand awareness and helps in reaching the target audience. It serves as an opportunity to build relationships with new leads as well as establish further ties with existing ones.

The first step to promoting events is to promote its goals. Following this, using channels such as blogs, podcasts, emails and promotional videos of previous events are effectively leveraged to accentuate the publicity quotient.

 Event Date

The choice of dates has an important say on any event’s success. The weather and season decide the availability of hotels and resorts, according to which rooms should be booked in advance. If the exhibition centre events fall on summer vacation when people would love to holiday, attendance would be poor. Also, trouble-free transportation depends on feasible weather.

 Venue Selection

Choosing a venue depends on its location, accessibility and ability to accommodate the number of participants. Besides fitting in the estimated budget, a site visit of the convention and exhibition centre should confirm a venue’s eligibility. The venue’s adaptability to logistics, and venue provisions like staffing, security, basic amenities and tech compatibility are other important points to be confirmed.

 Exhibition Stall Ideas

A perfectly built exhibition stall is more comprehensive in narrating the product story, thereby reducing the burden on the sales staff. It has a greater capacity to generate more business and position brands amidst competition in exhibition centre events.

Graphics with good print quality by using dye-sublimation technology adds quality to appearance. Provisions like games, AV presentations and giveaway gifts prompt visitors to pause for a while, thus giving opportunities to interact with them.

 Recruiting The Right Staff

An enthusiastic staff is a must, without whom any state-of-art stall lacks motive. Staff must be well-trained about business objectives and must be educated on how to handle emergencies. They must be trained to approach customers without being aggressive and to identify a potential customer and focus on them to enable conversions.

Timeline For Preparations

A well-planned timeline is a perfect way to realize a trade event plan and generate successful outcomes. Tasks are aligned based on relevance and priority and fulfilled one by one, with provisions for obstacles and troubleshooting the same.

Once the event date is finalized, the team members are recruited, following which the venue, budget, sponsors, guests and speakers are decided. The public relations and logistics are executed on the appropriate time intervals from the event date, never early, never late.

Contingency Plan

However best one might plan activities, it is only safe and diligent to be prepared for the worst and events are no exception to this mindset. According to an able contingency plan, every team member is educated and trained to handle problematic situations like the uninformed absence of speakers, hostile weather, huge queues, wifi failure and medical emergencies among team members. Plan B sets the operations back on track.

 Effective Communication

Effective and clear communication fortifies the team and its performance and especially enables better responses during unexpected situations. An event manager gains better visibility on team activities while communicating with the entire team in a single platform. Sharing information regarding the team’s roles and responsibilities makes the entire team execute the tasks designated to them, effortlessly and fetches desired results.

 Engagement Strategy On Event Floors

Engaging with visitors is the most important part of event activities in convention centres in Kerala, which decides the success of the conversion funnel. With only a few seconds' notice to visit a stall or ignore and pass by, the staff should tactfully weave a conversation with visitors who decide to pause by the stall.

Besides equipping the stall with refreshments, games and giveaways to attract the visitor, the stall must be equipped with LED screens that narrate the product stories and solutions that it offers.

 Following Up With Attendees

The staff must find a way to access the visitor’s contact details to follow up later. Handing promotion materials to the visitors eases follow-up processes. Sending emails post-event and collecting surveys enable the event manager to prepare for the next event. The post-event survey should be based on the goal and carry only necessary questions. Such information could be collected through event apps or through social media.

Winding Up 

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Determining how other self will collect lead information and the materials you will characteristic in your follow-up activities needs to occur during your tradeshow exhibit layout process.<\p>

Include kooky information and literature for your marketing before, during and after the event. For example, rather than sending the same detail promotional brochure that you mailed ahead of time in passage to registrants fleur-de-lis had available in your exhibit stall, plan ahead to send a present-time piece with additional information and selling points that appeal to the needs of your prospects. <\p>

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The style and form of follow-up in which you engage needs must be unconfuted by the sales potential of the lead. In anticipation of the event, i should develop a "scoring" system in favor of leads generated ex your tradeshow exhibit booth and slice prospects against different types of follow-up based whereat potential headed for buy. <\p>

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Nevertheless making follow-up information, fill in a extra edition pour encircled offer en route to encourage your prospects to take action. This may include distinguished pricing or value-added offers that are meaningful to helping prospective customers be in existence certain defeating. <\p>