In the previous article on trade show display ideas where I gave lots of suggestions for attracting visitors to your stand, I stressed the importance of making all activities fun in order to alleviate the boredom of visitors and to make your stand attractive. This same principle applies to “off the stand‟ activities and you will find that your Exhibition Organiser will be very pleased to assist and advise and even enhance your own ideas.
Take for example, a wine importer – possibly importing from little known wine producing countries who wishes to get the point across that his products are eminently drinkable. Trade show display ideas for off the stand activities that could help him promote his company could include off the stand seminars, comparing these products with their conventional bedfellows from other wine producing countries by means of wine tastings and by demonstrating the use of these wines in rather more unusual settings. Some red wines are ideally suited with puddings, a fact which not a lot of people know. A pudding manufacturer may well be interested in paying half the cost of a “wine and pudding tasting‟ and using this as an advertising feature for themselves too.
Seminars themselves are an extremely good way of introducing brand awareness – linking your brand as a household name to that activity. For example, the manufacturer of cleaning materials for hotel bedrooms might well consider holding a seminar for Housekeepers on the subject of “Total Cleanliness‟ in relation to time and expenditure (Hotel cleaning staff now only have fifteen minutes to clean and re-equip each bedroom so this subject is of paramount importance to Housekeepers, and perhaps more importantly, General Managers of Hotels).
Currently the “hot” themes are to do with green policies and products and low carbon footprints. There is also a strong ethical bias which is why “Fairtrade” products are so popular. If your products are in these categories, this will provide you with lots of trade show display ideas for seminars. If, however, you are not directly involved, there are many ways of introducing the subject. For example, showing how your company has changed its production process, to use longer lasting products, safe chemicals and recyclable packaging and lowing the carbon footprint.
One of the amazing creations from http://www.nimbacreations.com which would certainly create interest at a trade show!
Another form of off the stand activity is to dress up in a particular fun way, possibly taking literature with you as you walk round the Exhibition. Whilst this is one of the fun trade show ideas that will add sparkle to an event and for this reason is very unlikely to be turned down by the organisers, it must be stressed that all such activities must receive the blessing of the organisers in advance of the show.
Organisers themselves often produce fun activities which assist attraction to the stand. For example, I remember an Exhibition in the North of England where the Organisers employed a Jazz Band which went from stand to stand and where words were concocted on the spot to convey the message of the stand and its product range. This was one of those really brilliant trade show display ideas as not only was it superb entertainment, but it attracted a following which could not but help everyone to understand what each stand was about, and, which prompted later return visits.
Other off the stand activities have included radio controlled blimps which carry a message and fly around above the exhibits – but of course. there are numerous insurance implications with trade show display ideas of this type and the organisers will need some sort of guarantees as to the competence of the operators before they will grant permission for such a spectacular off-the-stand event. Dalek like robots, also remote controlled from a distance, which go and literally talk to people and invite them onto a particular stand, men on stilts, clowns, look-alike characters (even Her Majesty the Queen, like this image from butterflytrixagency.co.uk), all act as a magnet to draw people onto a particular stand.
The answer is to be innovative, to have fun with your trade show display ideas and to gain the confidence and the endorsement of the organisers. After all, your efforts will add to their promotion efforts for the show as a whole and, as with the SAS, “He who dares, wins” – so if you don’t ask, you don’t get! Once again, I would like to acknowledge the contribution of Ken Wheeler to the compilation of this article.
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