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Trade show exhibits are not all created equal. Ranging in size from tabletops to islands, exhibits have a different effect on attendees, and require different design approaches to maximize their impact.
Tabletop Exhibits
Tabletop exhibits are usually used at shows that limit the booth size to that minimum standard. However, you can still use a tabletop with great effect, because the entire surface area of your display is close to eye level, and is thus easily seen at a glance. A tabletop exhibit is basically a two-dimensional object, like a miniature billboard, so you'll have greater results with a single, large image than with many small photos arranged like a bulletin board.
Ten-Foot Backwall Exhibits
More than half of all trade show exhibits booths are ten-foot backwall exhibits. Ten feet provides enough space for a company to display its message and host attendees. Backwall displays are still primarily a two-dimensional medium, so take full advantage of your limited space by covering it with attention-getting graphics. Curved wall pop-up displays work well for these spaces, as their surfaces always face the attendee, surrounding them with your graphic message. Curved displays even focus sound to the center of the booth, so it makes it easier to be heard within a busy show hall. Again, remember to make your display more like a billboard and less like a bulletin board.
Also, avoid the temptation of putting a big table in front of your backwall exhibit. Although that gives you a place to put your literature, it also creates a barrier between you and your prospects. It's better to have your booth staffers standing on that valuable real estate right next to the aisle, ready to greet and meet with your future customers. A smaller table is a great place to put an extra graphic that's close to the aisle, and still display your product samples, literature, and more. If it's a thoughtfully designed exhibit, you can store your cases inside the table.
Twenty-Foot and Larger Backwall Exhibits
Once you graduate to twenty feet of booth space, you enter into a different trade show arena. With twenty feet you have new design possibilities. You can create small work areas within your exhibit for demonstrating product, making presentations, or meeting with clients at around a small table. Twenty feet means you have twice the time to catch an attendee's eye as they walk past your booth. You can use part of your exhibit for a high impact graphic, and still show smaller detail graphics or display products on the other half.
And twenty-foot booth spaces offer greater three-dimensional design possibilities. Now it's legal to have a bridge coming off your backwall to the middle of the front of your booth. A bridge puts your name or message at a perpendicular angle to the aisle. Why is that important? Because now prospects can see your name from a greater distance as they walk towards your booth. That gives you even more time to get noticed. Plus, you can also put a tower, perhaps 10' or 12' tall, in the middle of your backwall exhibit, for greater attention-getting impact. Backwall booths beyond 20' let you combine several of the design possibilities of a twenty-foot backwall. However, most exhibitors who grow to a 10' by 40' exhibit choose a 20' by 20' island exhibit instead.
Twenty-Foot by Twenty-Foot Island Exhibits And Larger
If backwall displays tend to be a two-dimensional medium, then island displays are true three-dimensional marketing powerhouses. Within an island booth, you have the opportunity to create a work environment for your booth staffers and attendees that accelerates communication and opportunity. You can have separate areas for demonstrating product, writing leads, meeting in private conference rooms, presenting to groups, and even storing staffers effects and promotional giveaways. You can create graphic messages that are seen from every side on towers, bridges, and even hanging signs. And all this can be combined into a single, impressive exhibit that communicates that you're someone worth doing business with.
There is one other major advantage of an island exhibit: More aisle space. A 20-foot by 20-foot island exhibit has 80 feet of aisle space, twice as much a 10-foot by 40-foot space with the same square footage. Double the aisle space means double the chance to stop and engage passing attendees. Even a 20-foot by 20-foot peninsula space, which has aisles on three sides, offers 60 feet of aisle space.
With even larger island exhibits, you can create larger environments for conference rooms, theater-seating presentations, product demonstrations, and multiple workstations for booth staffers, with computer monitors and lead processing machines. And according to research, the bigger your exhibit, the higher its memorability. So at trade show, bigger is often better.
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