An excellent way of getting in touch with potential customers and industry leaders is showcasing your product in trade fairs. The growing demand for exhibition venues saw North America increase its exhibition space by 23.6 percent between 2011 and 2017.
Technology trade shows have revolutionized the way entrepreneurs display their brands and interact with the audience.
Setting up a trade show booth is not as hard as getting the desired audience. Exhibitions attract a broad scope of businesses including competitors other spaces.
To succeed in technology trade shows, you must devise strategies to stand out from the crowd. If you can’t get noticed, your investment and effort will go to waste.
Here are nine trends you can incorporate in your trade show booth to add glamour and attract visitors.
1. Video Walls
Do you want something eye-catching? No one goes past a video wall without noticing it.
Ask one of the fastest growing exhibition booth builders to recommend a video wall with multiple panels for you. Various sections should allow you to display different images concurrently.
Video walls are famous in technology trade shows due to their expansive sizes. They attract the audience from far. They also allow for a wide range of content options.
Apart from displaying your products, you can feature the attendants via social media feeds and reach more people.
2. Game Shows
People like rewards and feeling appreciated. Including games in your trade show booth is a great way to keep the attendants engaged and excited.
Some organizations have successfully promoted their services through contests and digital games.
Virtual prize wheels, for instance, are well-known in technology trade shows since they appear legit and transparent. The players and onlookers can understand the rules of the game and view the results instantly.
When winners get their prizes, more people feel the urge to play. As the word spreads, your booth becomes an attraction to a significant portion of the attendants of the exhibition.
Another method of promoting your booth is running a contest before the fair, say on Facebook. Â The participants get a ticket to play by completing tasks like marketing your event on social media or subscribing to your newsletter.
Your reward from gaming is capturing contact data of the players that you can use later to target them. Mobile games make it easy for players to upload photos and videos of your show to their social media pages. They provide you with a platform to promote your brand far beyond the confines of the trade show.
3. Product Demos
Products by most companies today include software and apps that you can demonstrate on digital screens. Instead of explaining what your product can do, run a guided demo to show the step by step functionality of your application.
Guided tours eliminate doubts and convince the viewers that an item is as advertised. They also help users to discover other features they never knew about your product.
Consider using large screens so that many people can walk with you as you demo for one individual. Be sure to understand the product thoroughly lest you get stuck when explaining some areas.
4. Giant Smartphone for Guests
Doing is more captivating than watching things happen. In this era of mobile devices, you can introduce the aspect of participation by having a giant smartphone for your visitors.
Prepare the right content for the users and display it on the gadget. The viewers should be able to interact with the interface the way they do with regular smartphones.
When guests use a giant smartphone, they control what they want to view. Â They can manipulate the device as they wish as they peruse your digital content.
The freedom to use giant tabs makes visitors feel relaxed. In many trade shows, it is not unusual to see people crowding around the device eager to use it.
The main advantage of giant smartphones is that people can naturally view the content without restriction. Since the vast population uses smartphones, controlling the device is a breeze for virtually anyone.
5. Live Knowledge Sharing
Holding discussions with the attendees is a great way of making the fair engaging. Most entrepreneurs concentrate on pitching. They give their all to market their brand, and the audience often feels passive.
Your booth can have a few chairs for the visitors. Regardless of the number of people who get seated, offer an informative mini-seminar, say 5 to 10 minutes per session.
A guest speaker can do the job if you are not an enthusiastic speaker. Use colorful presentations to elaborate your points.
Allow your guests to ask questions or to contribute with their views. The talk will become lively, and you will impart your selling points along the way.
In a few moments, curious individuals will gather around to find out what is going on. As every batch exits the booth, have another run of the talk. Keep it short to avoid tiring the audience.
A brilliant approach to captivating your audience is reaching out to the potential attendants in advance via social media. Use polls and ask them to give their opinions about your product.
Information gathered in such a way is useful in preparing a talk for technology trade shows. It enables you to address the customer’s subject of interest expressly.
6. Make the Best Out of Technology
Virtual reality and augmented reality can provide the audience with an unparalleled experience in a trade show booth. Â Attendees wearing VR goggles will trigger curiosity amongst passersby.
Interactive monitors and kiosks stationed around your booth can give users a tactile, self-guided overview of your product. When implementing technology in your trade show, select the elements to integrate thoughtfully.
Do not bombard your audience with sophisticated technologies that hinder their interaction with your brand. Similarly, avoid being too simplistic, like offering generic stock images on CRT monitors.
You can extend interactive technology beyond your trade show booth. With push notification, you can send phone messages to the attendees of the exhibition welcoming them to various events.
For instance, you can invite them to a contest in which the winner will pocket a coupon. Virtual reality interactivity brings unlimited possibilities in technology trade shows.
7. Introduce Fun with Scavenger Hunt
Technology trade shows have to be fun if audiences are to invest considerable time interacting with your brand. Enjoyment is not necessarily gaming. It can be exciting activities that keep visitors engaged and entertained.
The scavenger hunt is one such activity. It involves visitors searching for hidden prizes in the show. The event organizer gives hints to the attendees that guide them in their search. It’s an ideal way for winning the attention of visitors and drawing them to your booth.
It’s possible to run the scavenger hunt digitally. You can use an application that allows the participants to search and scan QR codes placed at strategic points around the venue.
Raffles are perfect in collecting contact information of the attendees. You entice people to take part by offering a range of prizes.
Photo booths are also attractions for visitors. People can take photographs and share them with friends on social media.
8. Entertain with a Purpose
Entertainment is a useful tool for alluring guests. You can have games, raffles, live performances, and so on. All these help to draw crowds.
However, do not engage yourself so much in such activities that you forget the purpose of the trade show. Exhibitions can be expensive, and as a business person, you expect some returns.
All activities should revolve around your brand. The presentations must reflect the image of your company, and they should endeavor to promote your product.
Be selective when inviting people to run fun activities. Get professionals who understand the purpose of the show. Whatever events you run should portray a positive image of your brand.
9. Bright Signage
In a trade fair full of exhibitors, everyone competes for attention. People lose concentration or get distracted immediately something flashier appears.
Your trade show booth must be identifiable from far. The viewer should be able to tell what the show is about at a glance. Attractive signage is a must have to entice attendees to come over.
Unlike traditional trade fairs where exhibitors relied on printed signage, technology trade shows use flashy digital signage. Mammoth video walls and LCD monitors are productive investments for drawing visitors.
LED strip lights with multiple colors also help to catch the eye from a distance. Â The site of the signage monitors and lights should be strategic to allow attendees to view them from any point of the exhibition hall.
Technology Trade Shows – Final Thoughts
Trade fairs have changed over time, but the idea remains to attract potential customers and partners. When managed effectively, the events help businesses to create awareness during and after the show.
Conducting a technology trade show can be costly for small businesses and startups. Entrepreneurs must employ clever tactics to draw foot traffic and convert the audience.
You can use the insights highlighted in this article tun your next trade show. Regardless of your strategy, be bold to stay ahead of other exhibitors. Have informative and exciting information for an industrious interaction with your audience.
Do you plan to exhibit in future technology trade shows? Contact us now for more advice or browse our business section for more informative posts.