While trade shows have always been about getting face to face with attendees, lately we have heard even more requests from our trade show exhibit clients for interactive ideas to further boost engagement.
Exhibitors want to attract and engage visitors in unique ways that set themselves apart from competitors, make their messages more memorable, and increase attendee dwell time.
Therefore, in this article we will share 12 interactive ideas we’ve either created or partnered with our clients to help them create something that gets attendees to stop and stay in their exhibit.
1. Touch Screen Kiosk App
Touch screen kiosk apps are very popular. Exhibitors want a smoother digital experience for their visitors, who only have to touch the screen to quickly and easily prompt the playing of a video or to view a pdf of a product brochure or to view a PowerPoint presentation. The touch screen is equally helpful for exhibit staffers navigating to specific sales tools to share. The app can be tied to lead management to instantly email requested pdfs to booth visitors.
This also saves on shipping brochures to the show and back. The touchscreen also avoids having to use a keyboard and mouse, which reduces clutter and is more inviting. In this example, ConMet uses the touch screen kiosk app to support key products.
2. Virtual Prize Wheel Draws a Crowd
A virtual prize wheel attracts visitors who want to win a prize. Exhibitors can decide what to give and how many of each gift to offer, and customize the wheel’s visuals to match their brand. Exhibitors can give away a big prize to get attention, branded prizes, or even a book they published, as Terryberry did. As you can see, the virtual prize wheel attracted a line of attendees for Terryberry at 2024 SHRM 2024.
Exhibit staffers can chat up visitors and have deeper conversations with the most qualified leads on the spot. Lead data, including who won what prize, is captured and can be exported into Excel.
3. Recreate Your Prospect’s Environment
A great way to demonstrate to your target audience that you serve and understand them is to recreate or situate your products in the environment in which they live or work. Here are three examples.
Alacrity Solutions wanted to make it perfectly clear that they serve the homeowner. So, their exhibit is shaped like a house, complete with a stone chimney, and even an interior designed to mimic a living room. This design builds credibility with potential clients, and enables better conversations faster.
Ennis Flint, the traffic solutions division of PPG, showed how they provide traffic marking paint in a fun, inventive manner. They recreate the highly recognizable painted double yellow lines that adorn many one-lane highways in their exhibit, crossing their booth flooring and extending up a 16-foot branded tower. This design signals to attendees what they do, plus creates an engaging visual to spark conversations.
To make it easier for buyers to envision how Hayward Pools‘ path lights appear in actual use, Holt placed their path lights in a vignette featuring landscaping rocks, plants, and pavers that simulate their intended location.
4. Educational Sessions in Your Exhibit
Many trade show attendees travel to a conference to boost their industry knowledge, see what’s new, and evaluate the abilities of potential vendors. Thus, giving educational presentations in your exhibit are a powerful way to entice visitors, boost credibility, and advance the buying cycle.
To reinforce their position as a technology leader, ConMet hosted “Tech Talks” in their NACV booth. Visitors saw informative presentations delivered by ConMet experts on their advanced technology and latest new products.
5. RFID Combines Tech and Real Objects to Boost Engagement to Digital Content
RFID combines tech and the physical world in a way that boosts interest and memorability. The Nucor RFID table features ten 3D models that represent steps in the circular economy of steel. The 3D models have an RFID chip embedded in their base. When attendees pick up and place models in the center spot, they trigger a matching video to play on the screen behind the big round table.
This higher level of interactivity creates a more memorable experience, and playfully invites visitors to view more content. To learn more, click here to see the video.
6. Oversized iPhone Emulator Touch Screen Demos Apps
To demonstrate how a smart phone app works, but make that demo visible to groups at trade shows, we can set up a vertical touch screen monitor to behave exactly like a smart phone. In a world where so many people spend so much of their time on their phones, this smart phone emulator is a huge attention-getter.
Hayward Pools demoed how their Pro app allows customers to control their pool lighting, temperature, filters, and more, even with Alexa voice controls, on a virtual 60-inch smart phone. It made the ease and unified offering obvious to see.
7. Demo Your App with Elements of Your Exhibit
Their presenter demoed in real time changing light color and brightness in their LED Water Bowl products, lights in exhibit seating, lights atop a tower, and path lights in simulated landscaping.
8. Moving Water
There’s a reason that fountains are popular: the sounds and visuals of moving water are naturally very attractive for people. But when your product is made to move water, it becomes a powerful demo, too.
For Hayward Pools, we made that possible for demoing their LED Resin Water Bowls with a never-ending cascade of water over the lip of their bowls, making their products seem that much more real to potential buyers.
9. Food and Drinks
In the midst of so many tech tools to boost engagement, don’t overlook the most basic, yet still effective: food and drinks. Attendees walking a huge trade show floor get hungry and thirsty. Serving them food and beverages draws in visitors, earns their gratitude, and spurs conversations.
At the Pool & Spa Expo, Hayward Pools livened up their 50’ x 80’ exhibit by offering extensive food and drinks, including hot, hand-held foods, cold beer, wine, and soft drinks.
10. Experiential Demonstration of Client Problems & Your Solutions
Sometimes to win your client’s attention, rather than go right to your product, it helps to visually make explicit a major problem your prospect may not yet realize they have.
To make an attention-getting demo that also proved their product’s durability, for Apex Tool Group we designed and built this tall tower from which they drop their tape measures to compellingly show how long-lasting they are.
11. Enlarge Your Small Products
No matter how good your product is, it’s easy to get lost in a huge trade show hall. To make the most of your trade show opportunity, consider enlarging it for your exhibit to make your small product more engaging for trade show crowds.
For example, at NACS, Veeder-Root featured an enlarged 3-D “working” version of their TLS-450 Automatic Tank Gauge display product, complete with a touchscreen monitor built in.
12. Booth Passport
To encourage NAEC show attendees to visit some of the multiple functional areas (registration, survey, product kiosks, bar, hospitality, seated meeting spaces) within their 50 by 80-foot exhibit, Vantage Elevation gave attendees a passport booklet. When attendees stopped at enough locations within the booth, they won a prize. This increased the amount of dwell time for attendees, aligning with Vantage’s goal of building stronger relationships with their clients.
Want To Add Interactivity to Your Trade Show Exhibit?
We hope these 12 ideas have inspired you to use creativity, experiential activities, design, and technology to boost engagement with prospects and customers in your trade show exhibit. We would love to help you brainstorm ideas for your company for your upcoming shows. Just contact us to get started.