Companies are ready to invest significant budgets to participate in exhibitions, as events can comprise a large concentration of a target audience. But how to make these investments as effective as possible?

The main task of a booth or a brand zone is to interact with a target audience, depending on the purpose of participation in an exhibition, to find partners, clients or potential employees. The marketing role of a booth is to be bright and original to attract as many visitors as possible. To solve this task effectively, the booth should be visually attractive, functional and interactive, as involvement and interactivity attract more people.  

In the past, exhibitors aspired to achieve functionality in their booths’ development, then the desire for design appeared. Now, the new wave in booth design is interactivity and digitality — one of the main trends in booth creation. It is the integration of innovative technological solutions (such as screens, kinetic elements, sensors and games) into booths and brand zones. 

Let’s take a closer look at innovative technologies that can be integrated into booth design.

LED Screens: The use of LED screens in the design of booths has become especially popular in recent years. LED screens can be very different — vertical, horizontal and curved. They can be suspended, on the floor and even move. Screens are moved with the help of winches (special motors), which pull a lot of weight. Functionally, screens can be used to broadcast customer content such as video or pictures. Also, you can integrate games into the screen by adding sensors that allow participants to interact with the screen. These are motion sensors that are often used in game consoles like LiDAR and Kinekt. A screen equipped with sensors can be used when a person approaches the stand or moves, capturing the movements of hands, head and face. The movements of a person can be displayed on the screen, and thus the guest can participate in an interactive digital game.

Kinetics: An original innovative solution is the use of kinetics in booths. Kinetics is a technology that uses special motors (kinetic winches) to move objects suspended under the ceiling. Most often, these objects are illuminated. The kinetic objects can be of various shapes, such as balls, tubes, triangles, jellyfish and flowers. But this is just the beginning — new ways of using kinetics await us. Probably, there will be a possibility to interact with kinetics. We can predict that screens will be used as kinetic elements. 

Robo-hands: You will surely surprise and delight your guests if you use a robo-hand in your booth. A robo-hand is a unique technological solution. You can interact with it, it is safe, and it is equipped with a large number of sensors and cameras that prevent any dangerous movements. A robo-hand can make cocktails and pour drinks, and you can play interactive games with it, program it and control it. Today there are two kinds of robo-hands used in booths: mono robo-hand and two-armed robot (ABB YuMi).  

Lasers: An interesting technical solution may be to use a laser to make your booth or brand zone more impressive. In brand zones, lasers can be used to outline elements of the booth and accentuate them. You can also outline the image on the screen.

Holograms: This is a technology that allows you to create a 3D image of an object, creating the impression that the object is flying in the air. Most often holograms may be created from logos or individual brand elements. 

Interacting With Participants Near the Booth 

When you have successfully attracted participants with a bright design of the booth, you can either communicate with them and collect contacts, or offer to take part in the interaction that is built into the booth.

In order to make the work of promotional staff near the booth effective, the BTL mechanics must be thought through. A few options for how you can interact with the participants who are near the booth include: 

• Raffles (after the participant has provided his or her contact info)
• Masterclasses
• Games for attention and reaction speed
• Exchange of old things for new things (for example, old cosmetics for new ones)
• Talent competitions

Merchandise and prizes are also important elements of participation in exhibitions. If the merch is of high quality, participants are more than willing to share photos of the merch on their social networks. 

Brand zones with a photo zone and the ability to print photos immediately or send them to social networks are also very popular.

An important feature of interactives near trade show booths is that they are quick and clear since the traffic around booths can be quite large, and it is important to interact with as many participants as possible.

To summarize, when you plan to participate in an exhibition, it is important not only to develop a bright, attractive booth design but to also think carefully about the mechanics of how you’ll be interacting with the attendees. This way, your trade show participation will be as effective as possible.

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