Do you dream of creating a trade show experience that is the talk of the show? Or do you just want to do something trendy to stand out above your competition? Keeping current with trade show exhibiting trends this year will help set you far above your competitors.
2019 has proven to be the year of cool new tech in trade show displays. Trade show attendees are responding the best to minimalist designs that leverage the latest and greatest technology.
You’ll need much more than a pristine looking trade show booth staffed with dynamic and product-versed people to attract attendees. Today’s trade show attendees are interested in something they haven’t seen before. This is the primary reason people attend trade shows. They want to experience something they haven’t seen before. Whether that be interactive technology or personal experiences that make attendees want to buy into your business.
Attendees expect an experience that appeals to their senses on a physical, emotional, and intellectual level. We’ll guide you through the latest trends so you can create that spectacular trade show experience for your booth visitors.
Technology is the Front Runner of New Trends
Technology solution integration in trade shows has continued to grow and improve in 2019, presenting more opportunities to advance your trade show display experience. Interactive technology tends to increase booth traffic with its obvious appeal. People tend to be drawn to things they can touch or interact with, which will ultimately increase traffic to your booth.
Here are some of the biggest trade show tech trends of 2019:
- Lighting Effects
- Touch Screens
- Virtual/Alternate Reality
- Video Walls
- Charging Stations
Let’s dig into each one and how you can use them effectively.
Lighting Effects
Lighting effects can be a cost-effective way to add some cool tech to your booth. Start by using backlighting to your advantage. It’s super easy, and it draws the eyes of the attendees towards the primary focal points of your trade show, making it pop.
LED lights are another great way to bring lighting effects to your booth. Highly customizable, they come in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit into whatever environment you put them in. Use them as spotlights or to just simply light up your booth in your brand’s colors. Just make sure you don’t overuse LED lights, it’s easy to stuff your booth with them and have lighting elements clash in a way you didn’t intend!
Touch Screen Integration
People love to touch things. They especially love being able to touch, edit and interact with digital content on a screen. And, this is why you must have digital touch screen displays that attendees can interact with at your booth. Set up touch screen monitors and tablets at your booth to allow attendees to interact digitally with your product information.
If your budget allows, you could also consider setting up a giant touch screen for your booth visitors to interact with to learn more about your products/services or engage in gamification activities tied to your brand.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
V/R and A/R, you’ve heard those buzz terms, and you are seeing more and more people wanting to engage virtually. But did you also know that virtual and augmented reality experiences are the most popular tech trends right now among trade show exhibitors because of how easy they are to implement?
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are two types of technology that change the way we look at products and services.
Augmented Reality allows you to input computer-generated content into the real world through a smartphone or other tech. This can be huge for displaying your products and or services at trade shows.
Consider integrating touchscreens and headphones into your augmented reality experience providing your booth visitors with an interactive booth tour. Augmented Reality can bring your booth backdrop to life, allowing attendees to freely experience your brand at their own pace.
While augmented reality is in its infant state as of right now, it’s still ridiculously cool and is getting better in terms of offering a more realistic experience for users.
Virtual Reality brings a whole new world of exploration to your booth experience. A virtual reality environment is a great way to have attendees experience your products or services. Set up stations with VR headsets where attendees can visit a virtual room or world where they can interact with your brand and go through VR demos of your products and/or services.
VR is one of the most popular trends out there today in the world of tech. Integrating this trade show tech into your booth experience will make your trade show booth much more appealing, and will likely lead to you closing the sale more frequently.
Video Walls
That’s right, a wall of video. Typically made up of several video screens. The wall of video screens will display whatever theme and message you have crafted for your trade show experience through images and video.
Have one image or a display of images across your video wall. It’s a highly visible experience and a popular attendee attraction, which can, in turn, generate lots of leads.
Video walls can be pricey, so make sure you factor that into your trade show budget.
Charging Stations
Other than trade show giveaways, charging stations are a quick and easy way to get traffic to your booth. Everyone has a smartphone, and by the end of the day, those smartphones are going to be low on juice. You can easily draw attendees in for extended periods of time by simply catering to their smartphone charging needs.
Most if not all charging stations have multiple types of charging cables, so you shouldn’t have to worry about someone’s smartphone not being compatible with your station.
On top of being able to generate way more traffic and keep them there for way longer, you can brand your charging station too. Throw your logo and company name on the station’s base, or wherever you see fit. Every charging kiosk is different, and you can even have them custom designed. If you’ve decided a custom charging station is right for you, find someone who can build you a custom exhibit tailored to your specific needs.
Traditional Trends
We’ve covered a lot of great leading-edge tech trends for trade shows, but let’s not forget about the more traditional trends that are simple to execute and easy on your show budget.
Booth Staff Improvements
People will always be necessary to convey your company’s message, and it is crucial to have the right people staffing your trade show experience. Try to get booth staff not only from your sales team but also parts of your company that might have a good story to share with attendees.
Remind your booth staff that human interaction with attendees is important. Digital experiences often cloud our day to day interactions with human beings and people are underwhelmed with non-human interactions in business, and are starting to prefer human interaction again, drawing more people into the trade show world.
Employing Your Company’s Campaign Theme
Your team has created and executed an awesome marketing strategy for your next trade show. Now you’ll need to integrate it into your booth strategy. Display your marketing materials throughout your booth, making it easily accessible to attendees while ensuring your brand strategy is implemented throughout your entire space.
There are unlimited possibilities for implementing your campaign theme within your booth space. Try placing and scattering collateral and items like brochures, logo branded giveaways, and VR stations throughout your booth. Having that consistent message throughout your experience will improve attendee attentiveness, and that’s what you’re going for.
If you’re unsure about how you want to display your company’s brand across your booth, reach out to a professional in crafting anything from portable displays to custom exhibit displays.
Displaying Your Niche Creatively
Give your attendees an experience that shows off your niche. Get creative with experiential marketing; it’s tremendously popular today. Imagine if a travel business displayed a virtual reality experience of a destination. The possibilities are truly endless, no matter what industry you belong to.
For example, imagine you’re an ingredient delivery company that gives food solutions to those who want to cook with ingredients delivered to their door. You should be setting up a booth with an active cooking demo in which attendees can participate, so they can see how well your service really works.
Whatever your business is, your goal should be to find creative ways to use your niche to engage attendees with your brand. Whatever your business does, put your products on the forefront and allow attendees to interact with them.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that there is some really cool tech out there to make your trade show display pop! Technology not only lets your display pop, now it can glow. We’ve covered some really cool stuff from video walls to VR/AR tech that will amaze your attendees, all of which can and will improve your trade show traffic and engagement.
Make sure you don’t forget about all of the more traditional aspects of running a trade show, those aren’t leaving any time soon. We know technology is the dominating trend in 2019, but when it comes down to it, people yearn for human interaction.
Implementing tech is becoming essential to anyone wanting to garner traffic to their booth. In the continually changing world of the trade show business, you’ve got to keep up with if not stay ahead of the times.
