Building Your Perfect Tradeshow Booth

Alberta has lifted most of its public health restrictions and we’re back on the path of  reopening.   I’m looking forward to the opportunity to get out in the world and  meet more people   face to face.

A number of our clients are planning to participate in upcoming  trade shows.  We’ve been chatting a lot lately about trade-show displays.  In this month's blog, I thought I’d share a little of what I’ve learned about choosing the right trade show booth.

Display booths can range in pricing, depending on construction, size and features.  Top of the line 10ft booth can be ~$10k — it’ll have all the bells and whistles, illuminated panels, literature racks, monitor mounts, crazy fun custom design with a unique architectural look.  It may be much taller than other booths with a strong structure that a crew with tools would set up for you.  These are the big booths.  

But you don’t need to spend that much —my favourite solution is a pop up booth that runs about $3k.  It’s a portable trade show display,   engineered to be easy to set up and easy to transport. 

if you are in the market for a booth, it’s a great idea to start with your budgeted spend.  That’ll help narrow down the options for you. Then, you are going to want to think about these additional few elements to guide your purchase:

Size

One thing you should consider is the available space at the event. That’ll inform your booth size.  Common sizes include 10’x10’, 10’x20’ and 10’x30’. Most booths we sell have been 10ft booths.

Installation Ease

The mode of installation of the trade show booth you plan to buy or rent is an essential consideration. More complex modular booths require tools and a team to set up.  The simpler portable booths can be set up with one or two people and usually will not require tools.  A typical set up time would be around thirty minutes.

Transportability

This really comes down to the  weight of your booth and the case you have to transport  it in.  The weight of your booth is a function of the material used to make it.   The most popular materials today are aluminum and plastics for the frame itself and fabric for the graphics, however polyester film and a variety of laminates are also used. Wood and steal is still used for large, double decker exhibits and other very large displays. 

For cases,  I like the lightweight  hard shell black cases that are on wheels. These are rotational moulded plastics — so they are very strong and will protect your booth during  shipping.   A very cool feature on some of these cases, is that you can slap on a branded panel and transform it into a pop up counter. 

Graphics 

Every booth is slightly different in terms of where you can place your branding.  You’ll want to look at the booth design to see where the recommended visual   areas are located and if these will fit with your intended branding messages.

There is a lot to think about when purchasing a trade show booth.  It’s an investment of your marketing dollars that you’ll want to use for many years.  I hope this article helps to give you some background context for your purchase decision.  Best advice I have is to start researching options so you can better understand the nuances.  Any good trade show consultant will  be able to walk you through some different  solutions to find the right one for you.

And, of course, at Image360 Calgary South we would be happy to help.   Give us a call or drop us an email anytime.