Center of Attention

As for food and drink, Mealey says, it’s important to follow trade show rules and use mandated catering services. Within those boundaries, though, “get nice stuff,” he says. Spoiling clients lets them know how much you appreciate them.

A luxurious hospitality suite can also help you to sell an expensive product. “Bigger clients and more expensive products may mean more hospitality,” Mrozinski says. “With a cheap product, you may be able to get away with a piece of candy and a handshake.”

Form and Function

Increasing visibility often means going big. Bigger booths, as a rule, grab more attention than smaller ones. If your budget dictates a smaller booth, though, consider using large-format graphics to make it stand out. “Today’s technology, with dye-sublimated graphics, can make you a graphic that’s 100 miles long and 10 feet wide, all in one piece,” says Duane Griffith, director of business development for Skyline Displays Midwest, an exhibit manufacturer in Eagan. “The printing industry continues to improve in technology, resolution, and color, and costs maintain themselves or go down.”

Print those graphics on fabric and add a lightweight aluminum frame, and you have a booth that’s easy to put up and take down. “Maybe 20 years ago, things were built with heavy panels, but now things are done with more fabric, printed with images, and mounted on an aluminum frame,” Mrozinski says.

The combination looks modern and substantive, and it can be modular, allowing a company to have a larger booth at one show and a smaller presence at another. “Two years from now, you can re-skin your exhibit, because it’s just fabric you’re reprinting,” Mealey adds. A company could also create two sets of graphics for a booth’s exterior, for marketing to different audiences at different trade shows.

The fabric and aluminum pairing can also save companies money on shipping and assembly costs. “It’s very inexpensive to ship,” Foley says. When it reaches the exhibit hall, a fabric and aluminum booth is also cheaper to unpack, set up, take down, and repack. “A lot of people don’t understand the expense related to that—you might be paying in excess of $100 an hour,” Foley says. “Anything you can do to lighten the load will help.”

To save even more on shipping and other costs of ownership, some companies rent booths from exhibit venues or design firms. Renters aren’t responsible for storing, repairing, or shipping their booths, so they’re spared both the cost and the hassle of arranging those services.