Cutting-edge hospitality suites transform the attendee experience by synchronizing visual content, lighting and sound design.

Walk through any association convention and you will see an array of booths and interactive stations, all working to entice association attendees to stop and learn more about their product, service or organization. The most popular exhibitor spaces consistently attract the biggest masses of curious passersby by offering a truly exciting, engaging and memorable experience — but why is it important to incorporate innovative exhibitors into association conventions? And how can event planners do so successfully?

The Magic of ‘Hallway’ Talks

Katy King, CMP, is a dynamic leader in the events industry, with over a decade of experience transforming ideas into impactful experiences. As founder of Coact Experiences, she brings a fresh approach to meeting planning, blending strategic innovation with immersive design to deliver exceptional results for association clients.

“With the internet, attendees readily have access to all exhibitors at their fingertips,” King says. “No longer do attendees have to seek the connection out themselves. Both parties are constantly connected (and likely overextended). The power and the beauty of exhibitors at a convention is meeting face to face. The magic is all about the ‘hallway’ conversations — focusing on what body language and tone simply cannot do in the digital world.”

She further explains that attendees are looking for partnerships based on trust, value and efficiency. On the show floor, they want to be able to quickly digest the facts presented to them, identify how an exhibitor can contribute to their success and feel confident in the connection. Beyond that, from registration to the closing session, technology is running the entire show now, so today’s attendees expect a seamless overall experience from their desktop, laptop, phone and physical experience.

“Immersive, experience-driven activations are becoming the norm for the most strategic and successful in the exhibit hall,” King says. “Exhibitors only add to the event planner’s overall success. From ideation to execution, are you imagining how your program will intersect with both supplier and attendee to create a cohesive experience? The exhibit hall should be ‘sticky.’ By focusing on adding value, driving ROI and building an authentic brand, attendees will be naturally drawn in.”

Event strategist MK Granados is energized by the world of events and activations and is on a mission to support their evolution through collaboration, creativity and innovation. Within the event industry community, she has been featured on the Trade Show Insights podcast and by BizBash. She has also spoken at events including XLive, The Event Planner Expo, ToyFair and Advertising Week.

In her role as director of sponsorships at Informa Markets, Granados helps to empower brands to forge meaningful connections, tell compelling stories and create memories that captivate and inspire.

“Exciting exhibitors make you stop in your tracks and take notice. Using techniques such as curiosity, interactive technology or captivating storytelling, they’re able to make a quick, meaningful connection that opens the door to an attendee receiving a message that’s deeper than a tagline,” she says. “Their message is perfectly aligned to the event audience — not a generic message they apply to all tradeshows and events.”

Granados further points out that there’s a lot of noise at events. Elite exhibitors know that and they are able to showcase what makes them different and emphasize just how valuable those differentiators are. She suggests that rather than trying to tell an entire product story in detail, exciting exhibitors focus on specific features that make all the difference. Having that hyper-specific tale to tell opens the door for them to get even more creative with their booth and use of space.

“As an example, think of a carnival game,” Granados says. “Any tradeshow booth could probably pick one for some fun and games, regardless of industry or product. But what if they wanted to showcase in a very specific way how their software targets viruses? Now use logos, colors and great brand ambassador training to take the classic beanbag-knocking-over-cans game and contextualize it. What if AI powers your SaaS platform to get 10 times faster results? Maybe that fishing game upgrades you from a fishing rod with a single hook to one with 10 lines at once.”

Active Engagement to Replace Brochures & Pitches

Diane Vidoni is chief operating officer of eMerge Americas, a global tech conference and expo shaping the future of technology. She has decades of expertise in event planning, specifically at convention centers. With eMerge Americas held annually at the Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC), Vidoni has timely experience planning events at convention centers and is also a current member of the MBCC Customer Advisory Board. In addition, she led conference and operations teams for National Trade Productions and the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions and also worked as exhibits manager for The Motley Fool.

According to Vidoni, today’s exhibitors are looking for more turnkey options while also seeking to contribute to content. Attendees expect to engage actively with products and services rather than passively receiving brochures or pitches.

“Attendees want to try out products or services directly or participate in activities that leave a lasting impression,” Vidoni says.

She says she has seen great interest in exhibit booths that host educational sessions from their floor space, as today’s attendees look for exhibitors who facilitate meaningful connections, whether through networking lounges, meet-and-greet events or interactive features.

King adds that exciting exhibitors exude energy in their voice and branding.

“A successful event planner-exhibitor relationship has the same goal in mind: creating value for the attendee,” King says. “Meeting planners should be hyperfocused on bringing dynamic exhibitors to the hall that focus on their niche and add to the overall experience. It’s never about filling space. It’s always about adding value.”

How to Incorporate “Exciting” Exhibitors

In today’s world of short attention spans and constant visual distractions — coupled with the fact that everyone literally has a computer in their pockets — convention exhibitors need to break through all of that noise and grab their attendees’ attention. However, when it comes to finding exciting exhibitors, most association event planners get stuck in the blue-sky phase or have their hands tied when it comes to actually influencing what exhibitors do within their booth.

In response, edgefactory CEO Brian Cole says planners must incorporate exhibitors that combine eye-popping content with high-quality AV event technology to create experiences that will wow attendees.

“If your creative contains ‘energy’ and thus stimulates the audience, then you have created an experience,” Cole says. “If your creative contains ‘emotion’ and you have made your audience feel something, then you have created an experience. And if your creative contains ‘edge’ and you have exposed your attendees to something the likes of which they’ve never seen, then you have created an experience. But when we combine all three together, we’re not just creating an experience — at that point, we’re creating ‘wow,’ and attendees want to be wowed at today’s conventions.”

As such, for the past decade, more and more exhibitors have been choosing digital signage and media content for their booths, rather than the expensive light boxes and large-print graphics.

“Even the smallest 8-by-8 booth can simply have an LED wall, and nothing else, and be more effective than fancy furniture and traditional signage,” Cole says.

For years, edgefactory has worked with Thermo Fisher Scientific — widely recognized as the largest science company in the world — to produce the organization’s hospitality suite at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) event, an annual association gathering.

As Cole explains, this booth at the massive trade show is a ballroom suite filled with LED activations ranging from iPosters to giant LED walls featuring content showcasing all of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s products. But what transforms the space from a showcase into an experience is how everything in the room is synchronized, from visual content to lighting to sound design. This way, even though they are all being shown in separate displays, all of the elements are dynamically transformed simultaneously into “brand moments” that are further enhanced with thrilling sound and lighting effects.

“Attendees never lost interest in the room content because it was ever-changing and totally immersive,” Cole says. “It also provided not only product-specific information for every instrument in the suite, but also a brand experience to showcase the company’s logo and colors every 10 minutes across all screens at the same time.”

A Fast, Simple Explanation of What Vendors Offer

When determining and organizing the quantity and quality of exhibitors, planners need to remember that a trade show should be an extension of the overall event experience. Lynn Edwards, vice president of events at Evo3 Events, says planners should be intentional about the event design to maximize ROI for the attendees, and this includes ensuring that your show floor is full of resources, new potential business partners and great connections.

“Attendees are looking for exhibitors to offer a quick and easy understanding of what each vendor offers. They want to ‘get’ why they should engage in an exploratory conversation at the display,” Edwards says. “Attendees want to be entertained and educated. Many exhibits don’t clearly communicate the ‘what’s in it for me’ value proposition. A sea of free pens and mints is no longer compelling enough to attract attendees to the trade show floor.”

One booth that stood out to Edwards at a recent event was intentionally designed to create a more intimate space that lent itself to private sales conversations, as opposed to a wide-open area.

“Anything unique and custom-built, versus a standard pop-up display, makes a visual impact,” Edwards says. “Activities, unique food or beverages — all of those draw attendees into the space.”

He advises that association event planners should encourage exhibitors to make the most of the in-person opportunity a trade show creates. For example, ask them which engagement strategies they will use in their space, encourage them to create Instagrammable visuals and suggest that they create demos for hands-on exploration of their goods or services.

“Recommend they have high-energy, friendly booth staff that are present — not heads down on their phones behind a table, and not afraid to reach out and engage as attendees pass by,” Edwards says.

Sara Aldrich, senior meeting planner at Barcami Lane, Inc., notices that exhibitors are focusing more on quality over quantity. “Instead of trying to attract as many attendees as possible, their mission is to find those interactions and connections with a specific targeted audience within the attendee pool,” she says.

She recently orchestrated a convention with a group that always offers breakfast and lunch in the exhibit hall.

“Unfortunately, we started realizing that most attendees were only focused on eating and not networking. They would quickly walk around the hall, grab their food and then sit down to eat,” Aldrich says. This resulted in little to no interaction with vendors for what they thought were “high-traffic timeframes.” As a result, this year, Aldrich and the Barcami Lane team are planning to have dedicated segments throughout the day for attendees to focus on visiting the exhibitors without any food distractions.

“You need to ensure you have a good attendee-to-vendor ratio. This will guarantee attendees traffic through the exhibit hall,” she adds.

Vidoni advises association meeting planners to be open minded. Events are ever-evolving, and planners need to be open to new ideas and “thinking out of the booth.”

“Technology has transformed the exhibitor experience at conventions, making it more interactive, efficient and impactful for both exhibitors and attendees,” she says. “From streamlined planning and logistics, to interactive and immersive booth experience, to data-driven insights and personalization, to real-time metrics and feedback.”

Indeed, technology has enabled association event planners to pre-qualify and engage with attendees, as well as quickly and easily capture their data for post-show follow-up. Plus, lead-generation functionality is integrated into CRM tools, making it easier to track the ROI of attending the show.

“Technology allows you to tell a visual story of your offerings in a very interesting way,” Edwards says.

Aldrich also recommends that association event planners incorporate exhibitors that stand out from the rest and are visually intriguing to attendees. “These types of exhibitors are always a good traffic booster,” Aldrich says.

Create a Sense of Competition

To further entice innovative exhibitors to participate in events, planners must be prepared to accommodate any space and/or technology requirements an exhibitor might have for their booth.

“Also, as more vendors aren’t carrying business cards anymore, many conferences incorporate an online portal to exchange contact details,” Aldrich says.

To find “exciting exhibitors” Granados recommends that planners first change the mindset that they’re selling raw space.

“So often, we’re filling a floorplan and only reviewing booth designs at a later stage. To reward and encourage interactive, dynamic activations you need to think differently,” Granados says. “Perhaps hold back some inventory on the floor plan as an ‘All Star Booths’ prime location, only unlocked if you submit a design and engagement strategy that will delight audiences. Think about value-adds you can use to upgrade these exhibitors as a reward. Maybe on the floor plan their booth can be a highlighted color or given the opportunity to put an in-booth event in the official event agenda.”

Granados recommends creating a sense of competition among your exhibitors for best-in-show level experiences. Event planners can also provide additional PR support or a personally curated introduction to a key buyer onsite.

“Also include them in pre-event communications and onsite walking tours,” Granados says. “[Add a] post-event spotlight or case study about their success, paving the way for more exhibitors to bring their A-game to the next event.”

However, King adds, planners should always act with intention as they seek out exciting exhibitors.

“Even ‘cheap and cheerful’ can be wildly effective if the goal is clear,” she says. “For major impact, and long-lasting results, the … strategy must be clearly defined and as strong as the general session programming. Curating with intention should always be the priority.” | AC&F |