Tips on Exhibition Stands (2)

Here’s some further points re Exhibition Stands – these are more general advice and less about design.

Getting your exhibition stand – with your exhibition stand, order the type of wheeled transit case that has a wraparound graphic and a wooden counter-top (shown in the stand at left), they give you more options for your display. On top of the transit case, a laptop running a video or powerpoint will help to draw delegates to your stand.

Curved wall exhibition stands are generally about 2.2 metres high, so if your staff aren’t all six-footers, it’s a bit of a stretch to reach those top connectors. Instead, take the kitchen steps with you for the build-up, this’ll result in fewer crumpled panels.

New option:
Consider purchasing one of the new Fabric Stands which have full-colour print both sides around a tubular aluminium frame. The frame pieces have numbers on them to simplify assembly. You may need two people to drag the fabric onto the frame without the possibility of dirtying it on the floor of the exhibition hall.

The big piece of great advice:
About 4 weeks before you exhibit, take the old stand out of the cupboard and put it up in your boardroom to check that it is 1) all there, 2) not damaged. If it isn’t usable, you have 4 weeks to repair it or order a new stand. Remember, most stands are damaged when they’re dismantled in a hurry at the end of an exhibition.

Best of luck with your next exhibition, by all means call me for advice.

Tips on exhibition stand design (1)

Take a 3-by-3 “curved wall” exhibition stand – from a design point-of-view, don’t look at it as a huge canvas to be covered with lots of images and offers. It will be more powerful with a single message, for example, a single colour or a great photo over the whole wall, with a bold headline, some bulletpoints and your contact info along the top or near the foot. Cluttering it with secondary sales images and offers will only detract from its visual effect – and the offers will go out-of-date quickly, rendering it obsolete. Only add secondary images and text if they are vital to your main message.

Remember that your sales team will be standing in front of it, so not all pictures and text will always be visible.

The rounded end caps are a good place to list your services, prospects will see them as they approach your stand from the side, as shown at the extreme left of this picture.

The exhibition designer’s rule is “no small text below the knee, no-one’s going to read it there”. Only contact information should appear below knee-height, often accompanied by your logo.

The photo shows me during a pre-delivery check on the Russell & Russell 4-by-3 stand. You’ll see the contact information appearing “below the knee” is in a very large font size – you have to “Think Big” when designing exhibition stands.