Ever been to an Apple Store on a moderately busy day (honestly, when AREN’T they busy)?

Your first glance through the open entryway and the glass windows reveals what appears to be FAR to many patrons to possibly accomplish anything in that little store – no matter how big the store actually is! But, knowing that the reward for pushing inside is the shiny new trinket of goodness, which will soon be yours, you take a deep breath and enter.

If you aren’t familiar with the process, you’re pleasantly surprised to be immediately met (just inside the entry) by one or more of Apple’s blue t-shirt clad greeters. Not only are they polite and friendly, but you are quite efficiently either assigned to a salesperson who can help you or quickly added to a digital queue for the next available associate. While you wait, you’re free to browse the store.

Inside, what looked like complete chaos from the other side of the glass, is actually a well-oiled and orchestrated machine. Patrons are assisted by an amply staffed crew of well-informed Apple associates that seem all too eager to educate and please.

By the time you leave the store, shiny new trinket in-hand, you’re typically a bigger fan of the brand, than before your visit, and you’re slightly in awe of how they pull it all off!

So many things going on in a rather tight space, yet they are staffed well, you can still focus on and get your hands on demo products, attend a learning workshop or simply browse. All of this with 150 other gadget fiends seeking the same experience. Impressive.

So, what can we learn from their approach that will help out on the trade show floor?

1. Exhibit Traffic Flow Starts with Design and Layout

Just like the Apple Store, traffic flow and how booth attendees enter, move through and exit your exhibit must be planned for. This takes place while you’re working with your trade show company to design and construct your booth.

Initial planning must take into consideration how visitors will enter and exit your exhibit. Whether there will be multiple points of entry and exit or a single entry like Apple? How will sales staff or greeters be positioned to draw in, welcome and direct traffic? Answering these questions first is critical to what happens once prospects are on the inside.

A good trade show exhibit company (hint, hint) will be well-versed in assisting you with planning the design of your trade show exhibit and taking traffic flow. In most cases, a model of the exhibit will be built to better demonstrate, not only the overall structure of the booth but also, how attendees may be directed and moved through your exhibit.

This early planning and demonstration is just as important for your trade show exhibit as it was for the architects and interior designers who conceived the Apple Stores’ floor plans.

2. Moveable Structures and Furnishings Create Flow & Quiet Space

Of course not all components of your trade show exhibit are actually part of the installed structure. Like tables and kiosks at the Apple Store, your trade show exhibit will most certainly include tables, kiosks, podiums and meeting areas complete with tables, chairs and couches.

These areas & components need to be planned and positioned with the same care as the design of the overall framework of your exhibit. Meeting areas should be out of the way, to create focused quiet space, where business can be done. Enough breathing room and buffer needs to be created around these areas to minimize distraction and maximize the comfort of those in meetings.

In addition, positioning POP displays and product displays should be done in a manner that facilitates a natural flow of traffic through the booth and minimizes chaos. Your sales team will thank you!

3. Graphics and Displays Help to Create and Direct Booth Traffic

Your exhibit will likely be adorned with beautiful photography and images, which represent your brand and products. These same graphics should also be designed with traffic flow in-mind.

Likely, it will make sense to create trade show graphics which lead your visitors through your booth in a sequential order that builds on your brand’s story. Create compelling reasons for your visitors to move from one station or area to the next, while becoming a bigger fan along the way!

4. Your Sales Team and Booth Attendants Must Do the Heavy Lifting

As the smiling greeter in the blue shirt helped put you at ease on your gadget quest, positioning greeters and sales persons at strategic positions throughout your booth is key to traffic flow and success. For a busy exhibit, having staff at key entry & exit points will help to not only attract attendees into your booth, but get them started on the path you’ve designed OR direct them to an appropriate sales person.

In addition, planning for where interior associates will be positioned to engage visitors is not only critical to traffic flow but also your sales process.

Long before the show opens, your sales staff should be made familiar with the booth layout, what they’re individual roles will be and how they will support traffic flow. Without them leading the way and directing visitors, chaos will soon follow.

5. A Word About Personal Space

People enjoy having a certain buffer of personal space. They just do.

It’s probably a little different from person to person, but at the end of the day, we all draw a line. Keep this in mind when your booth is full and plan for how to create enough elbow room for each person. This is best handled by having a natural flow to your exhibit.

If you can keep visitors moving along the same path, at a similar rate – even a crowded show floor can offer all-important personal space!

Like to learn more about successfully planning the layout and design of your trade show exhibit? ColorCraft has the skills, expertise and team to help you along your path to success. Contact us today.

If you built a new home, you would spend lots of time and money choosing the right light fixtures for each room. It shouldn’t be much different when you build a trade show exhibit. Lighting is just as important as your exhibit design, custom flooring and beautiful graphics. People receive 85% of their information through their sense of sight so it is important to make sure the lighting is right at your trade show display so people can see what you want them to see.

1. Focus. A well designed trade show display will use lighting to guide you to look where we intend you to look. Perhaps towards a television or computer monitor or maybe to a single product under a glass display. Whether we want you to take in the whole exhibit at one time or look directly at something specific, we can manipulate your attention with the proper lighting. Keep in mind the human eye will automatically be attracted to the brightest spot in the room.
2. Depth. Lighting can add depth to a trade show exhibit space by using the exhibit space, back and side walls of the exhibit, and the shadows. Also consider that too little contrast between object and immediate background makes it hard to distinguish the object from the background.
3. Mood. With the proper lighting, we can easily set the mood and stage for the scene we want to play out. We can create a sense of ominous drama with dark lighting or we can brighten the day with local lighting over our booth. The trick is to create the mood that will make it easier for your sales team to engage your clients.
4. Decor. Since we’ve determined lighting is necessary for each trade show booth, you might as well choose fixtures that coordinate with the look and feel of the exhibit to enhance the aesthetic quality of the booth.
5. Safety. When it comes to lighting, there is more to consider than just how many light bulbs to use. In addition to balancing the mood and decor there has to be an understanding of electrical needs, codes and restrictions. You always want to make sure the sources of light are hidden but that your booth is lit enough to keep visitors safe and accident free.

The good news? When you work with a company as dedicated to your success as we are, these factors will all be considered for you. We would never keep you in the dark about how important lighting is to your trade show exhibit.

Over the last few years iPads have been popping up more and more often in trade show booths. Exhibitors are using these handy little tools in a number of creative ways and for good reason.

With a low cost barrier, they’re not only economical to have on-hand but they look great, as stand-alone kiosks, and will actually help to draw attendees into your booth.

Face it, people love to play with these things and they’re a great way for booth guests to “interact” with your brand – in an environment that you have complete control over.

Here’s a quick rundown of our top 5 ways to use iPads as an integral part of your trade show program.

1. Great Looking & Rich Product Demonstrations

Product demonstrations were practically made for presenting on the iPad. Whether you arrange for multiple iPads, to be available on stand-alone kiosk stands, or your sales people have them in-hand – they’re a great way to show off photos, video and demonstrations of the products you’re selling.

By creating a simple website interface or Keynote presentation, you can put your products in the hands of your attendees for them to experience first-hand. Even if your product happens to be a tank!

To that end, video can be a very powerful medium for the presentation of your products – and video looks FANTASTIC on the iPad. Incorporate a streaming service like Vimeo or YouTube and you’re in business.

2. iPads Make Great Low-Cost Interactive Kiosks

Presentations built as “responsive” or mobile formatted websites make for great, low-cost interactive kiosks. If you’re unfamiliar with the term “responsive”,  picture a website that automatically reformats itself to fit the screen size of the device you’re using – in this case an iPad.

By having a designer/developer create a website in this manner, you can literally have an interactive kiosk for your booth that is relatively low cost, can be adapted from show to show and impresses your guests.

And of course your interactive kiosk can include lead capture forms – which can be filled out and submitted on the spot (but more on that in a bit)!

3. Your iPad Presentation Linked to the Big Screen Via Apple TV

One of the neatest and most helpful features of the iPad, in our opinion, is that with the help of an Apple TV device – the content on your iPad can be mirrored to a flat-screen TV mounted in your exhibit. And for the cost of $99, that’s a super price-efficient way of presenting your product demos and brand to booth attendees.

In  fact, with the use of Apple TV – it’s relatively simple to play looping video, slide shows and other media for your visitors and those passing by to see.

4. Lead Capture for Automated Marketing Tools

In our blog article “Marketing Automation for Trade Shows – Smart Technology“, we discussed how marketing automation can be used for trade shows. In that article, we talked about software tools, which not only helped with the capture of lead information but assisted with creating automated email campaigns.

Having kiosks or your sales persons equipped with iPads is the easiest and quickest way for your attendees to enter their information, directly into your marketing automation tool. This occurs via a web form embedded in a web page, which visitors can fill out and submit, on the spot.

5. Create Surveys and Quizzes for Your Visitors

Especially if you’re offering an incentive for filling out a survey or taking a quiz – iPads can be a economical and fun way for visitors to interact with your brand.

Not only will you be capturing valuable information from your guests for participating (of course they have entered their name and email to play) but you’ll be drawing visitors into your booth for a chance to win a prize.

Consider, entering the winners or participants into a drawing to win (yup you guessed it) – an iPad!

Well these are our top 5 ways of using iPads in trade show exhibits – we hope you find this useful and by all means – get creative with these things! They’re fun for your team too!

Like to learn more about how you can show off your brand and products at your next trade show event? ColorCraft has the team and expertise to make you look great! Give us a call!