Below are key exhibiting tips and advice we’ve accumulated over the years. All to help you make the most out of your exhibition stand.
The first of our exhibiting tips is obvious but often overlooked, you need to think about what you want to achieve from your stand. This sounds simple, but we need to think deeper about what this means. Do you want to promote a new product? Generate more sales? Increase traffic? Promote brand awareness? Each one of those will make the design of the stand slightly different. So it’s key you’ve got what you want clearly in your mind.
One of the best things to do is have a picture of a few stands you like the look of. Get a few snaps of stands you like from any Exhibition Shows you visit. Or you can just pull up some images from the internet. Both of these will help you and the designers get your stand design just right. If you’re stuck for ideas, why not head over to our Pinterest page? There are hundreds of categorised stand designs to click through.
Prepare ahead of time
Secondly, make sure you allow enough time for the whole process. Though it is possible to design, produce and deliver a stand within a 2-week timescale, it will require quick action. As a result, being this rushed may mean making comprises that you or the exhibition design company won’t be 100% happy about.
Therefore, it’s best to get your ideas together at least 2 to 3 months before your show to allow enough time for designs to be made. Any necessary design changes can be made before print production. And lastly, plenty of time is then set aside to fully pre-build the stand to ensure there will be no faults or problems on the day. This is something that many stand suppliers cannot achieve, but we find it an essential part of the production process.
Find out what sort of stand space you actually have at the show. Is it a shell scheme or space only? What size is it? How many sides are open? Are you on a corner? At some Exhibition Centres like Olympia, London, some of the outermost stands sometimes have structural pillars within their stand space, so be sure to contact the Show Organisers to check.
Exhibition Stand Budgeting
You’ll also need to have a key idea of your budget. We know this is often a tricky subject, but this is vital to be known from the start. Your budget will indicate to the designers and everyone else on the team what they need to be working with.
To tie in with budget, you need to consider whether you want to hire the stand or buy it. This may be dependent on how many shows you go to or are planning to go to over the next few years. Here at Quadrant, we have a Free2Hire option, where you buy the graphics but we loan you the stand hardware for free. If you haven’t got the room, we can store your graphics for up to a year until the next time you need them. Or you can buy the stand outright, so you own the whole kit as well as the graphics. This way you can use it again and again and again at your will (as all Prestige kits can be reconfigured to fit into different stand spaces).
Now you need to think of any extras you’d like on your stand. These include a range of things like mounted Plasma TV’s, laptop stations, product showcases, additional lighting, a raised floor, literature stands, or a designated seating area.
Think sensibly around what you’ll need rather than what you want. Unneeded extras like coffee machines will only end up increasing your electrics bill. Sometimes having too much on your stand will make it look cluttered and uninviting.
Contracting an Exhibition Stand Supplier
Next, you need to contact an exhibition stand contractor with your ideas. Here at Quadrant2Design, we have a team of in-house designers. It will always be beneficial for you to give us a design brief of what you’d like to see. However, if you’re a little stuck we can talk through ideas with you, to reflect your company’s branding. Consider whether you want a minimal look with large name branding, lots of high-resolution images, a bright colour scheme or a minimalistic look. If you’ve got no idea what you want, then that’s fine too. After all, it’s the designer’s job to come up with creative ideas you might not have perhaps considered!
Once you’ve received your design proposal, you need to be honest about whether you like it or not. Let the designers have an indication of the changes you’d like to be made if any. At the end of the day, we won’t be offended if you don’t like the designs. Communication is key and we want you to be as happy as you can be, so any changes or amendments are welcomed. In some cases, you might even have your own designers who you’d like to design the stand, and then pass it back to us to tweak and then produce. We can provide fully detailed artworking templates for you to work from.
Pre-build, Project Management, and Support
As mentioned before, we pre-build every project as part of our production process to ensure that everything fits exactly as it should. But what we can also do is invite you and your team into our showroom. Once everything is assembled so you can see the stand in real life. It also gives you the chance to practice how things will run on the day. Additionally, if you’re purchasing the stand and taking it away with you, we can train you in how to easily assemble and dismantle the kit so you feel fully prepared for the day.
And lastly, remember, you’re not on your own! There are Project Managers you can contact if you have any queries or apprehensions in the run-up to the show. They’ll always answer your queries and help you out, no matter how silly or trivial you think the questions may be!
If you have found our exhibiting tips helpful and would like to request free stand design proposal, please call us on 01202 723 500 or email us on designteam@quadrant2design.com.
