What is there to do at a trade show?

If you have an upcoming trade show, you might be wondering what there is to do while you’re there.

For businesses, trade shows can be incredibly busy! The day is packed with networking opportunities, lead generation and busy meetings. For many, there isn’t much time to explore outside of their own exhibition stand.

However, if you’re lucky enough to get some downtime on your trip or are attending as a visitor, trade shows have a great deal to offer!

As the go-to platform in that particular industry, trade shows bring together the leading brands in the industry, offer a range of cutting-edge industry-leading panels and discussions, and usually some insightful workshops.

At Quadrant2Design, we install over 500 exhibition stands a year, and so, we end up visiting many of the UK’s leading trade shows. Follow along as we share our favourite things to do at a trade show.

Trade shows bring together the leading businesses in a particular industry, and so, if you’re interested in the field, they are the perfect location to discover new brands!

By walking around the show and engaging in these businesses, you can gain valuable information and insights.

Some of these businesses offer show-specific deals and product launches. This makes trade shows quite an exciting space to meet with these brands for the first time. This is even more relevant at consumer-facing events such as Spring Fair and the National Running Show!

Many events bring their A-game when it comes to their speakers. If you take the time to engage with these talks, you can catch the latest developments, research and insights from your industry!

This is one of our favourite activities at the UK trade show. We’ve had the pleasure of catching Rory Sutherland at BrightonSEO and Carl Lewis at The Running Show!

Another great thing to do at trade shows is attend workshops focusing on key industry techniques and skills. These workshops will allow you to get hands-on with the industry and may even teach you new skills.

While we have taken part in a range of workshops, our favourite by far would have to be the build-your-own cheesecake workshop, from the popular Cake and Bake Show.

It’s always good to meet like-minded industry professionals, and trade shows are a great place to do it!

As well as workshops, trade shows often feature networking sessions, which are generally free-to-attend and provide a great opportunity to meet with other professionals in the industry and share information and expertise.

As trade shows are the key meeting place for the industry, they’re the perfect place to see what’s trending.

Set some time aside to walk around the hall, take in the trends and your competitors’ strategies – you might get some ideas for the coming year!

An underrated, yet fun part of attending trade shows is sampling the products! Sampling products not only adds an element of fun to the trade show experience but also allows you to experience the quality of the products firsthand.

We hope we have given you some ideas for what you can do at a trade show! Whether you’re staying ahead of trends, listening to keynote speakers, or sampling products, there’s plenty to do.

If you are planning to exhibit and would like an exhibition stand design, get in touch with our team! Call 01202 723 500 or email design@quadrant2design.com for a free, no-obligation design proposal.