Imagine that you want to be present at a specific trade fair with your exhibition stand . You have the necessary exhibition materials at home and want to reach a broad audience with them. But what exactly is the best place on the exhibition floor?
To determine the best place, there are a few handles to choose the most strategic place.
What matters of course is that at the location of your stand choice:
Sounds simple and it is.
In order to make a good estimate of what the best location for your exhibition stand could be, it is important to look at the following points:
Many trade fairs are combined with holding seminars and giving lectures on a specific subject within the field of the trade fair in question. These are usually held in a conference room that is directly connected to the “trade fair floor”. Many visitors come to the trade fair specifically to take part in such a seminar. The spaces directly around this conference room can therefore be a great place for your trade fair stand or your trade fair materials because there is a lot of “traffic” here.
Another example of such a “stop, – or gathering point” is a terrace where snacks and/or drinks are served. Visiting a trade fair is tiring, so places where visitors can sit, rest and eat or drink are usually interesting places for your trade fair stand or trade fair materials because there are a lot of visitors here. However, that does not mean that those people also pay attention to your trade fair stand, that is another story…
Special attractions at the fair that are organised by the fair organisation or by fellow exhibitors can also provide extra “traffic” at your stand. Especially at public fairs, many activities are often organised that make many people stop and look. As a fellow exhibitor close to such a company that organises an attraction, you can benefit from this.
Special actions or attractions are often organised in consultation with the fair organiser. Sometimes the fair organiser must even give permission for this. It can therefore do no harm to ask about this.
For corner stands (stands that are closed on one side) it is true that they get the most (longest) attention if the open side of the exhibition stand is “in the loop”. Logical, because that is the only way your exhibition stand will be in view the longest.
It is therefore important to try to form an image of the ‘routing’ of the visitors. Now it is never possible to say with 100% certainty what this will be, but in general it is true that visitors tend to pay more/faster attention to exhibition stands that are on the right side of the route they have chosen. For this reason, the outside paths are often good. However, these are generally the smaller (standard) exhibition stands.
The more space there is around your booth and the wider the aisles around it, the more attention the booth will get. This is mainly because the attention is less distracted from your booth materials by other booths and the surroundings.
However, it is often not easy for a trade fair organizer to arrive at a definitive floor plan. And that is why during the period in which the stand spaces are sold, there is often a lot of shifting of surfaces. Trade fair stands are then often sold wider and/or deeper than initially planned. This is to be able to meet the wishes of the customer as well as possible. By shifting these spaces, the aisles can also become wider or narrower than originally planned. We prefer spacious and wide aisles around your trade fair stand to narrow aisles, in our experience. Your trade fair stand will look much better if there is more space around it.
Be well informed about where your direct competitors are located. And think about what you think about your exhibition stand being located directly next to or opposite your competitor’s. In some cases, the exhibition organizer tries to place companies that do the same business together. This is done with the idea that it is easier for visitors who are looking for such companies to see a complete offer. And of course that is true.
The question is, however, what do you think of this as an exhibitor? If you are fine with this or even happy to be directly next to your competitor(s), then there is nothing wrong. If not, then rather insist on another place for your exhibition materials. Of course, this does not apply to very specialized “vertical” (trade) fairs. There you are only standing with competitors.
Also try to register as soon as possible. The later you register, the less favourable the available places for your stand are. A good relationship with the organiser of the fair can also help in finding the best place at the fair.
