Here are a few budget-conscious tips to consider while designing your exhibit:

- Plan your entire annual show schedule at one time (or even better your schedule for the next 3 years). This includes planning all of your potential booth sizes and trying to design these with the greatest number of common parts.

- If you exhibit at many shows, it is usually more cost-effective for you to buy your exhibit. However, if you exhibit at one show that is much bigger than the rest, it makes more sense to rent the additional parts to fill out your space for that one show.

- Make sure you put aside 1-3% of your budget to track what is and isn’t working. This way you can trim the fat for the next show or next year and focus on what is making you money.

- You can have an attractive, functional, lightweight modular exhibit (even for islands) that could save you up to 50% on your shipping and drayage costs. Those savings can be kept or spent in more productive areas such as graphics, promotions, staffing or ROI measurement.

If you notice, the biggest commonality when it comes to frugal exhibiting is planning. The earlier and more detailed the plan, the less room for costly mistakes.

It’s a brand new year. A fresh slate, a new beginning. By this time you probably have a pretty clear idea of your goals for this year and you have a budget and strategy for carrying your business to the next level. But have you thought about your exhibiting for this upcoming year?

I know what many of you are thinking. Budgets may be tighter this year and you don’t have the money to redo your entire exhibit. But a little change goes a long way and it doesn’t have to break the bank. The easiest way to revamp your exhibit is to update your graphics. Here are some signs that you should consider changing your graphics:

- Your company logo, branding, or brand positioning has changed. This is a must. While making such a sweeping change within your company you may have overlooked your exhibit. Make sure that your message is the same across all of your

- You use the same graphics at each show. This may not be as pressing as the first example, but it still bears consideration. If you exhibit at more than one show, chances are there are differences in the demographics of the attendees. You want to make sure that your graphics are targeting the right groups.

- You’ve had the same graphics for a few years. If people have seen the same thing at the same shows for the past few years, chances are they are just going to walk right by you. Go for something different and eye-catching to grab those attendees right into your space.

New graphics can change the entire look and feel of your exhibit and they will help you realize your goals for this new year without exploding your budget. You’ll be on the road to better, more profitable exhibiting in 2008.

Your exhibit serves many purposes; it’s a three-dimensional commercial, a meeting place, a product display and has other functions as well. So make sure that you take all of these roles into account when you go through the exhibit design process. Some key aspects to consider:

- Make sure your exhibit architecture is an appropriate carrier for your graphics. You want to make sure visitors can feel welcomed and are able to identify and learn about your products and services.

- You should have a space where your staffers can record their leads. This can be a small table for a small exhibit, or an actual reception counter for larger exhibits.

- Plan for storage. You need to have a place for all of the staffers’ personal items, extra literature and giveaways, and other things that happen to accumulate.

- If you decide to do a product demo (which is always a smart decision) then you will need a place for the demo to take place. Will you need a counter or table? Will you need floor space, or a computer kiosk?

- Speaking of products — you’re going to need some sort of tables, counters, shelving to display your merchandise. Try not to bring everything in your product line, though. Stick with the big sellers or your newest items.

- Is your goal to have lots of one-on-one time with customers and leads? If so, you may want to think about setting aside some kind of meeting space that is private or semi-private.

- If you’re planning on having a live presentation of some sort, you need to take audience seating into consideration.

Not only is your trade show exhibit a billboard for your products and services, it’s your work space for the span of the show. Plan your design on the different roles your booth will play and you are to be sure to have a smoother show experience.

Upon returning from the RSNA show at McCormick Place this week, I was not surprised by the sizes of the exhibits, which if you have not seen them are pretty impressive. Instead, I was enthused by the new design concepts that have hit the show floor. The use of fabric structures in combination with hard walls helped to create some dynamic designs, while the use of all of the space on the floor, as well as the space above the exhibits, helped to guide attendees, or better yet identify the companies exhibiting. The use of the overhead space is important in larger exhibit spaces as it gives your exhibit a real punch and impact from across the show floor. The visit also validated Skyline Metro Chicago’s system for designing these larger exhibits.

Let me explain.

in these larger exhibits, Skyline tries to use a 3-tiered branding strategy. This is done by working from the ceiling down to eye level with consistent messaging. It’s geared toward drawing attendees to the exhibit and slowly introducing them to taglines and then to products and targeted messages.

Level 3 would be the overhead signage. The overhead signage would be large simple branding, logo and color scheme to match the other tiers. Again, this works to identify your company from across the show floor, as well as have you stand out. In large shows it can even help fit into the landscape around you as other large exhibits follow this formula as well.

Level 2 would be medium overhead signage or signage originating from structures based on the floor. This tier allows you to start to brand different aspects of your company, taglines, lifestyle images, services offered and possibly large product images. This allows the attendee to qualify themselves as they approach your exhibit, and gives them an understanding of who you are and what you do.

Level 1 would be targeted signage. This would include detailed information about the products or services that you offer to that particular market or audience. It also allows the exhibit staffers to guide a prospect to certain areas that they would be interested in, surrounded by support graphics and messaging for that particular product or service.

The best part about Skyline Metro’s design strategy is that when it comes time to change out the products, or the services, or even target the message to a particular audience, the replacement of graphics is only on one of the 3 tiers! This saves money, as well as keeps the exhibit consistent in the different markets on the upper 2 tiers.

Employment of this strategy has often been successful for companies looking to make a splash while not spending a ton of money to update their graphics, year to year or even show to show. Make sure you investigate this process as you start your new designs.

Remember, it’s all about the details!

In my extensive search to find the perfect exhibit space, I found these truths to be self-evident, that not all trade show exhibits are created equal. There is no ‘one’ perfect exhibit space! There are however exhibit spaces that fit the client and product perfectly. Let’s examine two key elements of a successful trade show exhibit.

Ceilings: A sometimes overlooked and unappreciated design element, ceilings give the viewers eye a beginning and an end; a starting and stopping point. They establish boundaries and provide a pseudo shelter. Entering a booth with an appropriate ceiling structure is like entering into the architecture of the company itself. If done well, ceilings are the icing on the metaphorical exhibit cake. Click here for a great example of a trade show booth with interesting ceilings.

Excellent Marketing Collateral: Consider the following situation. I’m a potential client strolling about the trade show of your particular industry. You have a beautiful booth, an amiable staff, and what appears to be an excellent product. I collect your marketing collateral and continue on to the next stop. (Pause)

So, what if your marketing collateral, for lack of a better term, just kind of sucks? Your booth has done its job and your staff theirs, but the literature and marketing materials just doesn’t represent your company’s capabilities. An unfortunate situation to say the least as this may result in not only lost leads, but also portraying your company in an unprofessional manner. As you begin planning for 2008, be sure your collateral is in sync with your booth.

One of the questions we ask during a discovery meeting/fact-finding session before we begin a design is this: “Are you going to have any clowns in your exhibit?”. This question is met with mixed responses; some suggest a member of the sales team that is over the top, some seem annoyed that this type of question is being asked, but after explanation it becomes clear that it is necessary to answer.

The point of the question is not to really find out if you are having clowns in your exhibit, but rather to get you thinking about traffic flow, minimum space needed for personal space, and how traffic can or will be driven into your exhibit. Clowns in this question can be a number of things from models hired to demo your product, a magician who draws a crowd or professional traffic drivers versed on your services; there are a number a services that can bring people to your booth, and they all need space.

Spacing comes into play when the client starts talking about where semi-private meetings or one-on-one conversations will take place. This also comes up with placement of products and literature in getting the ideal space for those items for maximum exposure to qualified show attendees, not just anyone who likes magic!

So the next time someone asks “Are you are going to have any clowns in your exhibit?” - listen to what they have to say, it might be a serious question.

I just returned from The Motivation Show which opened today at McCormick Place. I wasn’t sure what to expect since this was my first time at this particular event. It’s a very interesting show with some very impressive exhibits. The distinctive thing I noticed was that the successful exhibits were less about conveying a message and more about establishing an atmosphere.

Rather than touting their latest product or newest service, the exhibits with the most traffic focused more on creating a unique ambiance. However, there was no one common theme that tied the most impactful exhibits together. Some of the booths that stuck out did so by using trade show graphics, some with custom furniture, while others used lighting and hanging structures.

Regardless of the business you are in, it is definitely worth checking out. The Motivation Show ends this Thursday, September 27.