Your quick checklist for planning, designing, and building a successful trade show property

We know the struggle all too well.
Crafting the perfect trade show experience that generates maximum ROI is like conducting a symphony while juggling flaming batons.
It’s not for the faint of heart, but we’ve got your back!

Here’s a quick checklist to help you plan, design, and build a successful trade show property – with a nifty downloadable one-pager too!

This list is high-level, but you can find in-depth content and real case studies from companies who produced meaningful ROI and addressed their trade show design needs by leveraging a human-centered approach on our landing page.

Checklist

Planning, designing and building a successful tradeshow property

1. Planning

• Identify internal stakeholders and diverse working groups involved in the trade show preparation.
• Conduct cross-functional workshops to build consensus and define the technology’s value proposition and key benefits.
• Consider the goals and budgets of all teams involved.
• Now craft an impactful technology narrative that aligns with the value proposition and internal stakeholder requirements.
• Focus on crafting a cohesive narrative that resonates with your target audience(s).
• Since this planning process is a heavy lift, you’ll need to dedicate an internal marketing manager to manage and facilitate the project.
• If internal bandwidth is limited, consider partnering with an external strategy and design studio to lead the process.
• Summarize and capture your narrative. This is your shared internal vision for communicating the value proposition of your technology at your upcoming trade show, including key requirements for the technology demonstrator and final deliverables.

2. Designing

• Analyze your diverse audience and their unique ways of engaging with information.
  Determine the best way to communicate the value proposition of the technology to each group.
• Develop a scalable strategy to tailor the narrative for different audiences. For example, your narrative and technology demonstrator may need to function well for both a 3-min executive summary, or a 10-min technical deep dive.
• Use your internal team or an external design and strategy studio to determine the right mix of physical or digital means to effectively communicate your narrative and showcase your technology.
• Design and visualize these assets and refine and narrow concepts down to a final design direction.
• These could include interactive demonstrations, animations, immersive experiences, or static displays.

3. Building

• Transform the final design direction into trade-show-ready property(s) through fabricating physical and digital assets.
• If possible, work with a multi-disciplinary team, including strategy, design, engineering, and prototyping to minimize loss in translation from your technology narrative to your property design, and to the final build and experience. If this cohesive team isn’t available internally, consider working with an external design and strategy partner that has these capabilities under one roof.
• Consider functional requirements, and environmental conditions unique to trade shows.
• Remember that your property needs to hold up to heavy traffic, rough use, and the unpredictability of a live audience.
• Account for lighting, power source and draw, climate control, and accessibility.
• Develop a build strategy that ensures the property can be easily cleaned, dismantled, packed, shipped, and re-assembled.
• Wherever possible, select materials and build methods that create cost-savings while maintaining a high standard of durability and quality. An experienced partner in trade show property design and build will know tricks of the trade to help you get the best bang for your buck.
• Dedicate a project manager or leverage your external partner to oversee the build and ensure the property is delivered on time and within budget.

Your quick checklist for planning, designing, and building a successful trade show property

Remember, successful trade show properties require careful planning, thoughtful design, and expert execution. By following this checklist, you can increase the chances of creating a trade show experience that resonates with your audience, effectively showcases your technology, and maximizes ROI.

Download the pdf one-pager for reference or to share with your network!

Also enjoy our white paper “Unlock Trade Show Success” with real case studies from companies who produced meaningful ROI and addressed their trade show design needs by leveraging our human-centered approach.

Discover more articles on Innovation Strategy and Prototyping