Walk around trade show floor these days and you’re likely to be amazed by how much technology is now a part of the most effective exhibits. From giant video or social media walls to digital kiosks and touch screens, technology is now an absolute must at trade shows. Although cutting-edge technology is expensive, you can stretch your dollars by renting the latest technology for the most important shows and following up on your quality leads to deliver a real return on investment.
Here are some of the biggest trends in 2019 of trade show booth technology that is sure to attract leads to your next trade show booth!
Interactive Gaming Experiences
Gaming has always been a popular and effective method of attracting customers to custom exhibit displays. However, with the help of technology, you can create an even more unique and mesmerizing gaming experience for your visitors.
Combine digital gaming with motion recognition technology or touchscreen technology (i.e. a game of cards that you can play on-screen) and you’ll have an immersive, interactive experience that’s sure to please your visitors! You can choose to do some sort of contest or a full-on gaming activity, but make sure the overall experience has relevance to your brand’s identity.
Charging Lounges
The likes of virtual reality and motion recognition technology might be a particularly exciting and futuristic use of technology, but you can keep things simple as well. One big hurdle to better engagement is attendee exhaustion and overexposure. Beat those, and you don’t need the latest cutting-edge tech to grab attention!
One of the simplest and most cost-effective pieces of technology to add to your exhibition stand is a comfortable charging station – for people and smartphones alike. Lounging sofas, free WiFi, coffee, and phone charging stations can be a major draw; they may not be as attention-grabbing as virtual reality, but they’re just as in-demand! The key here is to capitalize on your now-captive audience – like a video wall explaining your brand, or tablets with digital games.
Immersive Video Walls
Giant video walls are undeniably eye-catching and allow you to display one seamless image or multiple images across different panels. The sheer size and brilliance of video walls make them much more impressive than standard monitors, and your content options are greater too. A few ideas to help pull in foot traffic are featuring attendees via social media feeds (social media walls) and showcasing live virtual reality (VR or AR) content – which we’ll get into next!
Virtual Reality Experiences
Virtual reality is still going strong in the trade show realm; in fact, we’ve seen it this year more than ever before! Most recently, companies are taking what would typically be an off-site demonstration and transforming it into a virtual reality adventure. VR/AR (augmented reality) presentations are a fantastic way to engage visitors through thoughtful content, like a creative sales pitch that focuses on fulfilling their needs or company history trivia. Here are a few ideas to inspire your next trade show booth:
- Virtual shopping for retailers
- Putting the user in a game for sports industries
- Touring a building for real estate, architecture, or home improvement companies
- Interactive product demos
Bright Signage
We all know exhibitors are competing for one thing: attention! Unfortunately, the average person has a pretty short attention span (there have been quite a few studies); and while those studies are primarily focused on digital devices, there’s no doubt that technology has rewired our brains. Exhibits should be immediately identifiable from a distance and use colors and language that will entice visitors to walk over.
More and more exhibitors are replacing boring traditional printed signage with flashy digital signage, such as large-scale video walls and Internet-connected displays on LCD monitors. Some are even opting for full-on neon signage, which seems to be trending this year. Whichever style you choose, make sure it’s eye-catching but still easily legible. This was definitely one of the trends we saw when we toured the best booths of the RSA Conference in 2018.