Exhibiting at a trade show is a serious investment: floor space, design, production, build, travel and countless team hours. Yet many companies come home with a stack of business cards and the feeling they could have done more. After more than 35 years designing and building booths, we’re convinced that the outcome of a show depends far more on how it’s prepared than on the square metres you book.
We’re right in the middle of trade show season. This very week, for example, Barcelona hosts Smart City Expo World Congress, with more than 1,100 exhibitors competing for the attention of the same visitors. A good moment to look at what separates a booth that generates business from one that simply takes up space.
1. Start with the goal, not the design
It’s the most common temptation: talking about colours, screens or materials before knowing what the booth is for. In our first meetings with a client, we always start with the same question: what has to happen at this show for it to be worth it? The answer might be booking meetings with distributors, presenting a product to the press, capturing leads from a specific sector or simply looking after existing clients.
Each of those goals calls for a different booth. Meetings need a quiet, somewhat sheltered area where people can talk without raising their voices. Lead generation needs an open space, free of barriers, that invites people in. A product launch needs the product as the undisputed star. And it pays to put a number on the goal (40 meetings, 200 qualified leads): it’s the only way to know, once you’re back, whether the investment worked.
2. A design people understand in three seconds
Trade show visitors walk down the aisle surrounded by stimuli and decide in an instant whether to stop. That’s why a good booth has to answer two questions straight away: who are you and what do you offer? When we design, we work from a handful of principles that never fail.
One main message, large and readable from the aisle, explaining what you do rather than just your tagline. A clear visual hierarchy, with the product or message in front and the logo and details after. An obvious layout, where it’s instantly clear where to enter, where to talk and where to see the product. And lighting designed for the hall, which is usually dark or very flat: it’s probably the element that most changes how a space feels, and the one most often underestimated.
If your company exhibits at several shows a year, it’s worth planning a modular booth from the start, one that adapts to different sizes and configurations. It’s one of the solutions we recommend most: it cuts costs from one show to the next and keeps your brand consistent wherever you go.
3. Your team sells more than your booth
Good design draws people in, but it’s people who turn a visit into an opportunity. We see it at every show: two similar booths can get very different results depending on who’s inside and how they’ve prepared.
Choose carefully who you send, brief them clearly on the goals and prepare a short pitch together: what to ask, how to tell whether a contact is worth pursuing and what to offer as a next step. And don’t forget the basics, which seem obvious but are often overlooked: no phones or eating on the booth, scheduled breaks so nobody is worn out by the afternoon, and a single way of capturing leads, whether an app, a form or a badge scanner, so none get lost.
4. Communication starts weeks before
A trade show is also a major communication opportunity that many companies miss, because all their energy goes into the booth. The weeks beforehand are key. It’s the time to personally invite clients and prospects, with a concrete reason to visit: a demo, a private meeting or a drink. To prepare a press release if there’s real news (a launch, a partnership, relevant industry data), because trade media publish previews and show reports and are looking for content. And to have a press kit ready, at the booth and in digital format, with high-quality photos.
During the show, photography and video deserve more attention than they usually get. Well planned, they provide content for months: for your website, for sales presentations and for promoting next year’s edition.
5. The business happens after the show
The most common mistake is getting back to the office, leaving the cards in a drawer and contacting leads two weeks later. By then, they remember ten other exhibitors. Follow-up is prepared before you leave: emails drafted, contacts ranked by priority and a commitment to reach the most promising ones within 48 hours.
Then it’s time to take stock calmly: how many meetings were booked, how many qualified leads, what press coverage you got and what each lead actually cost. With that data, your next show can be planned far more precisely.
One show, one team
Design, permits, production, shipping, build, invitations, press, photography and follow-up: a trade show has many moving parts, and when each depends on a different supplier, something is bound to slip. At Fairplay we handle the entire process with the same team from start to finish, so your company only has to worry about one thing: showing up at the booth and talking to its clients.
If you have trade shows planned for 2027, now is the time to start planning. Let’s talk.