Tradeshows are a form of live event that allow for a live exchange of ideas, concepts and product showcases, merging together various industries and directly connecting those offering and seeking a variety of services. Often, tradeshows can appear to be either overwhelming due to their size and lack of navigability, or stale due to their lack of size, diversity and focus. Partnering with an AV provider and having an overarching theme to your tradeshow, can allow you to deploy innovative technology that makes it engaging and memorable, enabling both the booth presenters and attendees to make meaningful connections. Here are 6 ways to use audiovisual technology to enhance your tradeshow:
1. Dynamic Signage And Entryway Visuals
As the place where all attendees gather before entering a tradeshow, the welcome entryway can be a great location to showcase what to expect within the tradeshow. Through the use of dynamic signage and a visually interesting display, attendees can be presented with the sense of modernity and interest, allowing them to get excited about the event within. Utilizing LED walls, projection mapping or holographic displays, the organizer can present the conference/tradeshow theme, showcase sponsors, and highlight activities, booths and other points of interest. By placing these on displays in the entryway or even directly on the archway through which attendees will enter, you can create a sense of immersion. By adding some directional signage that ties into these displays, attendees can easily identify where to go to engage with specific presenters. This theming can also be tied to dynamic wayfinding signage on the tradeshow floor.
2. Distributed Announcement And Public Address Systems
Setting up multiple displays and speakers throughout the conference space provides multiple advantages. This system can be used to play entertaining content such as music, provide a great spot for sponsorship or advertising, show the agenda, as well as transmit anything going on in a central location, such as a main stage. Additionally, these areas naturally lend themselves to becoming food-and-beverage stations or rest lounges, providing a distraction-free but informational method of staying connected to the tradeshow. Most importantly, these can be used to make tradeshow-wide announcements that can be seen and heard clearly rather than having to rely on one or two large screens and speakers, that could be too hard to see or hear when farther away.
3. Section Theming
In addition to high-visibility entryways and wayfinding signage, specific areas of a tradeshow can be themed to allow for easy overarching navigability. Clustering of a set of themes (by concepts such as geography, industry etc.) presents an opportunity to visually draw attendees. By using floor projections, specialized lighting and/or holographic signage to indicate a themed space’s boundaries, attendees are able to locate an area of interest quickly, while also being aware of what another area offers that they may have previously ignored.
4. Stage For Central Events
Having a central stage with interesting content that works with the tradeshow’s theme and presents content which is relevant to all attendees can be an important and engaging portion of your event. Stage-based programming does not have to be the most important element of the tradeshow but it helps set an agenda to the session, while giving event organizers the ability to highlight items such as time-based contests, sponsorship, and keynote addresses or interviews. Also, when used for agenda items such as welcome and closing ceremonies, the stage draws the audience members and lets them form connections with each other.
5. Booth Interviews
Booth interviews are an interesting and unique way of engaging with booth members and to draw attendees. Having a live-video camera crew travelling with an MC who can do pickup interviews from the tradeshow floor can help highlight a themed section, showcase programming, introduce contests, and demonstrate the diversity of the tradeshow. By having these broadcasted to main screens as well as to the distributed screens and public address system, the entire audience can be involved in the flow of the programming rather than consuming just a small portion of the tradeshow.
6. Dynamic Maps And Apps
A modern app-based map can make navigating a large, complex tradeshow a much nicer experience. Available through virtual conference hubs, this is a great way of inviting people to select the booths they want to interact with, schedule meetings, and participate in contests. These maps can also use location-based data within the tradeshow to trigger dynamic content, as well as to indicate any changes to the floor plan. As well, these apps can contain relevant links to booth-specific materials, as well as provide access to live-event recordings after the tradeshow is concluded, providing ongoing value to the attendee’s registration.
AV partners are able to provide several such solutions that can help inspire creativity when designing a tradeshow. AV-AMERICA is proud to have partnered with several prominent clients and associations to execute such dynamic and memorable tradeshows, and can help you in planning yours.
