25+ inspirational exhibition stand ideas
- Small stand ideas
- Large exhibition stands
- Island stand
- Outdoor exhibitions and festivals
- Meeting area ideas
- Taking vehicles and machinery onto an exhibition stand
- Creative exhibition stand ideas
- Tips and advice for seasoned and new exhibitors
- Understanding different types of exhibition stands
Small exhibition stand ideas
Have you ever stood on a small stand and looked out in envy at the huge island stands with their brand picked out in lights, suspended from the ceiling?
Every exhibition stand, regardless of size, has its challenges. Whilst you might feel like packed sardines with four people on your shell scheme stand, the advantage is it’s quick to look busy and can attract more people to your stand. No one wants to feel like they’re missing out! On a big exhibition stand, four people is a drop in the ocean; you need ten times that many people to feel busy. The pressure is on in a different way.
Creative ideas
The right creative stand idea can elevate a trade stand from small to memorable:
- Keep your message simple and your graphics eye-catching
- Make the best use of lighting
- Use virtual reality to your advantage
- Maximise social media opportunities
- Have your team to hand, but not so many it becomes intimidating
Be clear on the purpose of the stand from the outset. This often gets overlooked in the desire to be seen at a particular exhibition at all costs. If your product or service meets the needs of the audience then you’ll attract visitors.
Use your budget wisely, maximising your marketing activities, before, during and after the show.
Exhibition stand help and inspiration
> A-Z of exhibition terminology
> 25+ inspirational exhibition stand ideas
> shell scheme vs space only - what's the difference?
Large exhibition stand ideas
Whilst big exhibition stands make an instant impact, they can fall prey to a couple of traps that small stands do not. More space means you’re more exposed, visitors coming to the stand may feel like prey if they are the only ones. It’s easy to waste space on a large exhibition. How can this be avoided:
- Be clear on the purpose of the stand
- Be sure you’re at the right exhibition with the right product/ service and audience
- What do you need to include on the stand? Products/ demos/ meeting spaces?
- Utilise the potentially large expanses of space with video walls to add interest and movement.
- Decide on whether you’ll need meeting space and how private this needs to be
- Pre-book meetings on the stand so there is a constant flow of visitors
- Are you booking a large space because you’re taking a vehicle?
There are many ways to attract passing visitors to your large stand to make it feel busy:
- Maximise social media opportunities
- Make demos visual
- Goodie bags and giveaways
- Create a game visitors can’t resist – it doesn’t have to be hi-tech to create a buzz
- Entice customers with a great competition
- Don’t create barriers but create zones on your stand
- Make the best use of your staff
- Use lighting and video walls to create zones
- Provide refreshments
Useful articles for large exhibition stands
> Reasons to hire your next exhibition stand
> Secrets to a successful custom stand
> Planning for a big trade show
Island exhibition stands
You may also be interested in
> Exhibition stand hire
> Bespoke stands
> Modular systems
> Shell scheme graphics
Festival and outdoor exhibition stands
Exhibition stands can pop up anywhere! Outdoor events, festivals or roadshows are perfect for being adventurous and creative with your exhibition stand and build. It will need to be robust and weatherproof to survive sloshed VIPs, wet grass and the great British Summer.
A good exhibition stand builder will factor the environmental elements into the creative stand ideas they present to you. They’ll also be thinking about the logistics of a festival, which are always fun. Prosecco anyone?
Useful links for festival & outdoor exhibitors
> How to create an exhibition checklist you’ll stick to
> Making your stand more sustainable
> Exhibition stand hire
Meeting area ideas
Creating meeting space and privacy is always a challenge. Factoring this into your exhibition stand design from the start is important. Creating a private, intimate space can lead to more natural relaxed conversation, but remember to consider the following:
- How many people will be meeting at one time?
- Will you need presentation or laptop space?
- How sensitive will your discussions be?
- What is the overall stand space?
Useful links for B2B exhibitors
> A-Z of exhibition terminology
> Planning for a big trade show
> Common myths and misconceptions about sustainable stands
Taking vehicles and machinery onto an exhibition stand
For brands that need to showcase machinery or bring vehicles onto the stand, it takes a bit more planning. You’ll need to factor this into your schedule. In a hall where everyone is bringing in machinery, some of it several tonnes each, planning is key. You need the right equipment to get it to the venue in the first place, then the right lifting gear to move it to the stand and put it in the right spot.
“Moving a five-tonne machine that has been put in the wrong place isn’t straightforward, so getting it right the first time is essential.”
David Hennessy, Managing Director, Motive Exhibitions
Read how Finaids’ 8m x 8m stand, built around their machinery, drove a 30% increase in leads at MACH, NEC Birmingham
Read how All-Fill’s exhibition stand and a 6-tonne demo machine made it to Germany and back at Interpack, Düsseldorf
Creative exhibition stand ideas
Video wall
A super, high impact, LED wall will really make you stand out from the crowd. Available from most large exhibitions businesses as a rental unit a specialist team will work with the exhibition construction team and install the screen as a part of the display.
Coffee & juice bars
Coffee machines, water bottles, or a juice bar can offer something a little different for your customers to take a little time out of their day and for free!
TV displays
TV displays are a useful addition to your stand brief. If you have content that’s engaging, it makes sense to add this as moving images to your exhibition stand space to help draw in visitors.
Promotional materials
Brochures, product sheets, giveaways… What promotional materials will you need to produce to match your stand, and how will you display them? We offer exhibitors a range of brochure stands they can hire, but it’s worth factoring these in during the stand design stage, so they don’t look like an afterthought.
QR codes
QR codes can be used to collect visitor data or give them access to brochures, videos, demos or even virtual experiences from their phone.
Product demos
Actual or virtual; product demos are a great way to bring a new product to life.
Giveaways
A huge range of merchandise is available for giveaways. People are a little more conscious of sustainability, but a good set of useful, reusable merchandise products will give your visitors something to keep and keep you front and centre of their thoughts.
Exhibition stand games
A great way of getting interaction on an exhibition stand as crowds draw crowds and a game or competition will help draw people to your space. This then gives you the opportunity to be able to interact with your customers and visitors. They can also give your stand visitors a memorable experience that stays with them after the event.
One of our clients recently had their sales manager bring his close magic side hustle to the stand. He was really good, and the crowd loved it.
For other brands, a game becomes the focus of the stand itself, or a giveaway they become known for at that particular show. Something nostalgic always goes down well too, like Sonatype’s hook-a-duck, a play on words for their cyber quackdown stand theme, or Danfoss’s DeLorean to celebrate Danfoss through the decades.
A few more we’ve delivered on stands recently:
- A buzzer or reaction test, taken before trying the product and again after, so visitors see the difference for themselves
- A bowling alley with a swag prize station
- Spin the wheel
- A beer pouring contest, scored, with bragging rights on the leaderboard
- Sending a postcard, branded, from the exhibition stand to anywhere in the world
- Grabber machines, the arcade classic
- Timed and scored challenges that get people competing against each other, with a Top Gear-style leaderboard
Watch David on what makes an exhibition stand memorable.
Get seen: turn your stand into a show landmark
A hanging banner, suspended from the venue ceiling above your stand, puts your name in the air. Visible from across the hall, people spot you before they’ve even reached you. It’s not just for show either. Team it with trussing and you open up lighting rig options too, giving your space a more premium, defined feel.
Book your hanging banner early. You need to order it in advance so your stand builder can factor it into the design. Venues control all ceiling access directly too. You’ll book your rigging slot with them, not with your exhibition stand company.
You’ll need a space-only stand, and it only really makes sense from 4m x 4m upwards. Costs start from around £2,000 once you factor in venue rigging fees and production of the banner itself.
“If the competitor next to you has one and you don’t, visitors will see them before they see you.”
Edward Marshall, Creative Director, Motive Exhibitions
See hanging rigging used across different stands and shows.
My product is complicated. Can a stand actually sell it?
Not every product is physical. A product or service can be complex, and showing that on an exhibition stand requires a different approach and creative thinking.
“Using more than one format to show a complex product is useful, as you’ll have some visitors who already know about you and are keen to know more, and others who are curious about what’s on offer. It’s important your stand is able to deliver to every audience’s needs without overwhelming them.”
Edward Marshall, Creative Director, Motive Exhibitions
LED screens are a great option for this. A huge screen showing the benefits, or the product in action, is eye-catching from a distance. People don’t need to get close to interact, making an approach from your team easier and less full-on sales mode.
If you’re hosting demos or have a speaker, make sure someone’s hosting a reception area too. They can offer a drink, a snack, or a quick go on a game while visitors wait. This can be anyone from the business who’s warm, welcoming, and able to put visitors at ease. If you have a small team, you might choose to hire someone for the job for the duration of the show.
See how technical exhibitor EIVA used demos and scheduled talks to keep their stand busy
Food and drink stand activations
For brands whose product is food or drink, the stand is a chance to get it into people’s hands directly and show them what to do with it.
If you’re in an exhibition hall with thousands of other stands offering samples, how do you stand out?
“It is easy to come up with a stand concept in isolation, but when we’re designing a stand, we’re doing it with the knowledge of what the hall and the competition looks and smells like.”
Edward Marshall, Creative Director, Motive Exhibitions
Knowing exactly what you want from the show is key. Do you have a new product launching to a specific audience? Say you have a stand at a big show with thousands of people. What do you want them to do, think and feel? You can build a concept around the answers, whether that’s food theatre, an emotive connection to the product’s heritage or showing how to bring it to life in a real kitchen setting.
For French brand 1883 Syrups, building their brand in the UK market, we recreated a Parisian café, complete with TV screens showing the Eiffel Tower in fake windows.
Any exhibition stand contractor worth their salt, us included, is good at packing plenty of kit onto a small stand. One thing to watch is storage. You’ll have limited space, so replenishing stock means going off stand, which takes time and pulls a team member away.
Launching into a new product or a new market
Whether it’s a first show for a new product or the first time exhibiting in a market you haven’t cracked yet, work with an exhibition stand company who’s done this before. They’ll know how to make you look established, not like the new kid on the block.
The right exhibition can be one of the quickest ways to get a new product in front of a qualified buying audience. It’s worth asking how long it would take to reach that same number of people any other way. Think about the resource and sales time involved too.
Combining a practical need with a design idea can do double duty for a launch. For their UK market launch, Fleetwood Paints used giant versions of their own paint cans as a custom-built brand feature. They also doubled as storage for their free samples.
Read how Fleetwood Paints launched into the UK market at the Painting & Decorating Show, NEC, Birmingham.
If you’re taking an existing product into a new market, positioning, messaging and understanding your new audience become key. If you know your new audience is technical, make sure your approach mirrors the way they work.
For a new food or drink product, getting it into people’s hands matters for brand awareness. Storage, and the ability to replenish stock quickly, will matter to you too.
Tips and advice for seasoned and new exhibitors
Crunch the numbers and do your homework
Exhibitions drop in and out of favour. An exhibition that is consistently well marketed to a niche audience is likely to get great footfall. However, this takes a lot of investment. You might find with less marketing activity may result in fewer people but the exhibition costs remain high.
- Understand what the exhibition organiser’s marketing strategy is
- Don’t rely on their pitch alone, do your homework and crunch the numbers
- Have the visitor numbers been on a steady increase or decline?
- Has the size of the event increased or decreased?
- Do you know a previous non-competing exhibitor for their take on the event
- Is there a better place to have an exhibition stand, that will help deliver better results to the most suitable audience?
Planning and organising your exhibition stand
Organising an exhibition stand project when you run a busy business can be a challenge. Our exhibition checklist is perfect for keeping on track and will help you to diarise important aspects of the project so that there is no last minute rush and nothing gets forgotten.
Visit our blog for more useful articles and free downloadable guides.
The secret to a successful exhibition stand is:
- Planning
- Preparation
- A good brief
- Clarity about what you want to achieve and sticking with it
- Time – you need the time to do it properly (the more the better!)
- An exhibition team who takes time to understand your business, your overall objectives and can bring your ideas to life
- An experienced project manager within your chosen exhibition designers, to see you through the process, and take the load off you, to create a stress-free (and fun) experience
What type of exhibition stand do you need?
Custom stands
A custom built stand is tailored to your exhibition space and target audience and is totally unique to your brand. These tend to be seen on an island space or in large exhibition spaces.
Modular stands
Modular stands are a series of portable displays that are connected together to create one exhibition stand. The most versatile option; these can be reconfigured to suit the booked exhibition space.
Shell scheme stands
A shell scheme stand is the most common and the cheapest type of stand assigned to exhibitors when an exhibition space is booked. It is a predetermined uniform space ready to be dressed with graphics.
Ready to create your own showstopper?
Whether you’re bringing a brand into a new market for the first time or building on years of exhibiting experience, we can help.
- Contact us and tell us your plans.
- Explore our case studies and get inspired by what’s possible.
- Visit our exhibition stand services page to learn more about our work.
Motive Exhibitions, 3 Orion Court, Ambuscade Road, Colmworth Business Park, Eaton Socon, St. Neots, PE19 8YX
