How Modular Systems Allow for Greater Trade Show Booth Portability

Today’s guest post comes to you from freelance trade show reporter Sarah Bridgewater.

So, your company has decided to put together a trade show booth. Congratulations! Trade shows and conventions are great ways to get your name out there, drum up excitement, and get a sense of what your competition is doing.

But you already knew that. And you know that having an amazing booth is a vital part of a successful trade show experience, so you want it professionally designed to wow trade show attendees and get you a lot of attention. Too many people who don’t really understand design and marketing try to put together their own booths, so by making this decision, you’re already ahead of the game.

Now, however, you have a decision to make. Do you call in a professional designer to build you a booth from scratch to make sure that it’s completely unique and specific to what your company wants to do? What about just getting banners and pop-up displays? Or maybe you should go with a company selling modular systems?

Professional Booth Designer

Using a professional designer to build a booth from scratch will ensure that your booth tells your customers exactly what you want it to, but there are negatives. First off, designing from scratch is far more expensive than the other two options—after all, you’re having someone create something entirely new! It also limits you because making something very specific will make it more difficult to move pieces around and change things out—not so great if you’ll be going to several shows, which most businesses are.

Banners and Pop-Ups

Going with banners and pop-ups is certainly cost effective, but unfortunately your customers will probably be able to see every penny that you saved. With few exceptions, this is generally not the impression that you want to be giving off to potential buyers—or your competition!

Modular Displays: The Flexible Option

Modular displays fall right in the middle and have a number of advantages that the other two just can’t match. Because these systems aren’t built from scratch, like ones from an individual professional designer, you can get them at a fraction of the cost and still put out an attractive display. And though they are more expensive than banners and pop-ups, they’re far more functional—many come with things like workstations, storage, cabinets, retail racks, and more.

But the most important thing about modular systems is in the name itself: they are able to be modified to fit your needs. This means that you can move the individual pieces of the system around to create entirely different displays. How is this helpful?

• You can update the look of your display over time by changing things out.
• You can make sure that people going to multiple shows won’t feel like they can ignore your booth because it’s just the same old same old.
• You can change your focus by using different pieces—one trade show might use more retail shelves because your goal is sales, while the next one will utilize video displays and remove the shelves altogether so that you can concentrate on letting people know about a new product.
• You can transport it easily because it’s in so many smaller pieces, as well as reconfigure your display to fit into the space you have been given at a particular show or convention.

The real key with modular systems is that you get flexibility along with professional design. If your business frequents trade shows, those are incredibly valuable things to have.

About the Author:

Sarah Bridgewater has been covering trade shows for over a decade. When she is not writing, she can be found at home with her family or working with companies like Nimlok graphics.

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