Do Your Exhibits and Displays have “Hassle Free” Zones?

Here’s an idea to try on for size: What if a good way of making your trade show exhibits and displays stand out and boost engagement would be to leave your visitors alone?

It sounds counter-intuitive, but creating a “hassle free zone” is a brand new concept that trade show exhibitors are beginning to play with, and some are reporting good results. We’ve talked before about how crowded, noisy, and busy trade shows can be and different ways of alleviating the stress on your visitors. Offering relief like a quiet area or cool drinks is often a successful strategy.20x30 custom trade show booth with tension fabric-resized-600

Much like the quiet zones in some mall book stores, hassle-free zones take this idea to its logical extreme: give over part of your trade show displays and exhibits to a section where your staff should not go, where guests can browse your demos and information entirely at their own leisure.

The Appeal Of No Hassle Zones In Displays and Exhibits

We’ve all been in a store where over-eager sales staff follow you around and hover behind you the entire time you shop, no matter how we try to politely signal them that we’d just like to browse in peace. Well, a trade show is like this, except that every salesman is hovering and pestering.

Sometimes a trade show visitor just wants a little time to think their own thoughts, without interruptions and distractions.

This trend tends to be more pronounced in the younger generations who are more comfortable with interactive devices and Internet usage. Growing up researching things for themselves tends to make them leery of people solely pushing their own point of view.

Either way, it’s not like you’re cutting yourself off from these visitors. If they have a question, they still generally seek out someone to ask. They’re just engaging with your displays and exhibits on their own terms.

Adding a Hassle-Free Zone To Your Trade Show Booths

This is ideally needs a somewhat larger trade show booth. You probably don’t want to make your entire booth a no hassle zone, although I’m sure some avant garde wizkid will give it a shot someday just to see what happens. However, you do need enough space to “carve out” the portion that will become hassle-free.

It should be sectioned off somehow. Just using tables with materials on them could work, or different colored carpet and furniture (like the photo above) might work. You could go a bit further and create an enclosure that helps block out some of the noise of the convention as well.

These zones should, of course, be well-stocked with materials and activities. You could include:MOD-1338_iPad_Kiosk 4 units in one kiosk-resized-600

  • Tablets with pamphlets and other information.

  • iPad kiosks with self-serve demonstrations, videos, or guest books.

  • Small video displays with headphones for watching promotional videos.

  • Hands-on demo products or exhibits.

  • QR Codes that add documents, email addresses, or software to your visitors’ devices.

  • A water cooler or other inexpensive refreshment service.

  • Possibly a couple comfortable seats for reading.

Otherwise, make sure you have signs and banners up designating this area as being “hassle-free,” and of course everything you put in it should require no outside assistance to operate. Then let them browse and approach you with questions as they like.

Does No Interaction = Good Interaction?

This is a new idea, so you’d be going a bit out on a limb trying it in your exhibits and displays. Our take is that this is most likely to succeed if your target audience is younger or more tech-savvy, although it could work in any situation where you think your visitors will be stressed and want some “quiet time.”

If you’ve tried out a no hassle zone, let us know how it went! Is this something people should try?

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