Display Stand Design & How to Attract Attendees
Most trade shows are large and crowded; full of bright colors, loud conversations, and lots of display stands, hanging signs, and banner stands. As an exhibitor, you’re going to be competing for the attention of the crowd. In order to succeed, your booth design ideas need to engage the customers and draw them to your display stand. 
There are a variety of ways to accomplish this. Your message plays an important role in engaging visitors, and we’ll talk about that in future posts. Today, we’re going to consider the senses. How can you appeal to what everyone sees, hears, and maybe even smells in a way that would draw them to your exhibit booth?
The most important part of your display stand that visitors are going to see is your visual display. There are many different types of trade show displays to choose from as well as different types of materials to use in the display. You could choose a portable pop-up display, a trade show truss display, a tension fabric display, a modular display, or you could choose to custom design your own display. Before you make your choice for either your display or your messaging, you need to ensure that they both represent your organization and your image well. A little creativity goes a long way when it comes to generating interest in your booth with your display and your signage.
Something that moves and makes some noise inside your booth is bound to get attention. In this vein, you want to ensure that you have a presentation of some sort going on inside your booth. You could choose to have something simple such as a video presentation on a monitor or two inside the display stand. There are counters that hold iPads, digital banner stands and other tools for providing arresting audio-visual presentations. If you want a presentation that’s more involved than a PowerPoint, you could pay to have a professionally produced video made to play inside the booth, or you could hire live presenters to work your booth. You can even have your staff wear digital name badges with ongoing presentations! 
Whichever choice you make, you want to keep in mind that the presentation should be both informational and entertaining. The purpose of the presentation is to keep trade show visitors engaged inside your booth until your staff is free to talk to them personally.
Chances are, you’re going to want to use some sort of trade show lighting in your booth. Sometimes, the only lighting you really want or need is the spotlight that highlights your signage. This spotlight will draw attention to your company’s name and your message. However, colored lights can work to create a certain mood in your booth, whether the mood that best complements your organization and your message is exciting, peaceful, or friendly. If you should choose multi-colored lighting that changes, you’re guaranteed to draw attention to your booth. Again, you just want to ensure that this mood matches your message.
Guaranteed attention-getters for exhibitors are food and beverages. Attendees get hungry and thirsty, so, if you offer them something to eat and drink, they’ll visit your booth. However, you will likely end up with many visitors that are not good prospects for your company. In addition, serving in your booth can be expensive, especially if you have to buy items from the show catering service. If you choose to serve snacks, make sure you have a way to weed out the visitors who aren’t good prospects.
There are a multitude of ways to use your display stand and signage to attract attention to your booth and to engage your visitors. You simply have to decide which one(s) will best help you accomplish your exhibition goals, which ones best represent your organization as a whole, and which ones fit your budget.