These days, one of the single best multi-purpose items you can purchase for your trade show displays is a tablet computer, such as an iPad for your trade show booth. These have been seen increasingly in more and more applications over the past few years, especially as tablets have become more functional and more affordable.
If you haven’t looked into using tablets with your trade show displays, now would be a good time to investigate them. While they may be more expensive, at first, than a banner stand or pop-up display, they can be pressed into a number of different roles.
The Benefits of Using Tablet PCs at Your Trade Show Displays
Just to begin with, tablets don’t have to be tied specifically to your trade show displays. They could be put to use among your staff 90% of the year for other business applications, and simply recollected when a trade show is around the corner. So, their ROI doesn’t have to be justified solely in terms of their value at expositions.
Beyond that, though, looking just at their use in trade show exhibits, they can serve multiple roles in pretty much every aspect of your display. It is simple to attach tablet pc holders directly to your modular displays, or to use stand-alone kiosks or counters to hold them for you too. Also, since individual tablets are relatively inexpensive, you can often have multiple devices set up serving different roles at the same show. Here are just a few examples:
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Create user-driven slideshows. Even very basic inexpensive apps can be used to create professional slideshow displays that visitors can flip through and examine at their leisure. Mirroring software can also allow you to occasionally put these displays up on a big screen, for public presentation.
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Have interactive demos. If you have a product that’s difficult to visualize on paper and can’t fit in your trade show displays, the computing power of a tablet makes it possible to create virtual 3D demos of your products. Even better, in many cases these apps can also be made available to the public, so that interested visitors can download their own copy.
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Put together video libraries. Any modern tablet has enough storage space to hold hours of high-quality video. If you have a number of promotional corporate videos you’d like to show, you can put them on a tablet so that people can peruse them at their leisure. Using video in your trade show helps with engagement.
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Make contest or mailing list signups easy. One of the most basic, yet effective, uses for a tablet in trade show booths is for lead-gathering. Any number of applications exist that allow a user to enter their information to receive a copy of your business card, sign up for your mailing list, or enter a contest. It’s easier than filling out little slips of paper, and tablets are still novel enough that newcomers often just like playing with them.
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Unobtrusively track your visitors. People scribbling on notepads at a trade show display sometimes makes visitors uncomfortable, but no one thinks twice about hosts twiddling with an iPad or smartphone. This makes it easy to have one employee keeping notes on good leads to be later shared with your sales team.
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Create surveys. Customer feedback is a vital aspect of trade show displays. Setting up one tablet with a quick visitor survey can be quite effective in getting people to share their thoughts on your display, helping you improve future efforts without having to hand-tabulate results.
Takeaway
Tablet computers are quickly becoming mainstays of modern trade show displays for great reason. You can use them in a number of different roles, often simultaneously, and still use them as business tools the rest of the year. It’s an investment that could be well worth it for your company.