Did you happen to be a guest at the Bloovi Entrepreneurs Summit last week? Then no doubt you have seen us standing there. With a strikingly colorful book stand and a rabidly enthusiastic team, we immersed visitors in our world of ink and paper for two days. In this article you can read all about how we prepared for the event as well as the enthusiastic reception from the audience in attendance!

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The 3 principles of a trade show booth

The Bloovi Entrepreneurs Summit was programmed for Thursday, Sept. 8 and Friday, Sept. 9 at Flanders Expo Ghent. The event was designed to give entrepreneurs and companies new business insights in these difficult times. We too had reserved a place with our printing company among the exhibitors. The goal: to introduce entrepreneurs to Buroform, INKOprint and, of course, the endless possibilities of print. The remedy: a colorful and purposeful 3D booth that would blow any passerby away.

So how exactly did we go about building an effective and targeted booth? We assumed three principles that you can feel free to apply to your future trade show booths as well!

1. The showstopper

First and foremost, we needed a showstopper: something that would make visitors stop and encourage them to visit our booth. It is an element that is often overlooked and that is a shame. Do you have a showstopper that works? Then you save your sales team a lot of energy to engage people and get them excited about your product. In other words, they get more time to deal with interested parties in a qualitative way.

For our showstopper, we looked for it in the culinary corner: baking waffles! And of course no ordinary waffles, but hearts because “We love print! In addition, the waffle sticks were personalized with our logo. This way we killed two birds with one stone: we showed that print is everywhere and created goodwill with the people. In any case, the concept turned out to be a tasteful one. After a while, visitors simply came to the smell already.

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2. The lead generator

The goal of each exhibitor is to further expand their own network and generate leads. To do that, of course, you need to collect data. It does not have to be in a boring and showy way at all. With a touch of humor and the necessary creativity, you will achieve much more. We ourselves built a compact room, made of a false reboard wall containing a laser machine, computer and Sarah, a colleague who would personalize notebooks for our visitors. Because the little room seemed so small, it gave the impression of being an automatic machine.

The process was very simple: passersby chose the color of their notebook, entered their name on the computer and seconds later a personalized notebook came out of the machine with their name on it. Very simple, but personalization works. You give people something that you created especially for them. The response to the booklets was therefore blazingly enthusiastic.

Obviously, we didn’t just want to get people excited about Buroform. We also wanted to highlight our online platform INKOprint.be. To do that, we made a mini-golf course out of reboard. Did you hit a hole-in-one? Then you got a lifetime 10% discount on all products at INKOprint.be. Did you make the hole, but didn’t succeed at once? Then you still returned home with your head held high and a nice 5% discount.

To redeem the discount, participants had to quickly and easily create an account on the INKOprint.be website. For that, we had a computer creatively incorporated into a matching reboard stand. Briefly enter the necessary data, click and done!

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“When I look at your bookcase like this, I see rock ‘n’ roll. You guys are daring. Maybe even a little rebellious, and that radiates from your printed matter. Everything on display here has that extra touch.”

3. The forget-me-not

Generating leads is one thing. But you also want those leads to remember you later. Thanks to the notebook, our printing company will remain top-of-mind for a long time to come. Reason one: the printing is personalized with the name. You always keep something like that.

Reason two: the booklet was beautifully finished, with a linen cover and Swiss binding. Thus, it embodied everything our printing company stands for: high-quality printing that has that extra touch.

Finally, we also provided a flyer with additional info about INKOprint and a business card in a matching pocket square. In this way, our visitors not only received all the important info about our company, they also now have our contact information right at hand.

Comments from visitors

A 3D waffle stand. A printing machine that personalizes notebooks in as little as one minute. A miniature golf course. And a bookcase with the very best books. We put an awful lot of time, energy and creativity into developing our trade show booth. When you then reap admiration for that, it does a tremendous amount of good. From the first moment, we were flooded with rave reviews from curious exhibitors. One of the organizers even talked about the most beautiful in the entire hall. That we had apparently exceeded the requested dimensions, he was even happy to take it.

In all our enthusiasm, we had anticipated a little too many elements. Therefore, we looked for creative solutions. We distributed our finest magazines among the lounge tables at our booth. Two two-meter-high cardboard trees and a display case we place just outside it. Thus, we created just a little more volume to attract the attention of passersby.

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Visitors also sprinkled compliments. The best came from someone who asked our sales Kelly on the spot, “Who are you and what do you do? To which she replied with a wink, “If you look at our booth, what would you think? The visitor described it as follows: ‘When I look at your bookcase like this, I see rock ‘n’ roll. You guys are daring. Maybe even a little rebellious, and that radiates from your printed matter. Everything shown here has that extra touch.’ ‘That’s exactly who we are and what we stand for,’ Kelly replied.

It can’t get more beautiful than that, can it? So you see: you don’t have to put your name on everything in the long and wide to show people your brand and identity. Just show who you are and what you do.

Thinking outside the cardboard box?

We used reboard for all the decoration. This is a multipurpose board that is not only sturdy, but also a true lightweight. Ideal for setting up and taking down a trade show booth. In the video below you can see very well how smoothly everything went:

Are you going to be at a trade show yourself soon and curious about how to create an original trade show booth? Then make an appointment with Kelly or Jesse. They are happy to discuss with you how to get the most out of your event!