TRADE SHOWS PART 8 – OUR BOOTH DESIGN

I want to remind you of the four elements from a previous blog:

1. The clutter factor.

2. The color factor.

3. The labor factor.

4. The cost factor.

I want to start by discussing what you get when you plunk your money down for a booth. We are participating in three buyer shows (nonpublic) this year, and all of them have different booth configurations. It’s maddening. If you sign up for a buyer’s show, pay close attention to the exhibitor manual to determine what the booth configuration requirements are.

By configuration, I mean kind of booth space is provided for you. For our three buyer shows this year, we are encountering three different configurations (a different one for each show!):

1. A spot on the floor. Nothing else. You provide everything else, including a solid back wall (no pipe/drape allowed). (Our Chicago show)

2. A booth with eight-foot pipe/drape walls on three sides. You don’t get to pick the color. (Our Seattle show)

3. A booth with an eight-foot pipe/drape back and three-foot pipe/drape sidewalls on each side. Again, you don’t get to pick the color. You will often have height restrictions for your display with this type of booth as well. (Our Vegas show)

Our booth is tiny—either a 10x10 space or a 10x15 space. Between our retail show booth and our buyer show booth, we have built in an enormous amount of flexibility that allows us to handle just about any configuration easily without spending more money. All told, I think we have spent about $500 on our retail booth (including the canopy and side panels for outdoor events) over the past couple of years and closer to $1000 for our buyer show booth.

Below is a picture of our buyer show booth setup in a space 10 feet wide by 15 feet deep. In this entry, I will discuss this booth setup in detail, including the supplies used and where we purchased them.

When we arrived at our first ever buyer show, the booth was 8-foot high muslin drape on all three sides. Great if you have a black sign and your merchandise pops against muslin. Our signs are white. They disappeared into the muslin. Luckily, this show was in Seattle and I happened to have 45 yards of 210D urethane-coated nylon at home, and it was the right color to make the signs pop. This stuff is quite cheap wholesale from Top Value Fabrics (about $2 per yard). We set up our booth, took measurements, then went home and for the next five hours, sewed up 9’8” by 8’ high royal blue panels to cover the muslin. We put grommets in the top to be able to hang them from the pipe, and they hung great!

Our next show, the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago, provided nothing but a spot on the floor. We ordered a metal frame from the Flourish Company (the frame for mesh panels) that cost $369 including shipping. This frame sets up with two people, breaks down completely, can be shipped or hauled in the truck easily, and allows us a great deal of flexibility because we can drape it with whatever we want. The bottom bar is adjustable, so it pulls the fabric taut. Because we needed a channel in the fabric to put it on the frame, we folded over the top of the aforementioned blue panels, then put a channel in the bottom, and voila! We could cover the frame with the same blue panels. If necessary, we can take out this stitching to again use it to cover muslin sides. The fabric panels fold and ship easily.

This panel idea is considered pipe and drape, and we received a violation notice for such (they do not allow pipe and drape of any kind). We did not understand the whole pipe and drape thing yet. By the end of show, however, we were informed that we could use the same configuration next year. Go figure.

This blue fabric is not flame retardant, which could be an issue at some shows.

Now to the pedestals. We priced pedestals, and ouch! Not in our budget. So, we made them. We ordered 12”x12”x40” cardboard boxes for $2.09 apiece from ULine. We bought fire-retardant fabric for $3.45 per yard from the local costume/display supply store (Display & Costume Supply) and made covers for the boxes. The different heights are achieved by cutting off the boxes at different lengths. We then fold the fabric up inside the box and tape it. They look great, and people always want to buy the covers from us. To create a smooth top, we put 12”x12” polystyrene plastic squares on the tops of the boxes under the fabric. These are not necessary, but they square things up nicely. You can get the plastic from a local plastic supplier like Tap Plastics and have them cut it for you. All told, the pedestals cost us $8.15 apiece. We placed empty packaging boxes on top of them. Our pedestals allow easy access to the booth and allow one to quickly scan our goods while keeping clutter to a minimum.

We design our own signs. We then email the files to U Printing in California. They are super cheap and very quick. We usually receive the finished banners back in about a week. I know everyone can’t do this. In that case, I would spend a little more and get some expert advice and service from a local sign shop. The signs were between $75 and $125 apiece, probably our most expensive item.

The fabric banners and tablecloth are from the local fabric store. One yard gives us three banners, so the banners and tablecloth fabric on sale cost us about $20.

We splurged on a new, smaller folding, shippable table, which cost us $22 at Costco. The chairs, small and lightweight, cost $17 apiece at our local variety store.

The flooring is 2”x2”, 3/8” thick foam squares that puzzle together. We paid $104 for 125 square feet through GetRung. You can buy thicker ones, but the thinner ones ship great, and with the carrying case, they can go as checked baggage on a plane. So, we like the thinner ones better. You can also buy carpet squares or rent carpet for your booth.

The other goodies are plastic sign holders and easels that we get at Best Fixtures International, our local fixture supply store. They probably cost us about $20 for what you see there.

Other than a few office supplies and informational fliers, that’s about it for us. I am sure I am forgetting something, but I hope this helps you. Happy planning!