Making the New Landscape of Events Work for You

The pandemic changed many things. It increased sanitation and health precautions in everyday life, and it resulted in even more awareness and intentionality about how people choose to spend their time. 

One result? The landscape for tradeshows and conventions looks different in many ways. 

Hybrid and virtual events

We’ve seen many events that have been in-person for decades transition to virtual in the past year, and we’ve felt how that changed the landscape of events in general. However, as things reopen, many events are going hybrid, meaning that they take place both in-person and via an online platform. Participants can choose whether they wish to attend the physical event or the remote version.

This cuts down on travel costs and causes the crowd sizes at the physical events to be much smaller. It also allows the event to include people who never would have been able to attend a totally in-person event, making it an excellent opportunity to extend the reach of your business. 

Take this opportunity to translate your beautifully designed physical booth to virtual by taking stunning pictures of your physical set-up to post as the background or banner on your profile for your virtual booth. 

The design effects or your banners and signage don’t have to be lost—they just have to be tweaked to get the full effect, even from hundreds of miles away. 

Standing out on online platforms

With online events, we’re seeing new design opportunities for businesses, including the presence of digital booths and online conference halls. 

A huge benefit of these online platforms lies in the pre-event networking opportunities. Since participants are able to create their virtual booths before the conference has begun, they gain added connection time with their colleagues and customers. Both get the chance to vet the booths before arriving at the conference, and they may have added insights on who to connect with once the festival starts. 

Additionally, live streams of events aren’t going away. This gives businesses an excellent way to gain more exposure. It does present a challenge on how presentations will best translate, however. Presenters need to be careful to bring materials that will translate well to virtual platforms as well. 

In the old days, small physical incentives might have been part of a presentation. Now, we see presenters making the switch to e-materials, including digital flyer distribution or giveaways of digital materials. 

Want to level up your game here and unite the virtual and the physical worlds? 

Consider sending virtual registrants physical incentives in the mail a few days before the conference has started. This will increase your brand’s reach, and it will also incentivize potential customers to commit to attending your virtual sessions. You can also put together a package with your company’s flyers and business cards for good measure.

In-Person Events

In-person events are coming back—but with a few major differences.

For one thing, we’re seeing smaller crowds at in-person events. That’s not bad news, though: these crowds might be fewer in number, but the investment of participants might be significantly higher. We’re coining this phrase: smaller but better. 

Investing in booth signs is still a good idea—your high-intent customers will be struck by your unique designs and will be even more likely to buy from you than before. It’s also particularly important to have a strong brand identity. If consumers can search through the virtual hall and then come visit the physical one, they will be confronted with many booths. You need to make sure yours stands out with new and cutting-edge designs. 

Leave an impression with a beautiful booth or floor wrap directing them to your booth—you won’t regret the investment, especially when your ideal customer decides to buy. 

Safety signage—floor and wall decals

Because social distancing is still in place for many large crowd gatherings, signs directing people how to proceed through a hall and how to interact with the booths in a physical space offer an opportunity to get creative and continue to extend the reach of your work. 

You can also use wall decals to inform people about the precautions that you are taking on their behalf to ensure a safe in-person event, and floor decals (or even full floor wraps!) can also direct people towards hand sanitizer stations. 

Use this occasion to offer instruction with a clever branded sign or banner detailing how the social distancing protocol is in effect, or use floor decals with your logo on them to help your new network understand how to distance appropriately. 

Increased flexibility for trade shows

The biggest alteration as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic is an increase in flexibility in location, as well as an infusion of technology in all areas of our trade shows. 

As presenters and attendees, it’s important to be adaptable through these changes, updating your expectations to adjust to the new landscape of events.

The benefits? Companies that adapt early can do more than just cope with these changes—they can leverage them for increased reach, higher sales figures, and an elevated brand reputation. 

Interested in getting your event ready for virtual or in-person? Get in touch—we’re here to help!