The Importance of Corporate Identity and Corporate Design in the European Tradeshow & Exhibition-Environment.
Last month we spoke about the importance to convey your sales-message through your booth-design. Today we want to explore other important components of a successful participation in a European show. "Corporate Identity" and "Corporate Design" have come to be the key terms for the presentation of Companies at trade fairs. Due to different fair-concepts this is especially important when exhibiting in Europe.
Key-Factors are:
Key-Factors are:
- Design
- Infrastructure
- Sales are common on shows
- Meeting-/Conference-/Board-rooms
- Hospitality: Eating, Drinking, Smoking
Shows in Europe are in general “sales-shows”, where the success of a show is measured in actual turn-over and revenue. Therefore attention has to be given to certain key-factors when designing and planning your booth, which, in the United States would be rather unimportant.
As the title of this article says, your booth has to reflect your companies identity. How your company presents itself in a show, is one of the areas, you will be judged by your client. If your company is a rather large company, you should not rent the smallest space. It all starts with a straight forward, elegant and high quality booth-construction. Logos and Graphics, as well as the “building” which constitutes your base away from home, should reflect your corporate design. Furniture, workstations, just everything that’s necessary to complete your presentation, has to be in line with your overall design-theme.
A very important area of your booth is the meeting- and hospitality section. For negotiations with your clients you need to have sufficient conference-room space, for undisturbed “closed-door-talks”. Do not combine storage and conference. Have coat-racks and lockable sideboards available for your guests. In many convention-centers abroad, smoking is still permitted. That is why ash-trays are still an important accessory. If you plan to bring your Executive-Board or CEO and they invite other CEO’s, you might want to have a room, especially furnished for that purpose, or some kind of lounge, with upgraded furniture, bar and ample space to either move around or sit down in comfortable leather-couches.
If your booth is going to be perfect, it also has a semi-private hospitality area with a bar-counter, where you can meet and greet clients, before you actually go into private conferencing. You may serve alcoholic beverages at the bar and in the meeting rooms. I would go as far to say that this is expected. Wine, Beer, Champagne, should be standard-beverages in your pantry, besides Coffee, Tea, Juices and Soft-Drinks.
Depending on the available space in your booth, you want to have a kitchen, which is equipped with refrigerator, Microwave, Espresso-machine, sink (hot and cold water), a dishwasher and glass-washer, (yes, that has become a standard), and a complete set of glass and china. If space allows, you will be able to serve your clients with Frankfurters, sandwiches and maybe even light warm meals like soups, etc.
Having a professional bar-tender behind your bar is something you might want to consider, if you are expecting a lot of people to be served. And because you do not have to involve a local caterer, you need to have your own service-staff to prepare and serve beverages and food and clean up dishes.
The good news is, that’s an advantage for you, because you can save money and purchase all of your catering in the next supermarket. (Exhibit-builders are prepared to rent and connect all kitchen-equipment for you).
Having a professional bar-tender behind your bar is something you might want to consider, if you are expecting a lot of people to be served. And because you do not have to involve a local caterer, you need to have your own service-staff to prepare and serve beverages and food and clean up dishes.
The good news is, that’s an advantage for you, because you can save money and purchase all of your catering in the next supermarket. (Exhibit-builders are prepared to rent and connect all kitchen-equipment for you).
I hope you've found this article interesting and useful for planning your next exhibition. If you have any questions about this or other related topics, please don't hesitate to contact me by phone at
Copyright Horst Tondasch, 2007 - 2010