Check out today’s blog from easyEventhire which looks at tips of how you can create the best interactive experiences at your events!
The world of events and exhibitions organising is a competitive one. This is obvious by just looking at the sheer number of trade shows and exhibitions that take place up and down the UK each year (the COVID years aside, of course). Whatever industry you can think of, there’s a related exhibition for that sector.
That’s all well and good, but for those people who are organising these events and exhibitions, the pressure is on each year to make the event bigger and better than the previous year. Visitors and exhibitors won’t want to be returning year in, year out, to the same event if they don’t see any progress or development in terms of event design, event hire, ideas and concepts on show – after all, exhibitors pay a lot of money to be at these types of events.
A key part of improving your event each year is to focus on the interactive experience for your visitors to your show. In this article, therefore, we take a look at some of the best ways to do this – after all, the more unique experiences and concepts on offer, the more memorable your event is likely to be for your guests – and you can be sure that they will tell others about it!
Live demos
A great way to improve the interactive element of your exhibition, trade show or event is to hold live production demonstrations. An example of this is at an emergency services show, where the fire service can demonstrate the latest cutting equipment to get people out of cars at road traffic accidents. Or it might be ambulance crews carrying out role-plays and different scenarios. Of course, depending upon what the demonstration is, these can be carried out either inside the exhibition hall or, indeed, outside.
For exhibitors who are outside, you can offer them not only space but also outdoor event equipment hire from suppliers in the UK, to make their ‘display’ look as good as it would have done indoors. Event hire London, for instance, is possible from a huge variety of suppliers such as easyEventhire. Another example of a ‘demonstration’ would be a catwalk at a fashion show – have the catwalk as the feature area in the middle of your trade show venue, and run hourly shows to capture the interest of your guests.
Aim for experiential events if possible!
And, taking this one step further, why not turn your demonstrations into experiential events, where your guests can participate and ‘have a go’. Whether it’s a challenge to change the wheel of an F1 car in less than 10 seconds, or a chocolatier or a sommelier offering live chocolate and wine tastings, these are sure to be met with interest, enthusiasm and energy. OK, so taking the above example, maybe participating in a fashion show isn’t to everyone’s liking, but you get the idea!
Use technology to your advantage
We live in the 21st century, and technology is moving at an incredible pace. There are two ways to approach this – either stick your head in the sand and try to ignore it, or embrace it! Those who take the time to learn about technology will find that it can provide enormous advantages, including helping to provide interactive experiences at events.
For example, if you are holding a seminar, lecture or keynote speaker session as part of your exhibition, trade show or event, then why not have a large video wall where guests can live tweet during your session, asking questions as you go. Even better, you can make your presentation what is called ‘user-selected’. In other words, during your presentation, there’s a live poll which determines which way your presentation goes, depending upon what your audience wants to learn about. And let’s not forge the people who couldn’t make it to your event for whatever reason – you could live stream your presentation, which is simple and affordable!
Run competitions
Competitions at trade shows, events and exhibition used to be about dropping a business card into a bowl and hoping it got picked out to win a prize. Things have developed since this, again with the help of technology. This can now be done by zappers that read the QR code on the e-bade of your delegates when they visit an area of your event or exhibition.
The great thing about this is as well as ‘entering them into a competition’, it also captures their name, email address and other details, which you can use post-event for marketing purposes. With anything like this, you also want to make a splash on social media, so get guests and visitors using the same hashtags and posting images and comments on your events wall.
Put together some interesting event bags
The final couple of tips are traditional, but still effective. How about putting together some event bags for your visitors. Everyone likes to take something away with them from an event, trade show or exhibition.
Rather than just including a pile of promotional leaflets (think of the environment!), how about putting some interactive toys in there or useful branded promotional items such as a branded USB stick, for instance, which will be useful for the visitor in the months to come. The obvious added benefit to this, of course, is that not only are they making good use of the merchandise, but they also see your brand every time they use it!
Always facilitate a Q&A session
And last, but by no means least, you should always leave some time at the end of events for a Q&A session – the opportunity for your visitors to get involved. OK, so perhaps not as exciting as some other ideas, but invaluable nonetheless as it provides the classic interactive experience.
Hopefully the tips above will have provided you with some ideas about how to make your events or exhibitions more interactive. All that is left for us to do is to wish you all the best with your event planning!
