How to Create the Ultimate Trade Show Booth

Everyone knows: Trade shows are about the booths. If you’re managing an event, you’ll need to stick out to garner attention. Fortunately, 2017 is a year of creativity. A lot of today’s conferences have drawn attention to crowded show floors, inspiring event-goers with astounding exhibitions. Buckle up, and check out these ultimate trade show booth ideas.

Idea One: Virtual Reality

Today’s exhibitors, like Intel, are utilizing VR to engage event-goers without spending money on expensive equipment. Sure, an Oculus Rift or Vive might cost some money, but it’s little compared to the cost of a live-action car display, a hotel tour or a roller coaster ride. If you can get your guests to don headsets for at least five minutes, you can educate them with interactive games.

Idea Two: Custom T-Shirt Design Creation

You can help your event-goers craft custom T-shirts with a digital design booth. If you can pack the colors, the threads and a few iPads, you’re in business. Use the display to promote your company’s products, and help your brand’s biggest buffs implement your logo across a variety of clothing options.

Idea Three: A Home Theater Option

By presenting educational presentations via a digital display, you can outfit your trade booth for the 21^st century. Your company can live-stream a variety of sessions, launching different product options across high-quality video. Companies like Philips are taking advantage of real-time streaming, showing event-goers high-quality sessions via Periscope. If you’re really dedicated, hook your digital theater up to social media sharing resources.

Idea Four: Large-Scale Chalkboard Engagement

While your event-goers won’t necessarily be up for study sessions, they’ll still engage your brand if you let them leave notes, make company connections and interact with one another via chalkboard. Invite your booth visitors to post sticky notes, comment on industry trends and leave their own art. You’d be surprised by the amount of care some attendees will give. Every chalkboard engagement, of course, should prioritize your brand’s adaptability. Let your event-goers have fun, but offer your business’s offers through every note and connection.

Making the ultimate trade show booth takes time. Fortunately, you have a lot of elements to play with. Customers want far more than generic samples, business cards and information pamphlets. Give them an experience, and connect them to the digital world when possible. By connecting your users with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, you can promote a sense of community from within every booth. Today’s trade show operators are working hard to promote their overarching brand. If you want to compete, you’ll need to offer something unique and exciting.

How to Wow People with a Vegan Menu

If you're going to be serving food at your event, it's important to choose menu items that everyone can and will eat. This will be hard if you try to make a different menu for all of the many common dietary variations. Instead, try combining gluten-free and vegan to create dishes that almost everyone will love. One of the most important things you'll need to keep in mind is the difference between vegetarian and vegan. Vegetarian dishes may include eggs, milk, and other products that ultimately come from animals. Vegan food, on the other hand, includes none of that. Only plants and plant products are allowed.

Choosing the Menu Items

The key to wowing a mixed-preference audience with vegan dishes is to avoid the bland, diet-type fare non-vegans often associate with this type of food. Instead, make sure the meals are tasty. Hire caterers that use spices and sauces liberally to pump up the flavor volume and add delicious-looking color to the dishes. Also, make sure that your catering company is used to cooking for vegans. Such companies will have plenty of delicious recipes already developed.

If You Can Field Two Menus, Offer Both Meat and Meat-Free Options

When you're providing lunch, meat-eaters likely won't be too put out if they don't get any meat in the meal. The same cannot be said of dinner. Unless your company gets marketing points from going all-vegan, offer a meat-included menu for this meal along with the vegan one. Note, however, that some vegans insist that their food be cooked in different areas than those used to cook meat! Fortunately, there are some caterers out there that will actually cater to even this demand.

Always Remember the Possibility of Allergies

The days when you could just serve a mystery sauce or meal are over. For reasons that are not quite understood, the incidence of life-threatening food allergies is higher than it was just 30 or 40 years ago. Therefore, you should always list potential food allergens. It's also important to know for certain exactly what is in everything, vegan or not.

This isn't to say that it's dangerous to serve meals. You simply need to know what is in all of the food so you and your staff can give accurate answers to those who ask about the ingredients.

With these things in mind, you'll be able to serve anything from a snack to a feast and have it be both safe and impressive. The final thing you'll need is a venue. If your event is in Miami, try our event and exhibition area here at Soho Studios. We offer up to 70,000 square feet that can be configured to meet all of your event needs.

How to Create a Buzz Worthy Event

Every company wants its event to create plenty of buzz. In fact, it's usually the entire point of putting on an exhibition or other show. Despite this, hundreds of events pass by almost unnoticed every year. How can you make sure that yours is remembered and talked about instead of fading into obscurity? Set Your Goals

Your event needs a goal beyond simply entertaining people. As an event planner, you need to ask your clients what they want to accomplish with their expo. Do they want to introduce a new product, increase buzz about an older one, or promote their company in a more general way? By having a clear end-goal in mind right from the start, you'll be able to better focus your event.

Know Your Audience

An internal, corporate audience will respond to a far different type of presentation than a crowd from the general public. Playing to the media requires a presentation style all its own. For corporate audiences, keep things crisp and concise so they don't start thinking of other things they could be doing. The public and media, on the other hand, may be glad to immerse themselves in your show for hours if it's compelling enough.

Plan

One of the biggest dangers of putting on an event is that it'll seem aimless. The other danger is that it'll end up beset by snafus. Worst of all is some combination of the two. Avoiding these issues is as simple as planning everything down to the last detail. Everything from the venue to the brochures on the tables should be carefully thought out. Be sure to have backup plans just in case you have to adapt to unexpected changes in your original one, too.

Be Ready for On-Site Surprises

All of the best planning will go awry if you aren't prepared for the inevitable turns of events that occur whenever big crowds come together. Make all of your props and sets resistant to jostling, spilled drinks, and other such things. No matter what happens, keep your cool – you want attendees to focus on the event itself, not your reaction to an unplanned surprise.

Assign Clear Roles to All Staff

In order for a team to work efficiently, everyone must know what their responsibilities are. A team without clear roles is like a football team where nobody knows who's supposed to be the quarterback – it wouldn't be remotely effective. Make sure everyone has a clear plan for their own individual roles.

Host Your Event in the Proper Venue

Our 70,000-square-foot venue here at Soho Studios in Miami can be configured for both small and large events. If you're hosting an exhibition in the area, be sure to stop by. You'll find that it's perfect for both corporate and public events.

How Demos Can Boost Your Brand Awareness

In the world of marketing, brand awareness is paramount. More often than not, product and service demos are solid foundations. If you want to boost sales, increase awareness and maximize your outreach, you’ll need to prioritize presentation, usability and—most of all—excitement. Check out the top reasons brands are demonstrating with demos, and redefine your marketing strategy from the ground up.

Reason One: Higher Sales

Using demos is smart, sales-wise. In fact, a lot of brands are optimizing their expenses to streamline in-store samples and demos. Studies prove that in-store demos boost same-day sales, brand franchise sales and long-term consumer habits. Even if you’re not a food provider, samples exist in other forms. That said, food-based samples alone can greatly impact sales. As an example, Costco samples reportedly boost sales by approximately 2,000 percent.

Reason Two: Lead Generation

Today, everything is digital. Because your consumers are using smartphones, Facebook and instant-access eCommerce portals, you’ll need to prioritize your brand’s lead generation power. How? By inviting consumers to receive special deals via SMS, email and social media posts. Consumers love free demos—especially if there’s little work involved. By offering demos, samples and discounts via a digital marketing strategy, you can boost your brand’s lead generation before buyers show up.

Reason Three: More Testimonials

In our highly digital world, positive online reviews are must-haves. Brands capable of inspiring high emotional intensity, on average, achieve three times as many positive reviews as other brands. Highly differentiated brands, too, earn positive word-of-mouth. If you can woo your customers with solid demos, exhibits and free trials, you’ll be set. Prioritize your brand’s emotional appeal, first. Then, focus on general marketing tactics.

Reason Four: Ongoing Sales Security

A solid demo campaign can boost sales over time. This is why marketers often take the experiential route—as they can reduce expenses by combining PR campaigns with on-location demo events. Immediate sales are important, sure, but they’re incomparable to ongoing sales-centric campaigns. If you can offer a solid demo, you can ensure registry sign-ups. From there, you’re established to re-promote, gain more followers and ensure future success.

Reason Five: Immediate Feedback

Because today’s feedback channels are often brand forums, review websites and social media, a little on-location feedback never hurts. Ask your demo crowd if the product works. More importantly: Ask them what they liked specifically. If they don’t purchase the product after, ask them why.

In any event, more information is better. Consumer participation is incredibly valuable, and it can power long-term brand campaigns. In the marketing world, getting experiential never hurts. In fact, it’s becoming a mainstream approach for many companies. When everyone can promote digitally, hands-on demonstrations are highly memorable.

Event Trends: The 90s Make a Comeback

Marketers know that one of the easiest ways to catch people's attention and produce good feelings is to go for nostalgia. Because of this, it's a certainty that every generation will be treated to a round of advertising and marketing meant to call up feelings of the good old days. This is why we've all been seeing a resurgence of 90s-themed products and events. Millennials, companies hope, are already looking at this time period with the airbrushed memories of those wishing for simpler and happier times. These 90s-based marketing efforts have taken several forms. Here are some examples you can use for inspiration for your own company's nostalgia marketing:

Nickelodeon's 90sFest

Nickelodeon didn't just put on a few marathons of 90s shows for its celebration of the Millennials' decade. Instead, it hosted several retro music festivals, complete with 90s acts like Sister Hazel and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Attendees dressed up in 90s clothing or as Nickelodeon characters from that period in order to fully immerse themselves in the experience.

The company got down to business with its obstacle course, which was present at each event. This course was set up to promote The Splat – the network's block of 90s game show and cartoon reruns. Other Nickelodeon offerings were also promoted in fun and immersive ways.

Crystal Pepsi Summer of '92

PepsiCo was another company that made great use of old music, this time to re-introduce Crystal Pepsi to the market. Salt-N-Pepa, En Vogue, and others started off the entertainment at concerts that featured 90s sets along with the music. A retro mall was also set up, and patrons could get 90s hairstyles, play in an arcade featuring the games of the decade, and buy assorted swag just like they did as teens.

TRL

MTV revamped its old Total Request Live, or TRL, studio into Total Registration Live to promote National Voter Registration Day. Along with being able to register to vote, attendees were also able to check out various celebrities, who spoke about the election issues they were passionate about. Celebs who came included Joss Whedon and Ty Dolla $ign. Of course, the musical artists also performed to ensure that people would stay interested.

These are just some of the events that took place during the last year to target Millennials with nostalgia marketing. Such marketing isn't limited to this age group, though. You can easily use it to reach any demographic that isn't still young.

If you're looking for a venue for your next immersive marketing event, look no further than Soho Studios in Miami. Our event space can be adapted for any size function, with up to 70,000 feet available. We can also set up custom features to make sure your event is an unforgettable hit.

Why Having a Mobile App for Your Event Is a Must

It’s become more important than ever to have a dedicated mobile app for your event. Not only is a larger portion of consumers online time spent through mobile, but consumers expect the ease of navigation of real time events and life that comes from having all the capabilities of a smartphone at their fingertips at all times. While it’s still possible to use a dedicated website for an event, a mobile app will not only give your event a greater sense of importance, but in taking the time to build the app, you’ll be able to ensure that users on all platforms are having the experience you want them to be having. Here are some of the latest trends in event mobile apps as well as musts that every app needs to be sure to have.

The Latest Trends

Live Video Streaming Capability: People are using live streaming more than ever before and by offering the ability for people to do so within your app, you’ll be creating a powerful way for people to interact in and around your event.

Social Media Integration: An event can only reach those who have attended, right? With social media it’s possible for events to cast a wider net than those who are physically present, and there’s no better way to encourage tweets, hashtags and Instagramming than by making it as easy as possible, direct from the app. Combined with the live streaming, you’ll be creating an army of marketers from your attendees to promote your brand and event.

Fitness: While this one certainly sounds a little off the wall, wellness is huge right now, as is the use of technology to monitor fitness stats and stay in shape. Take advantage of this by integrating to an existing app to help people plan out healthy walks to take between sessions or including a meditation feature to relax before the event starts.

Must Haves

Scheduling and Details: If your event app isn’t helping users navigate the actual event, then it’s failing at its most basic job. From easy to use maps to allowing customized scheduling, make sure that your app is making it easy for attendees to keep track of all the details.

Keep It Simple: An event app is only as good as its UX (user experience). And the best way to ensure that your app has a great user experience is to not let things get too complex. Sometimes less is more, especially when designing an app.

Networking Opportunities: If you include in-app messaging you’ll be raising user engagement and providing a valuable service. People often attend events for networking opportunities, and being able to do so from within the app can prove invaluable.

The Golden Globes: What Were Our Favorite Events of the Night

We at Soho Studios appreciate a good party. The Golden Globes red carpet was packed with extravagance, innovation and today’s hottest talent. Sure, the Golden Globes as a whole was unique, awesome and memorable. A few events stood out, however, and we want to give them praise.

Moët & Chandon "Toast for a Cause"

First, we want to tip our hats to Moët & Chandon, which celebrated its 26^th anniversary. Serving up crisp champagne, Moët & Chandon highlighted the Golden Globes way of live by putting visitors first. It also established a black-and-gold display. The scenic bar, outfitted for its “Toast for a Cause” drive, partnered with celebs to raise charity money. Moët & Chandon vowed to donate $1,000 in the names of donating celebrities, as well as another $1,000 per funded participant.

The HBO Golden Globes Party

At the center of the Golden Globes extravaganza, HBO worked with long-term event design partner Billy Butchkavitz. The annual bash was invigorated with a minimalist approach, and vibrant patters certainly paired well with its soothing color palette. Even though it was a Golden Globes experience, HBO decked out the area with khaki, gray, silver and champagne. Sometimes, sharp attention is needed to pool off soothing vibes.

The Fox and Hulu Party

On the event’s other end, Fox partnered with Hulu and 15/40 Productions to host the event’s annual afterparty. The Fox and Hulu party featured 800 floating lanterns, a free-formed chandelier and a night-sky view. Playing upon the industry’s high-tech strives, the party focused on glowing stone walls: Stone, metal, air and earth were each paid generous attention, serving as the event’s focal point and frame alike.

The Weinstein Company and Netflix Golden Globes Party

Finally, we feel it’s important to pay homage to Best Events—which crafted a fine-detail environment packed with dramatic drapery, skylight greenery and beautiful chandeliers. What began as an initiative to block out nearby construction sights became a full-fledged, immersive environment. Best Events assisted the Weinstein Company, serving craft cocktails at chocolate bars. Best Events, here, targeted a mixture of modern lounge and art deco. Maintaining a neutral color palette and luxury accents, it succeeded in creating a “space between spaces”

The Golden Globes were wild. The target of W magazine, anniversaries and marketing initiatives, the Golden Globes existed as a high-energy fair of intrigue. Sometimes, it’s best to party. Often, event marketing innovation can be found in celebrations of entertainment. Temporary spaces are unique, and they’re certainly worthy study material. The Golden Globes were hot, packed with gold-blocked bars, red carpets and celeb appearances. At the end of the day, art and culture are one in the same.

What to Expect: Event Marketing Trends for the 2017 Super Bowl

Every year, the Super Bowl yields a wealth of advertisement opportunities. As one of America’s most televised events, it’s a great venue for TV campaigns, significant brand moves and digital ad support. Today, the event’s latest news hits, advertisements and brand moves govern new event trends. The Super Bowl might be a televised event, but its ramifications are huge. Below, we’re covering the five biggest, baddest event marketing trends likely to spawn from the 2017 Super Bowl. Consume with caution, as they’re certainly unstoppable.

One: Blackjack

The Elevate Management Group, Dr. Quang & Staci, Wade Smith and Henderson are teaming up, and they’re getting ready to power the massive elite event during 2017’s biggest game. Featuring a Casino-Royale-esque style of play, the Bulls & Blackjack event will be a celeb-fueled tournament guaranteed to drive poker players wild. Get ready for a mad dash to poker-centric marketing events. More interestingly: Get ready for charity-funded gaming.

Two: Recycling

The Recycling Rally kicks off on January 21. While other exciting events, big milestones and multifaceted marketing initiatives are festival-centric, the Recycling Rally serves as a multi-day party to benefit those in need while promoting big-name brands. Another community-centric event, the Recycling Rally is expected to spawn a wealth of communal events in 2017.

Three: Leather

Leather & Laces, to be exact. 2017’s longest-running Super Bowl party is back, and it’s likely to be the hottest place around. Focusing on chic attire, open bars and premium drinks, Leather & Laces constantly promotes glamorous marketing events focused on, well, the love of being alive. Hand-rolled Sushi, hors d'oeuvres and other great selections constantly spawn food-centric marketing initiatives, so be on the lookout.

Four: Fine Cuisine

Where food, itself, is considered, The Taste of the NFL is expected—yet again—to promote fine cuisine marketing initiatives. Take part in a silent auction, experience sports memorabilia and get ready for a general sweep of sports-dining-related marketing initiatives. We’re thinking dine-in-with-player events, coach cookouts and team-centric restaurant partnerships, on this one.

Five: Football Teams

To push the buck further, actual football teams are expected to stand out, this year. The NFL Experience Driven by Genesis is the Super Bowl’s addition to big-scale parties. Presented through Visa, the event’s sessions will bring player-and-attendee interactions to life. Every year, autograph sessions propel football team walks, bee-powered meet-ups and in-depth player sessions.

So, where’ll you be? As a marketer, a promoter, a PR guru or as a future entrepreneur, it’s your job to attend these events. Give them a whirl, and find out what consumers will navigate to, next. There’s plenty of merchandise, social media access and youth football clinics to go around.

Live Streams Can Make or Break Your Event. Here's How

Instant access is always a good plan, right? Well, not always. As event marketers expand their insight, built their toolkits and innovate on the ground floor, live streaming options are coming under scrutiny. Emergent technology should be considered, sure, but it shouldn’t be the crux of your every move. To execute effective marketing campaigns, you’ll need to stream seamlessly, promote your brand and target social media comprehensively. Before hopping into the live stream world, check out the best practices below. More importantly, check out the times it’s not a good idea to prioritize instant access.

To Make the Event

First, it’s a good idea to know when live streaming is a good idea. Above all, live streaming is a solid avenue for businesses seeking mass connectivity and visibility. If your business wants to get a “sneak peak,” or an otherwise hard-to-get shot, live streaming is often a good answer. Why? Because it’s instant. You’re guaranteed to be the first with the story.

It’s also a solid foundation for Q&A sessions, behind-the-scenes journeys and big events. If your marketing event is going to be a bash, and if you’re expecting celebrity appearances, make sure you’re using a live stream feed. In 2017, live streaming is intended to be an integral part of emergent experiential marketing programs. As marketers become well-acquainted with technology, live streaming will become a powerful low-cost alternative to lengthy film processes.

To Break an Event

Live streaming has its downfalls, too. Above all, live streaming can be burdensome to an untrained crew. While crews are certainly becoming experienced with live stream filming, the act of filming footage seamlessly is simply difficult to micromanage. You should remember that anything can happen during a live stream. It might sound obvious, but you’ll need to take extra precautions when filming live appearances.

You can’t edit live footage. So, if you’re planning a breakout event, promoting a new product or are otherwise revealing your business’s “finer” side, consider traditional media first. Sometimes, it isn’t worth the quality loss to secure a hot spot on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram media. Today, constant challenges await live streamers. Digital marketers are working hard to reduce the physical footprint, prioritize low-cost live streaming services and dish out crystal-clear video quality.

For now, however, live streaming shouldn’t be considered a “must-have” in your event marketing arsenal. If you’re planning a big party, want to capture guest experiences and draw in more visitors, a live stream can certainly help. If, however, you feel your event can’t suffer a little choppiness, quality loss and on-site improvisation, you’d best stick to traditional media.

How to Host the Ultimate Virtual Reality Event

Many brands are helped by the creation of a feeling of excitement and physical activity. The hard part is getting people to feel like they're part of this action. Most people aren't athletes and have a hard time imagining themselves doing strenuous physical activity, especially when that activity involves something unique like riding a zip line or playing football like a pro. One of the easiest ways to jump this hurdle is to provide the audience with a virtual reality experience. Thanks to the development of VR goggles, there's no need for expensive 360-degree surround screens to get the job done. Virtual reality also allows for user participation, so it's far more immersive than any regular movie.

Combining Virtual Reality with the Rest of Your Event

Even with virtual reality, you need more elements to keep people excited all through your event. Keeping some traditional elements, such as display booths and presentations, will help get people in the mindset to consider your company's products and services. It will also allow you to build up the excitement for the virtual reality portion.

One thing you'll need to consider is how to handle the scheduling for your VR show. Each set of goggles is an investment, so you might not want to buy 200-300 pairs. Instead, it's usually best to have the audience come through in smaller batches so you can use far fewer goggles. Staggering arrival times will keep your attendees from having boring waiting times.

What Types of Content Work Well with Virtual Reality?

Action content is one of the most popular types for conversion to virtual reality. One great example is SAP's Quarterback Challenge, which puts participants on an NFL field in the quarterback position. Eye position, combined with a handheld controller, determine where the ball goes and how hard it is thrown. Sports fans love this sort of experience.

Another excellent example is IBM's cycling-based demonstration, which promotes its Watson Analytics system. Cyclers are subjected to a variety of wind and road conditions, all without leaving their seats.

Virtual reality is also great for explaining details about products, services, and processes. One company uses it to transport viewers to an active construction site, where they get to see exactly how to install its products. Another, a brewery, gives an in-depth look at their processes.

This technology is sure to become a standard part of events in years to come, but don't wait for that to happen. Get started with it now to position your company as a creative leader.

Of course, a comfortable venue is essential to any corporate or entertainment event. Contact us here at Soho Studios for the perfect venue for your extravaganza.