FESTIVAL SEASON IS COMING.
With spring right around the corner, now is a great time to start planning your event schedule for the next season and making sure your inventory and event gear are ready to go. After years of sharing my art through festivals and events, I’ve realized that my success depends not on how much inventory I bring to events, not how perfectly it all comes together, not how effective my marketing is, but the amount of effort I put into the intentional planning of my booth space.
After all, you’re creating an experience for you, for your business, and your ideal client - not just selling stuff at an event.
There’s a lot more to it than making sure everything will fit - how can you be sure that you’re best showcasing your work while maximizing all the space you can? How can you know you’re meeting your potential customer’s needs before they even make a purchase?
Because there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to creating a display that sells, I want to instead invite you to do a little reflecting based on your past experience with events (as a business owner and as an event-goer) alongside your imagination. I want to walk you through some questions that will help you identify the holes that need to be filled in your event space, as well as the areas that you can utilize to maximize your impact through the use of your booth space.
Let’s talk about displays
Your display is the very first thing that event-goers will experience as they come to know you, so let’s make it a total reflection of who you are and what you have to offer. Before we dive into all the juicy details of what will make your display stand out against the rest, let’s cover a few specifics that are pretty consistent no matter the venue or type of event you will apply to in the future.
Standard Event Requirements
Everything must fit into a 10’x10’ space, unless extra space is paid for/provided
Table cloths for your tables, especially if you will be storing stock or packaging materials under a table, often a solid white or black tablecloth is recommended (which brings us to the next point)
All non-displayed stock, inventory, packaging and marketing materials, etc., must be hidden during event hours
Extension cords and lighting must be provided and labeled with your name and business name for specific events (these aren’t necessary for all, but are a huge help either way)
A sign of sorts displaying your name/business name clearly
If you choose to use a canopy tent as part of your display or event space, it must fall within the size guidelines, and you must have adequate weights to keep the poles from moving throughout the event
Those are the generic parts of your display that are worth considering as we move into the next phase of creating your display - personalizing it to fit you, your business, and your ideal client. Of course, that list is tailored to more standard, outdoor events. However, a table, table cloth, and clearly displaying your name and business name are all still very applicable to most every space.
Okay, enough of the boring stuff.
What are you excited about?
For this next phase, I’d like you to start with the one offering that you are most excited to share. Consider all of the items or services you offer or showcase at events, and choose the one that is the most exciting to you. We’ll call this your “big offering” for now.
With this big offering in mind, use the following questions to guide your decision-making process regarding how you set up your display:
Is the offering that you’re thinking of large or small?
Does it require table space? Does it need to be hung? Can it be propped on the ground?
Will your ideal client want to touch it? Can they?
Will your ideal client want to pick your offering up and physically sort through the options you have available?
Would you rather your offering be observed from a short distance or up close?
Do you need baskets, tubs, trays, shelves, frames or another form of storage to hold and display your offering?
How many of these offerings are you wanting to display at once? Everything you have in stock? Do you want to keep some of your stock tucked away?
By asking yourself these questions, you’re not only considering different ways you could potentially display that offering, but also how you want your ideal client to experience your offering. Remember - you can bring your best products ever to an event, but once you get there, it’s up to the client’s experience to determine their openness to purchasing from you. You already know your offering is amazing, so it’s worth taking into account how they would like to view it, then arrange your display to best accommodate their experience.
What is your ideal client excited about?
The hard reality is though, sometimes the offering you’re most excited about isn’t the same as what your ideal client is excited about. This happens all the time. I showed up at an event once SO EXCITED to share my new abstract painting collection full of large, bold paintings. Yet, everyone was all crazy about the small wooden panels I had neatly stacked on the table.
This doesn’t mean that the offering you’re most excited about isn’t right for your ideal client - it just means that your ideal client definitely still has a mind of their own. They may or may not be shopping for what you’re selling on the day of the event. That’s 100% okay.
prepare for this now by putting yourself in their shoes.
Considering their age, stage in life, priorities, interests, and why they might be at this event, what do you think they will be most excited to see, shop, or learn more about in your event space?
We will use a similar set of questions to what you answered from your perspective, except this time, answer them from your ideal client’s point of view (answer the questions as if YOU are the ideal client, walking into this event space).
Thinking from the perspective of your Ideal Client...
You’re approaching this stunning event space, and you’re so curious to see what’s inside.
What’s the first thing you’re drawn to?
Is this object you’re drawn to large or small?
Where in the event space was this object located? Was it easy for you to find?
Did you touch it? Pick it up? Or observe from a distance?
Did you enjoy sorting through a variety of this object to find just the right one for you?
Was this object organized in a way that was easy for you to find what you were looking for? Which was the easiest part?
Did you have to ask to see more of the object you were looking for, or was it all displayed in front of you already?
Now… the thoughts you’re having from their perspective are probably a little different than the way you answered the initial set of questions. Take a moment to reflect on the similarities and differences between what you were excited about and what your ideal client was excited about. Is there anything you might display differently, now that you’ve thought through your display from your ideal client’s point of view?
putting it all together to maximize your booth space
The good news is, no matter how much overlap there is between the two perspectives, a 10’x10’ event space is plenty of room to draw attention to both the offering you’re most excited about and the offering your ideal client is so excited to see. One thing I’ve noticed is that there are two main places in an event space where passers-by are automatically going to peep: anything displayed vertically (hung on a canopy panel or wall, propped on an easel, a standing sign, etc.) and anything within easy reach on a table.
The bottom line is that people want to be able to see what you’re offering from walking distance, AND they want to interact with something when they get closer.
maximizing your booth space incorporates both vertical and horizontal
Because I don’t know you or your offerings, I’ve included one more set of questions that can help you nail down the way that you can best maximize your booth space given your own unique business needs. This might cause you to think outside of the box, but the point is to create a display that draws an audience from walking distance AND creates interaction within close reach. Ready?
Is there a way to display both offerings mentioned above vertically? (i.e., can both be hung on a canopy wall? can both be displayed on an easel?)
Is there a way to display both offerings on your table? (even if they are different sizes or price ranges, is there room for both somehow?)
Take some time to think about how you can make sure both, the offering you’re most excited about AND the one your ideal clients would be most excited about, are equally displayed throughout your event space for highest impact (because hey - you’re excited AND they’re now excited).
your takeaways
want to take it a step further?
These tips and questions are excerpts from my book “Out There: Selling Your Creative Work at an Event with Confidence.” There, you will find a complete guide to attracting ideal clients into your booth space by using your unique branding, business identity, and imagination to guide every decision you make about your next event day. From outlining your ideal client, to choosing a sidekick for event day - it’s all there… complete with a fully-customizable Event Planner so that you can take all of your brilliant ideas and turn them into reality.
Find out more here.