By Mary Tucker | Senior Communications and Content Manager | IAEE
On a crowded trade show floor, a great booth isn’t enough. Exhibitors need to give attendees a reason to stop, engage and remember them long after the show ends. The right activation turns a passing glance into a real conversation, and a real conversation into a lead. That is the focus of IAEE’s upcoming webinar on creative booth activation ideas and event experiences designed to attract attendees, spark interactions, and leave a lasting impression.
Whether you’re a seasoned exhibitor, an event organizer or new to trade shows, Booth Activations & Event Experiences Ignite Long Term Benefits offers proven strategies you can put to work right away. The session covers innovative activation concepts and themes that drive participation; how to use technology such as gamification and social media integrations to deepen engagement; and best practices for booth layout and staff interaction that foster meaningful conversations and generate leads.
Meet the Presenters
With nearly two decades in trade show and experiential marketing, Elizaveta Golikova, Executive Consultant for ET Global, has worked at exhibit houses and general contractors across project management, account management, operations and business development. She previously led a team of business development managers as a Regional Director at Freeman. Today she helps B2B exhibitors turn their goals into creative strategies and custom environments, with a focus on measurable ROI. She holds a master’s degree in Hospitality from UNLV and serves on the Board of Directors of the EDPA Las Vegas Chapter.
Patrick Loftus, Strategy, Insights and Research Director for Freeman, leads thought leadership research built on feedback from event attendees, exhibitors and organizers. He also runs client-specific growth strategy projects, evaluating addressable markets, competitor events and community needs to uncover what attendees and exhibitors aren’t getting today. He has deep experience in survey research and interviews, working with Fortune 500 executives and leading trade associations.
Matt Beck, Executive Vice President of Creative for Exhibitus, is an award-winning creative leader with nearly 15 years of experience. Matt has shaped experiences for brands including Toshiba, Deloitte and Snowflake. A former yacht designer, he guides creative teams in turning audience and brand insight into experiences that influence behavior in measurable ways.
Josh Frisbie is Vice President of Creative for Hamilton. For more than 20 years, he’s led Hamilton’s multi-disciplinary creative team and its in-house experiential studio, StudioH, which builds campaigns designed to create emotional connections with audiences. Named the “2024 EDPA Designer of the Year,” Josh is known for tying innovative design directly to customer outcomes and is a frequent industry speaker, as well as an author.
Here, the experts share their insights on what separates a booth people walk past from one they remember. Their answers go beyond the webinar to cover how to tie activations to business goals, what attendee research reveals about what actually draws people in and how creative design can shape behavior to produce real results.
ELIZAVETA: Many exhibitors start with the booth design and work backward to their goals. How should they define objectives first, and how do those objectives shape the type of activation they choose?
Elizaveta: An effective booth activation begins with a clear understanding of what the exhibitor wants to accomplish, rather than what the booth should look like. While an impressive design can attract attention, the real measure of success is whether the experience supports the company’s broader business objectives.
I recommend starting with three questions: Who are we trying to reach? What action do we want them to take? And how will we measure success?
The answers should guide every subsequent decision, from booth layout and technology integration to staffing and budget allocation.
For example, if the primary objective is lead generation, an interactive product demonstration or personalized assessment may be more effective than an entertainment-focused activation. These experiences allow attendees to engage with the product while creating natural opportunities for sales conversations.
If the objective is brand awareness, immersive storytelling, interactive installations or memorable sensory experiences may be appropriate. However, the activation must reinforce the brand’s message rather than become an attraction that attendees remember without remembering the company behind it.
For exhibitors focused on strengthening existing customer relationships, private meeting spaces, hospitality experiences or exclusive product previews may deliver greater value than high-traffic activations.
It’s equally important to establish measurable objectives before committing resources. Rather than simply aiming to generate more leads, an exhibitor might target a specific number of qualified conversations, product demonstrations or meetings with decision-makers from priority accounts.
I also encourage exhibitors to consider the entire attendee journey. What attracts someone to the booth? What happens during the interaction? How does the experience transition into a meaningful conversation? And what happens after the event?
Ultimately, the most effective activation isn’t necessarily the most elaborate or expensive. It’s the one that connects the right audience with the right experience and moves them toward a clearly defined business outcome.
PATRICK: What does your research with attendees and exhibitors reveal about which types of booth experiences attendees actually find valuable, and where do exhibitors tend to miss the mark?
Patrick: Two key aspects of the booth experience stand out as ones that our research shows “deliver” for attendees. First, attendees need hands-on exposure, a demonstration or a tangible way to experience what the exhibitor has to offer. This is what sets the exhibitor booth experience apart from what can be done online. Second, attendees want to meet and ask questions of exhibitor subject matter experts. This doesn’t mean the booth should include sales staff – it just means that attendees want to ask more in depth questions that SMEs are best positioned to answer and help build trust.
JOSH: How do you approach the challenge of designing an immersive experience that creates emotional connection while still supporting a measurable business outcome?
Josh: I start with two questions: What do we want people to feel, and what do we want that feeling to inspire them to do?
At Hamilton, we use storytelling to connect what matters to the audience with what matters to the brand. The environment, technology and interactions all serve that connection.
We also define success before we design, whether that means stronger message recall, more qualified conversations or a next step in the buying journey. Emotional connection gives people a reason to engage and measurement helps us understand whether that engagement moved them forward.
ELIZAVETA: How can exhibitors measure the ROI of an activation, and which metrics matter most beyond foot traffic and lead counts?
Elizaveta: One of the most common mistakes in evaluating booth activations is confusing participation with performance. High foot traffic and impressive engagement numbers may indicate that an activation successfully attracted attention, but they don’t necessarily demonstrate business value.
The first step is to establish measurable objectives before the event and determine which metrics will demonstrate progress toward those goals.
For lead-generation activations, I would prioritize lead quality over quantity. How many participants match the company’s ideal customer profile? How many are decision-makers or represent target accounts? Most importantly, how many of those interactions result in meaningful next steps?
Conversion rates are particularly valuable. Tracking how many activation participants schedule meetings, request demonstrations, enter the sales pipeline, or ultimately become customers provides a much clearer picture of effectiveness than badge scans alone.
For brand-focused activations, the measurement approach should be different. Brand recall, message retention, attendee sentiment, and changes in brand perception can provide insight into whether the experience achieved its intended purpose.
Engagement quality also matters. Time spent interacting with an activation, completion rates, and the depth of conversations can be useful indicators, but they should always be evaluated in context. A five-minute conversation with a qualified buyer may be considerably more valuable than a fifteen-minute interaction with someone who has no purchasing influence.
Technology can help exhibitors connect these interactions to measurable outcomes. Integrating activation data with CRM systems allows companies to track participant engagement, subsequent sales activity, and potential pipeline contribution beyond the event itself.
I would also distinguish between return on investment (ROI) and return on objectives (ROO). While ROI evaluates financial returns relative to costs, ROO measures whether the activation achieved its intended strategic outcomes. Both are important, particularly for exhibitors with longer sales cycles where revenue may not materialize until months after the event.
Ultimately, a successful activation shouldn’t be measured by how many people it entertained, but by how effectively it influenced the behaviors and business outcomes it was designed to achieve.
PATRICK: Which unmet attendee needs should exhibitors be designing activations around right now?
Patrick: A way to connect with other attendees/exhibitors in a small group setting around shared challenges or topics of interest. This is on the organizers to create the environment/facilitate how this can occur AND for the exhibitors to show up in a way that is meaningful to attendees. Our survey data often shows that attendees seek more from events in terms of how they make meaningful connections, enabling them to learn from peers and exhibitors more effectively.
JOSH: What is one common booth layout or staff-engagement mistake you see, and how can exhibitors fix it without a big budget?
Josh: Nothing says “come connect with our brand” like three staff members behind a counter, checking their phones and avoiding eye contact. You’ve essentially built a very expensive break room.
The fix is free: step out from behind the counter, put the phones away and get curious about the people walking by. Even better yet, remove the reception counter altogether. Unless it serves a real purpose, it can become a barrier that attendees have to approach and staff feel comfortable hiding behind. Give people an open invitation to enter, not a check-in desk to navigate.
Sometimes the best booth upgrade is simply acting like you’re glad people showed up.
