It’s that time of the year again, when Clip’s Sales & Marketing Director Paul Runacres dusts off his crystal ball and shares his exhibition stand predictions on what’s hot, and what’s not for 2024!
2023 saw a continued appetite for face-to-face exhibiting after the COVID disruption, with exhibitions and visitor numbers close to pre-pandemic highs, and many companies realising the great benefits face-to-face exhibitions and live events bring to their marketing world.
Exhibitions and live events aren’t just back, they’re back with a bang!
With print and technology trends evolving like never before, it’s vital to keep on top of what’s best practice if you’re looking to exhibit this year. If you are thinking about attending a live event in 2024, here’s Paul’s hot take on exhibition stand trends in 2024.
Lightbox exhibition stands
If you visited an event in 2023, one of the increasing exhibition trends you may have noticed is the use of lightbox exhibition stands.
Whether a smaller self-build lightbox backdrop, or a large lightbox feature within a big exhibition stand, the human eye is naturally attracted to light, and being able to backlight your message means you get easily spotted in a crowded exhibition hall!
As well as being fantastic at grabbing attention, lightboxes are a lot more cost-effective than most people think. For example, a lightbox set up for a shell-scheme stand might set you back £2,000+, but much of that cost is in the hardware, which a good supplier like Clip will cover with a lifetime guarantee to last forever.
New graphics cost around £60 per sqm for a 2m x 2m panel, so updating your visual stand design and messaging is really cost-effective. For larger exhibition stands, most exhibition contractors have several of the lightboxes in their hire stock, so again the only real expense is your event-specific graphic messaging.
The advancement of LED technology, as well as the ability to print and interchange messaging on backlit material at huge sizes now means that lightboxes are really making their mark, and they will continue to be even more popular in 2024!
Video walls on exhibition stands
As AV technology continues to advance for exhibition stands, LED video tiles are becoming more cost-effective, with a larger range of panel options, making them an increasingly popular feature in the exhibition hall!
The product itself isn’t something new to stand design, with tiles generally being supplied at 500mm x 500mm each to create huge video walls; however, new concave and convex tiles allow you to create show-stopping shapes and features, rather than the original large flat screen style.
Whilst this technology is still a reasonable investment for any exhibitor if you want to make a splash, a video wall is a great option! The content can be changed during the show, and the movement and high-quality definition of the LED tiles go to the next level when it comes to attracting attention with your exhibition stand.
What’s more, some exhibition contractors such as Clip have LED wall tiles available on a hire service, so you can make a huge splash without blowing your budget!
Interactive exhibition stand features
When you walk around an exhibition hall, you will see some great examples of how to interact with your audience. Whilst 2024 sees the possibility of AR, VR, holograms, and even AI, will the halls be flooded with these types of interactive features this year?
I doubt it.
Companies are still a little unsure how to utilise this technology to its best effect, and the cost is currently quite prohibitive at this stage. However, that’s not to say there won’t be some early adopters pushing the boundaries with funky AR or similar on their exhibition stands!
You certainly don’t need to be jumping on board with high spending and high-tech features to have an effective show and stand design. The main consideration when it comes to any type of interactive feature is that it needs to be relevant to your brand and your event objectives. This sounds obvious but many get tripped up by this simple rule.
As a basic example, if you’re going to an exhibition to generate as many leads as you can then the exhibition stand needs to remain open and clear. Offering coffee or refreshments will contradict your event objective so don’t do it, even if you know everyone loves a free coffee.
Some of the best forms of engagement that we saw in 2023, and we expect to be an exhibition trend in 2024, are the lower level, fun engagement.
People have a natural competitive edge, so a few of our clients in 2023 played on that with simple games, whether a “guess the bricks in the house” game at the Housebuilder show, or a fast lap on a Scalextric set, complete with “Top Gear” style leaderboard.
Another big hit for 2023 which we expect to be popular again in 2024, is on-stand surveys. A handful of quick, relevant questions with tick box / multiple choice answers are always popular as exhibition visitors love to feel their opinions matter and are important. It also shows you off as a thought leader in your industry and puts you ahead of your competitors as well as giving you some great data for a Whitepaper!
For more ideas on how to draw in a crowd, check out our stand engagement services, as part of Clip’s full range of exhibition services.
Bespoke or modular exhibition stands?
This next exhibition trend is one that we’ve discussed in a previous blog, modular vs bespoke exhibition stands!
The overwhelming answer to this, if you look at the exhibition floors across Europe in 2023, was that modular is the way to go.
Traditionally, some may have thought that modular exhibition stands meant smaller and less impactful stands, but that is not the case these days, and hasn’t been for a few years.
The stock of hire equipment held by most good exhibition contractors these days means that pretty much any bespoke shape or structure can be made with modular frames. With a good exhibition stand designer, the only limit is your budget!
Using a modular exhibition stand means that you don’t have to pay for the structure to be built. Most exhibition companies will offer the stand structure on a free-hire basis if they are then building the stand for you, meaning you have more budget for the fun and interactive elements of the stand, or to take a larger stand space altogether.
With an intelligent stand design and graphic layouts, you will be able to use the key graphic features on future stands, even if they are a different size, which further maximises your budget to help you make a splash, or simply spend less!
The other factor that is becoming more and more relevant is that modular stands are so much more of a sustainable solution, and perfect for brand consistency. The stand components that are used for your stand in London this week, may well be used at a show in Manchester next week, and in 2024 the most popular exhibition stand systems are used across the world by contractors.
By using a company with a network of partners across the UK and the world, the same exhibition stand system can be built in numerous countries and help you to deliver complete brand consistency across all your shows, without having to transport your actual exhibition stand from one continent to another- which in turn improves your companies’ sustainability!
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Clip has been designing and delivering award-winning stands for our clients for over 45 years. With an average of 250 stands built every year (with a little sabbatical over the COVID period of course 😉), Clip has delivered over 10,000 exhibition stands in their time.
It’s fair to say that with much time spent inside exhibition halls across the World, Clip has seen the very best, but also the worst of all things exhibition stands!
2024 looks set to be another hugely busy, exciting, and successful year of exhibitions and enticing stand designs for companies across all industries. If you’re looking to attend exhibitions this year, our expert team at Clip Ltd can help you make a big splash and deliver great ROI from your events.
Will you be utilising one of Paul’s predicted exhibition trends? Get in touch with our exhibition team to get started on your new exhibition stand today.
