That time a vendor told me to cut my booth size in half

Last year at the Chicago Auto Show prep, this older guy from the rental company said I was wasting money on a 20x20 when a 10x10 would work better. I ignored him and went big anyway. Ended up with dead space everywhere and paid $3,200 extra for nothing. Has anyone else had a vendor give advice that actually saved them money in the end?

3 comments

3 Comments

terry_jones16d ago

A buddy of mine runs a small booth at home shows and almost booked a 20x20 for a big one in Minneapolis last spring. The guy running the floor told him to try a 10x15 instead because the show layout would make his stuff look crammed in a bigger space. He went with the smaller size, saved about $1,800, and said the traffic flow actually helped him land more sales than usual. So yeah, sometimes it pays to trust the rental folks who see this stuff every weekend.

ellis.mia16d ago

That "trust the rental folks" part really hits, @terry_jones. I've noticed the same thing with just about anyone who runs the same kind of event week after week - they catch patterns nobody else sees. Like how a coffee shop barista knows to leave a little extra room in your cup if you're taking it to go, or how a parking lot attendant knows which spots fill up first. It's just that kind of everyday expertise.

rubyk8615d ago

That whole bit about "the guy running the floor" hits home hard. I had almost the exact same thing happen at a consumer electronics show two years ago. I booked a 12x12 because I thought bigger was always better, but the venue manager talked me into doing a 10x8 instead. He said people would just walk right past a big empty-looking booth. He was dead right. I ended up with a tight layout that actually drew people in, saved about a grand, and had my best show ever for leads. It's like these guys have some kind of sixth sense for how people move through a room.