How to draw a crowd to your exhibition stand (without a giveaway)

The short version: people stop where other people have stopped. Give them something to watch at set times, put someone at the front of the stand whose job is to start conversations, and keep the giveaway for after the conversation, not before it.

Every exhibitor has seen the stand opposite with a queue for its free coffee and wondered whether to buy a machine. The queue is real; the leads usually aren't. A crowd is easy to buy and hard to sell to, because a giveaway draws the people who want the giveaway. What you want is fewer, better conversations, and enough of a crowd that the people you want to meet slow down as they pass. This is how to get both, from the stand layout to the follow-up email.

Why the giveaway draws the wrong crowd

A branded pen, a bag of sweets or a phone charger answers the visitor's question ("what's free here?") and none of yours. The people who stop are collectors working the hall, your staff spend the day as dispensers, and the badge scans you come home with are mostly people who wanted a tote bag. Your best prospects walk past, because a crowd around a bowl of sweets doesn't look like a conversation they'd want to join.

Keep the giveaway, but give it a job. Make it the prize for the game, or the thank-you at the end of a real conversation. Something useful to the people you want (a printed guide, a sample, a calculator they'll keep) beats something nice to everyone.

A presenter who opens conversations

Most stand staff wait to be approached, and most visitors won't approach. They're tired, they're on their way somewhere, and stopping at a stand feels like agreeing to be sold to. The fix is a person whose only job is to start the conversation, at the edge of the aisle rather than behind a table.

A good stand presenter:

• Opens with a question that sorts people. Not "can I tell you about us?" but "are you here for the logistics talks or the software?" The answer tells you in five seconds whether to carry on.
• Is honest about what they are. A presenter, not a salesperson pretending to be a visitor. People relax when nobody is pretending.
• Keeps the stand looking busy. Two or three people listening to a presenter is the crowd that draws the next ten.
• Runs the stand's moments. The game, the quiz, the demo, on the hour, with a microphone if the hall allows one.

Brief them on three things the morning of the show: the one question that decides whether a visitor is worth your team's time, the three things you want every visitor to know, and who on your team takes which kind of lead.

A game or quiz at set times

A game on the hour gives people a reason to come back and a reason to stop now. Put the times on the stand, in your pre-show emails and on your social posts, and let the presenter announce each one to the aisle five minutes before.

What works on a stand is short. Five questions about the industry, or a Closest To round ("how many parcels does the UK post in a day?") where the nearest guess wins. Three minutes to play, a leaderboard on a board or a screen that can be read from the aisle, and a prize for the day's top score at the close. The leaderboard brings people back to check it, and every entry gives the presenter a name and a reason to talk.

Keep anything long for the stage. A full Treachery! session takes about 50 minutes and wants a room with chairs, which makes it a conference breakout, not a stand activity. If you're organising the conference as well, see icebreakers for a conference of 100 or more.

Stand layout

• Open the front. A table across the front of the stand is a counter, and nobody approaches a counter without a question. Move it to the side or the back.
• The presenter's spot is the aisle edge. Close enough to talk to passers-by, not so far out that you're blocking the aisle. Check the organiser's rules on that first; most have them.
• Leave standing room for the game. The crowd needs somewhere to stand that is on your stand and visible from the aisle.
• Screens above head height. A screen at eye level is hidden the moment three people stand in front of it, which is exactly when you need it.
• Somewhere to sit at the back. Most halls have nowhere to sit. Two chairs and a small table at the back of the stand is where the real conversation happens, out of the traffic.

The hand-off to sales

The presenter's job ends where your team's begins, and the join is where most stand leads are lost. Agree it before the doors open.

• Introduce by name and reason. "This is Sam, she runs operations at a logistics firm and asked about returns." Your colleague starts the conversation halfway in, not from the beginning.
• A signal for "not now". If your team is busy, the presenter takes a name and a time to come back, rather than leaving a good prospect waiting.
• Notes at the time. A badge scan plus one line: what they asked, how warm they are. Nobody remembers on Thursday who they met on Tuesday.
• Sales don't run the game. The person who runs the quiz has to be neutral and entertaining; the person closing the conversation has to be neither.

The follow-up

The show is where the conversation starts; the follow-up is where it's worth something. Send it within the week, while they still remember the stand.

• Refer to the conversation. "You asked about returns" is a reply waiting to happen. "Great to meet you at the show" is not.
• Sort by the note. Hot leads get a person and a call; warm leads get the useful thing you promised; the rest get the leaderboard and the winner, which is a friendly reason to email and nothing more.
• Send the scores. Everyone who played wants to know where they came. It is the one follow-up email that gets opened by people who weren't planning to buy anything yet.

What it costs

A Get Social stand presenter is £450–500 a day, briefed on your business and your one sorting question, with the game or quiz built around what you sell. There's no VAT to add: Get Social is not VAT registered, so the price you see is the whole price. Travel outside London is extra. If you're the organiser rather than the exhibitor, the same page covers a stage host for the whole day: see expo and conference hosting.