15 Conference Ideas to Make Your Business Conference Unforgettable

15 Ideas For Your Next Trade Show

Every year, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of business conferences held all across the country. Attending one (or more!) of them is a great way to build up the visibility of your business and put it on the map.

But one of the things that you’re going to find when you attend a business conference is that it can be difficult to stand out in a sea of other businesses. You’re going to need to come up with clever conference ideas to separate your business from the pack and make people pay attention to it.

You can do this by setting up a table or booth at a business conference that stands out. You can also do it by handing out promotional trade show giveaways that conference attendees will appreciate.

Here are 15 great conference ideas that will make your business look like more than just “business as usual.”

1. Start by Putting Up an Amazing Display for Your Business

The first thing that you’re going to want to do when you arrive at a business conference is mark your territory. You should figure out where you’re going to be setting up shop and put up a beautiful floor display to announce your arrival.

There are so many different floor displays that you can choose from, depending on how much space you actually have. Some of your options include:

You should try to pick out a floor display that is large enough to fit in your specific space without overcrowding it. You want people to be able to see your display while still being able to maneuver around in your designated area.

2. Create Custom Covers and Place Them on Your Tables

Once you have your floor display on full display, it’ll be time to add a few tables to your designated area. You’re going to use these tables to hold business brochures and to conduct business meetings with clients and customers in attendance at the conference.

The tables don’t necessarily have to be anything too special. Basic folding tables and chairs will do the trick. But you should have special Custom Table Covers created to go on top of all the tables that you put up.

These table covers should feature your business name in big, bold letters and your business logo. You might also want to make the covers unique to the specific conference you’re attending by putting the name and date of it right on the covers.

Between your large display and your table covers, it should impossible for people to miss you and your business at the conference.

3. Cover Your Display and Tables With a Personalized Pop Up Tent

Is the overhead lighting in the conference hall where your business conference is being held entirely too bright? Or do you simply want to try and make your business booth feel a little bit more cozy and exclusive?

Either way, you should strongly consider putting up a Personalized Pop Up Tent over your floor display and tables. A tent will make your booth feel a little bit more inviting to clients and customers. It’ll also allow you to conduct business in private when people come into your booth to meet with you.

You can find pop up tents in several different sizes, including:

  • 8′ x 8′
  • 10′ x 10′
  • 10′ x 15′

You can also add whatever you want to the top of your tent so that you can use it to promote your business as soon as it goes up.

4. Hang Up Signs to Attract Attention From a Mile Away

At this point, you have a large display, a bunch of tables, and a pop-up tent that will all work to give your business the proper promotion at your business conference. What more could you possibly need?

Well, if you want to make sure people at a business conference can see you even when they’re not standing right near your booth, a custom sign or banner might just do the trick.

You can find both Banner Flags and Retractable Banners in just about any shape and size. You can leave them down on the floor or fly them high up in the air to let everyone know that your company means business.

5. Look For Lanyards Capable of Holding Conference Badges

The first four conference ideas that we’ve listed here will all help draw attention to the booth your business sets up at a business conference. It won’t be long before people are taking notice of your booth and flocking to it.

However, you’re going to need to do more than just bring people to your booth. You also need to offer them something once they get there!

Everyone–and we do mean everyone–at a business conference could use a lanyard. Lanyards are used to hold conference badges, hotel keys, business cards, and more.

So why not hook everyone who comes to your booth up with a Customized Lanyard that has your business name and logo on it?

Lanyards come in all different colors and can be anywhere from 3/8-inch to 1-inch thick. And once people put them on and start walking around with them at your business conference, they’ll essentially turn into walking billboards for your brand.

You’ll be passing up on an easy opportunity to build brand visibility if you don’t show up at a business conference armed with lots of lanyards.

6. Throw Together Customized Trade Show Totes

One of the other things that just about everyone at a business conference could use is a trade show tote. Trade show totes are perfect for stashing all the free swag that people collect at a conference.

You can provide them with the totes they need by creating Custom Trade Show Totes with your business name and logo on them. People will begin using their tote to carry everything that they collect around. It’ll be a win for them and a win for you since your business name and logo will be on display when people are using their totes.

7. Make Up a Bunch of Business Card Magnets

There are more than 10 billion business cards printed every year. Yes, 10 billion!

And by the time your business conference is over, it’s going to feel like you’ve seen every last one of them. Business cards will be flying all over the place.

It’s not easy to make your business cards stand out from all the other business cards that are out there. But you can give them a fighting chance by making them Business Card Magnets.

Magnetized business cards will be heavier than other business cards. They’ll also be more durable and could very well end up on refrigerators and filing cabinets all across the country following your business conference.

8. Raffle Off Gift Baskets to Lucky Guests

Who doesn’t love a good raffle? People really enjoy the idea of entering a raffle and walking away with a free prize, no matter what that prize might be.

You can take advantage of this by raffling off a bunch of Personalized Gift Baskets during your next business conference. You can fill the baskets will all kinds of cool swag with your company’s name and logo on it and raffle them off every hour or so.

This will keep people running back to your booth all day long. It’ll also build up some buzz throughout the business conference that you’re attending.

9. Stick Stress Balls Into Everyone’s Hands

Stress is something that just about everyone in the business world struggles with. Regardless of how successful a company might be, there is still going to be a certain amount of stress involved with running a business.

Help some of the people at your business conference deal with this stress more effectively by passing out stress balls and stress toys to them. Studies have shown that stress balls can make businesses more efficient and have positive effects on people’s health.

10. Provide Custom Power Banks For People’s Phones

Do you want to make your company the most popular company at a business conference?

Give the people what they really want: Chargers for their cell phones!

Better yet, strategically place Promotional Power Banks throughout your booth that people can use when they visit it. It’ll force them to hang around for a little bit longer than they might otherwise and allow you to sell them on your products or services while they charge up.

11. Use Fitness Trackers to Hold Contests

There are a lot of companies that will try to make their business conference a success by holding scavenger hunts. They require people to go around and collect a certain amount of business cards in order to win.

You should consider taking the idea of a scavenger hunt to the next level by incorporating Promotional Fitness Trackers into the mix. Choose several people at your business conference to take part in a contest that calls for them to see how many steps they can log at your conference in an hour. Send the winner home with one of your custom gift baskets.

12. Pass Out Coffee in Custom Mugs and Cups

The only thing that will make your booth more popular than power banks for cell phones is coffee. If you’re serving coffee at your booth, you’re pretty much guaranteed to keep people coming and going all day long.

You can serve your coffee in a variety of ways. If you want to try and get people to stick around for a while, you can do it with Custom Coffee Mugs. But you can also do it with Custom Disposable Cups if you want to encourage them to get out there and spread the word about your booth having coffee.

13. Cool People Off With Personalized Hand Fans

When there are thousands of people walking around inside of a conference hall, it can get hot in a hurry. It won’t be long before people are breaking a sweat and looking for relief wherever they can find it.

Some people might actually leave the business conference to go and get some fresh air. But you can keep them around by passing out Personalized Hand Fans with your business name and logo on them. They’ll use them to keep cool and to continue walking around at your conference.

14. Keep an Eye on Your Competition With Drones

The funny thing about attending a business conference is that you probably won’t actually get to see much of it for yourself. You’ll be confined to your designated area for most of the time, which will limit your ability to explore and scope out the competition.

You can get over that hurdle by letting a Promotional Drone do your dirty work for you. You can send your drone out on a covert mission to see what everyone else is up to while you’re busy manning your booth.

People will wonder who was bold enough to bring a drone to a business conference. It’ll make your business a hit once they realize it’s you flying your drone all over the place.

15. Cover Trash Cans With Customized Covers

Normally, you don’t want to associate your business with trash cans. But at a business conference, where it can be hard to stand out, you need to pull out all of the creative stops when coming up with conference ideas.

One creative way to promote your business is to go on a rogue mission and cover as many trash cans as you can with Custom Trash Can Covers. These covers can give your business free exposure throughout a conference hall with very little effort on your part.

Use These Conference Ideas at Your Next Big Business Event

When you first start kicking around conference ideas and trying to come up with ones that’ll work, you might be stumped. But as you’ve seen here, there are so many great ideas that you can put to good use.

From floor displays and table covers to drones and trash can covers, you can promote your business in more ways than you can count. It’s all about coming up with ideas no one else is using and capitalizing on them.

Would you like to learn more about making the most of a business conference? Turn to this trade show survival guide for help.

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