Tradeshow rig

For you guys who do bridal shows, would you mind sharing your setups? We've done several this Spring and I'm getting ready to upgrade our look. Here's what we did this past Sunday. To the left side of the booth (not in the pic) we had a 6' table with a 42" TV running a slideshow. We bought the display grid a few months back and loaded it with mostly 8X10 pics. I do like having a bunch of images but those are too small. Our next show is in August and I'm looking to print up a batch of 16X20 and maybe even a few 20X30s for the next one.

Here's the rig I'm looking at ordering. Much slicker and it uses velcro to attach the pics to the backer. I'd probably have our logo put onto the pedestal and will still use a 4' table, off to the side of the booth, to hold photobooks and misc stuff.

Valerie Hicks said:

just a tip, but light up your photos....it will make a world of difference in making your booth pop.
If you keep the grid, some lights clipped above would be simple and effective. A simple sheer drape of some sort behind them would be the cats meow and a very small investment. A nice rich color probably would be my choice. It would give a 'back' to your booth and push it over the top.

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We actually did that at the PWG show and you're right, the lights and the backer are a big help. I guess I just got lazy at this one. The grid rack has worked okay, and we've been booking gigs off all the shows, but I'm wanting to step things up a bit. At the shows we've done, a lot of the photogs have bigger rigs than we do, but they're all these homemade looking things that have to be a huge PITA to setup and teardown. That velcro rig is sleek, looks to be fast and will give us tons of options on re-configuring pics. I'm thinking on this next show to do maybe 6-8 large photos and pepper it with our smaller stuff. We're using a 3/4" foam backer on all our sample pics now so all we should have to do is just pop velcro onto each. I've also been noticing the DJs and it's struck me kinda funny to watch them. Most pile a bunch of gear and dance lights into their booths and it just looks junky. The better ones usually have little to no equipment, but will have great photos of them in action.

awalker19 said:

Are you only selling photography at this booth?

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No, but photography is now our lead item. I'm branding us as a photographer who also can provide DJ and Lighting services.

Albatross said:

I've done a couple of different configurations depending on the show and how much space we have. They key for me is collecting leads of people I chat with. So I always have a little bowl and collection form out. Even though the event organizers might send everyone, I want to be able to jot little notes about the conversation so that it's not generic follow up.

Also, I now MUCH prefer small boutique shows. This winter I did a boutique show with a planner that had maybe 20 prospective buyers. And I booked two weddings off of it. Total cost was $75 to participate. Versus paying HUNDREDS at some of the bigger shows to come away with maybe one or none.

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Your uplit tables just gave me an idea. I think at the next show I'm going to use the rounded corner wall that I showed and use a 6ft, rectangular to the side with a stretch scrim and uplighting.