Designing Trade Show Conference Rooms: What to Consider

The Importance of In-Booth and Private Meeting Spaces

Picture it: you’ve just built a beautiful trade show booth – it artfully showcases all your products and services and perfectly represents your brand aesthetic. It is packed with innovative features designed to catch the eye of passersby and the interest of the casual onlooker. But you’ve left something out – where can you take the potential buyer for an in-depth discussion? Where can you host a client meeting? Present a private demo?

Carving out a private meeting space, whether in the form of an open-concept nook, a plush lounge, an elevated VIP area, a sleek conference room or similar, is crucial to the success of exhibit environment. This space is separate and distinct from, say, the welcome area, reception counter, and other open seating and tables that might be placed throughout your trade show booth.

How to Build an Effective Trade Show Conference Room

At Condit, we use six key factors to determine the final layout of an in-booth meeting space:

1. Level of Privacy
2. Functionality
3. Style
4. Footprint
5. Location
6. Miscellaneous

1. Level of Privacy

Will you be discussing proprietary content or finances? Making business deals? Even hearing existing customer complaints? Increased privacy can be achieved in several ways, including opaque or solid wall materials, soundproofing, raised flooring, and locking door handles. Conversely, meeting rooms can also be more open and remain segregated without being entirely closed off from the rest of the booth.

2. Functionality

Most in-booth rooms are multi-purpose but focusing on one or two key activities and goals for the space will help narrow down the design parameters. Are you making multi-media presentations? Actively showing products or demoing services? Will there be hospitality (food and drink) inside? These considerations influence the level of tech, like screens and refrigerators, the amount of storage therein or near, and the overall layout of the space.

3. Style

The style of the meeting space can be tastefully disparate from the rest of the trade show booth – or it can match. It can be loyal to your visual brand guidelines, or it can exude a more anonymous corporate vibe. The style you are looking to achieve with impact the choice of furnishings (typically tables and chairs), interior graphic treatments, and more.

4. Footprint

Most obviously, the conference room or other private area physical size is going to vary between booths. Sizing will not be the same for a 20×20 as it is for a 50×50. Considerations should be made, such as the approximate number of meeting space visitors and the ideal square footage per person.  The size may even differ between two 20×20 booths depending on their booth priorities and KPIs. Adjustable options are also available to minimize or maximize surface area via removable wall panels and floor tiles.

5. Location

In-booth conference areas can be housed in the rear of the exhibit or front and center. Trade show and individual booth pathfinding can be analyzed to optimize the spatial fit; necessary adjacencies should also be taken into account.

6. Other

Other, miscellaneous factors and features should be considered on a case by case basis to maximize the comfort of your visitors and the efficacy of your meeting space. For example, proper lighting may depend on the exhibit hall or arena. Ventilation, heat or air conditioning are often seasonal.

Designing a Condit Conference Space

Moving beyond our incredible booth-building capabilities, we can craft a stellar conference room. We’re ready to dig into these aspects with you and collaborate on a welcoming, effective in-booth area. And we’ve got so many ideas to make it an interesting and innovative experience for your visitors and your team. Let’s get started on your booth.

Looking for an in-office meeting space or corporate installation? We do those too.