The Best 20 x 20 Trade Show Booth Ideas for Successful Event Marketing

So you have your trade show schedule and budget secured. Congratulations! If you’re an optimist, you’re looking forward to filling in the blank canvas of your booth space. If you’re a pessimist, you’re worried about getting displays ready in time for your events. If you’re a realist, you know that a combination of creativity and deadline-driven decisions lies ahead.

The ProExhibits design team keeps up with the latest design ideas, tracking them down wherever and whenever they appear. As pros, we also have a competitive streak, and we take pride in continuously improving. That said, the best design is the one that connects your brand most effectively with trade show attendees and turns them into customers.

If you have a 20 x 20 booth, you have more space than you might think in which to get creative. There are lots of ways for your booth to be seen and to attract attention from all sides, as well as from signage mounted above your booth. You might have height restrictions based on individual venues, but there will be plenty of room to play around with, since you’ll often be able to build up to thirty feet above the trade show floor.

But enough with the qualifying statements. Bring on the ideas!

20 x 20 Trade Show Booth Ideas: Be Seen

Even kids with lemonade stands know visibility is fundamental to marketing. Making your exhibit stand out at a trade show, however, is more complicated than setting up a card table on the nearest quiet street corner.

Enlighted, a provider of smart sensor lighting solutions for commercial buildings, wanted an exhibit that would dominate the trade show floor visually, drawing eyes and attendees’ attention from a distance. ProExhibits custom-designed a 20 x 20 exhibit that did just that. Large, highly-visible displays of the company name border the space. A bold box gracefully suspended above the display features an inverted version of the logo’s color scheme. All of Enlighted’s signage is tastefully illuminated, making it highly legible while emphasizing the company name and product at the same time.

20 x 20 Trade Show Booths Built From Your Brand’s Values

This display for prominent almond producer Blue Diamond won the Produce Marketing Association’s Best First-Time Exhibitor Booth Award. It’s a great example of using a 20 x 20 space effectively.

The exhibit is built to evoke a barn, with elements that include custom wine barrels that serve as the base of a dining table. The farm-to-table message reads clearly from a distance, and the open floor plan welcomes attendees from all angles. Note the topper as well: Signage doesn’t have to be fancy to be effective. Here, it’s just a big, clearly-readable logo in colors that complement the rest of the booth.

20 x 20 Trade Show Booths Designed For Dramatic Impact

For a 20 x 20 booth designed for mobile network solution provider Extreme Networks, ProExhibits went for a starkly high-tech look, with patches of colorful light standing out against a pitch-black background. Illuminated signage and a rounded central counter made up of lighted wedges in contrasting colors are all that visitors to the booth can initially see—at least until their eyes adjust to the darkness. This is a very dramatic look, made up of high contrasts. It’s designed to draw convention attendees through the darkness to that irresistible counter, where they’ll have the opportunity to sit down and learn more about Extreme’s services.

Guiding Audiences to Your 20 x 20 Trade Show Booth

If your product or service is complex or difficult to instantly summarize, you need to not only draw people to your booth, but keep them there long enough to make your presentation and answer their questions. In our fast-moving culture, that’s not an easy task. To make this happen at a recent trade show, the data classification service Titus used their booth design to their advantage.

The booth features a large amount of open, inviting space, with strategically-positioned seating that invites attendees to sit down for a presentation. Using padded white leather cubes as seats extends the company’s pixel motif, found also on its signage and on lighted support pillars, into the floorspace. It’s an open, inviting display, encouraging visitors to approach it and find out more about the services Titus provides.

20 x 20 Trade Show Booth Ideas: More Than Just Browsing

A booth doesn’t have to be complex to be effective. Strategic use of color, visual contrasts, and sightlines can get the job done in a simple and straightforward manner.

The DNS resolution service OpenDNS effectively used all these qualities—color, contrasts, and sightlines—in a booth dressed in eye-catching orange and white. The OpenDNS name and logo are clearly visible at a distance, but the space also features multiple kiosks emblazoned with smaller print, which invite a closer look. Moreover, while the central presentation monitor has wide-angle sightlines, the kiosks are positioned at right angles to the main screen. Visitors who want a 360-degree look at the whole exhibit must wander through the space, where they’ll find a central seating area set up for presentations.

20 x 20 Trade Show Booths With Hospitality

AUL Corporation is the largest provider of used-car service contracts in the United States. For their exhibit at the National Automotive Dealers Association trade show, AUL knew it wanted to showcase its service-oriented approach to its relationships with agents and dealers. That meant creating an inviting space that would not only draw in visitors, but also encourage them to spend enough time at the exhibit to understand the company’s highly personalized way of doing business

To that end, ProExhibits created a warm, hospitable space designed around comfort and conversation, complete with soft couches, plush carpeting, gentle lighting, house plants, and coffee service. AUL’s theme of hospitality is reinforced by the space’s similarity to a comfortable and inviting home. The exhibit was a hit: At the NADA show, AUL attracted more visitors to its booth than at previous trade shows—and those visitors stayed much longer.

20 x 20 Trade Show Booths That Defy Expectations

Sometimes countering expectations is the right way to go. Netskope, a leader in cloud security, went for a gentle, comforting approach for their 20 x 20 trade show booth. Their booth is in a warm, approachable orange, with cream-colored seating and soothing blue accents. It’s still very professional—computer security is not an industry that lends itself to whimsy or humor—but it’s also very inviting. Their booth is shaped like a building, with a back wall and a ceiling with roof-mounted signage. Netskope’s message is protective: We will keep your data safe from harm.

More 20 x 20 Trade Show Booth Ideas

Whether you want to use powerful graphics in your design, or showcase your products, or provide attendees with a calm oasis in the middle of chaos, the possibilities with a 20 x 20 trade show booth are vast. The approach you take with your own display should be determined by a number of factors: Your brand, your trade show goals, and, of course, your imagination.

Whichever approach you choose, a professional exhibit design company will turn your idea into reality. ProExhibits specializes in custom-designed trade show booths and exhibits. Whatever design you have in mind, we can work with you to create something wholly original and unique to your brand. Our expert designers and crafters work in a state-of-the-art fabrication facility at our headquarters. All of our graphic design and printing is done there, while examples of our best work are featured in an onsite showroom. From graphics to lighting to technological elements to logistics to exhibit management, we are a one-stop shop for exhibitors.

We’ve helped brands realize their event marketing goals for more than 30 years—we look forward to putting our expertise and experience to work for you. Contact us today.

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