Trade Show Games Ideas: Fun Games to Attract a Crowd

Note: All dates are subject to change in light of COVID-19

Trade shows have been part of business for many years. It is how people and enterprises can showcase their latest inventions and, at the same time, interact with other businesses from other countries to get a feel of how they conduct business on their end. Game shows are a common feature of these trade shows, and they serve a lot of purposes. 

We will look at some of the tip trade show game ideas, how they impact the entire event and give some quick tips on how one can go about designing the best interactive trade show games for their trade exhibitions. If you plan to set up a trade show, this could help you plan better for it, so stick around to the end.

How Trade Show Games Add Value to Your Exhibition

Trade shows games are not for whaling away the time; they serve a very concrete function in things’ grand scheme. This is why a lot of thought and planning goes into their creation. The following are some of the values the game adds to the trade exhibition.

They provide you with a chance to properly brand yourself and your services to a wide range of people through the use of fun. You can choose to give people prizes that are branded with your logos and emblems, and this increases the brand visibility of your business.

They create opportunities for conversations and interactions to occur naturally. Starting a conversation in a trade exhibition is harder than most people imagine it to be. It is easier to break the ice when people are engaged in fun games.

Trade show games will drive people to your booth faster than anything else. People are curious by nature, and the more interesting the game you have devices is, the higher the human traffic. This consequently increases your chance of making sales and capturing new clients.

These games also allow visitors to look at the other things you are offering, and in the process, they can ask important questions. Depending on how you handle these interactions, you could get many new clients through word of mouth.

It is also an opportunistic moment to amass many phone contacts and emails that you can later use to touch base and introduce more products once the expo is over and done with.

Top Trade Show Games Ideas

Having looked at the benefits these unique trade show games can bring to your booth, what are some of these games that can help you achieve your targets quickly? The following are the notable games worth your consideration if you do choose to go down this route.

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality technology has transformed how people consume entertainment. VR goggles replace screens, giving the user an experience that’s as close to reality as possible, allowing them to immerse themselves in the games for more fun. The number of things that one can pull off using Virtual Reality gaming at the booth is unlimited.

You can pull human traffic by participating in tag-team games of playing musical instruments in tandem, giving the winners some good prizes. This would create buzz around your booth since not many people have had the chance to use the VR goggles in their lives. Invest in Trade show apps that can be experienced through VR.

Social Media Contests

Social Media is big, and those who know how to utilize it properly have reaped big through online engagement. You can set up a publicity contest where attendees can post a specific hashtag on a platform like Twitter, giving a prize to the one who gets the best caption, the most retweets, or something close to that. 

The benefit you can get from social media contests, aside from driving social media buzz towards your website online, you get to also showcase your products and services to a huge number of people both online and offline since everyone in the trade show area will be curious to see what the fuss is all about.

Prize Wheel

It is not a proper contest if there’s a Prize Wheel involved. Prize wheels are the most fun interactive booth games that people can engage in as it is always down to pure luck and talent. The options you can go with are unlimited. You can go with color wheels or wheels that have varying products from your company. People can then take turns spinning the wheel, and if it falls on a prize, they get to walk away with it for free.

To benefit your custom booth and the business, you can set rules that anyone who wants to have a shot at the game has to leave their business cards with you first. That way, you can get their contacts cleverly and cleanly for future communication. On the other hand, the ones that end up winning press walk away with products that bear your emblems and logos, further publicizing your brand.

Business Card Draw

A business card draw is another clever way of taking things a notch higher, combining fun and a clever way of ensuring that everyone involved either leaves their contacts or carries yours with them. What happens here is that people enter the raffles by submitting their business cards which are put into one bowl. A prize worthy of the hype is then revealed, and the cards shuffled several times. The cards that get pulled out will then go-ahead to the final round, where the owners face off in any game of your devising until a winner is found.

This is a quick way of ensuring that you leave the tradeshow with more than enough cards for future communication. The game ends with only a handful of people playing, but you end up with enough cards in your hands for a new mailing list.

Matching Game

The Matching Game or Contest is one of the most creative and engaging. The game begins by specific numbers stickers being placed on the backs of attendees, followed by everyone trying to find their match in the crowd. You could set the prize to be for the first five pairs that find their matches.

Your booth and business as a whole would benefit from this through the printing of company t-shirts to be used for the contest, further publicizing the business brand to more people. It wouldn’t take long for people to be curious about the same colored t-shirts and stickers they keep seeing around, which will attract more people to your area.

Scratch-Off Cards

Another common and straightforward game where special cards are made, each holding a different value. Once someone scratches off a part of the card, it either reveals a clue to a prize that they have to solve in a certain amount of time to solve. It can create a buzz and a lively atmosphere in the entire trade show area, especially around your booth, which will boost your sales.

One thing you have to be careful about, however, is the cost of making these cards. They are not cheap, and since they are customized, you may have to fork out a substantial amount of money, Therefore. Ensure that the game is as entertaining as possible to ensure the benefits you get back outweigh the costs you pumped into it.

Trivia Games

Trivia Games are the most entertaining of all games you can come up with for your trade show. The idea is simple. You come up with several trick questions for them and give people the chance to show off their knowledge skills for a chance to walk away with several prizes.

This can benefit your enterprise booth prospects by bringing in more people. Through the many interactive questions, you get to bond with a good number of them, creating a foundation for further correspondence regarding your products and services.

Plinko

Plinko is a nostalgic game that can create some much-needed activity in a boring trade exhibition. Plinko operates like gambling. You are given a round disc that acts as the chip you can use to earn four more chips to reach five chips. You can create your own rules by awarding each chip a prize until someone hits the total 5.

This is a personalized game that can bring people closer to your business. You can use that chance to create conversations and engagement that will ultimately benefit your business and exhibition as a whole.

Designing the Right Game for your Booth

When coming up with trade show games, there are a couple of things you have to pay attention to if you are to attain what you are trying to achieve in the long run. Some of these factors include the following.

Prizes: You have to come up with rides that are not way above your budget. The aim of the games is not only to benefit other people but to give you something in return. It is the game’s gesture that matters most, so the prizes don’t have to be complicated or too expensive. Something simple and symbolic will do the trick.

Size of the Booth: The bigger the booth, the bigger the game, and vice versa. There’s only a limited number of people that a booth can handle. Therefore, as you try to develop an engaging game, pay attention to the space available; the last thing you would want is to have a crowd problem.

Your Budget: Trade shows can be financially straining, especially when they cover more than one day; adding a game to boost the traffic may be a good idea, but you don’t include it in the budget phase. Cover your bases early on to avoid surprises later.

Visuals: You are looking to create impact, therefore go big with the visuals, and then take advantage of that to properly publicize your branding to reach as many people as you can.

Conclusion

Trade shows are part of growing a business, but they are not a guaranteed success unless you go out of your way to make things exciting for people around you. Trade show booth games are an innovative way to get this done while at the same time taking advantage of the publicity to push your business plan to the people taking part.

If you are looking for trade show and exhibit solutions and more vendor booth game ideas, feel free to get in touch with us, and we will take you through the entire process, availing of all the best solutions suitable for your immediate needs.