How Human Emotions Make Interactive Trade Show Games Work

digital trade show games are fun and exciting

While we are proud of how strong the technology is behind our interactive trade show games, we fully understand that it isn’t the tech alone that makes them so successful.  What makes our games and contests really gather a crowd, and keep people engaged, is how well our games play on peoples’ very human emotions.

I’ve witnessed how people, individually or in groups, react when they play our games and contests.  I’ve seen players in the thrall of these 6 emotions again and again:

1. Excitement

Attendees get jazzed when they play our games.  It reminds me of a Las Vegas craps table when the dice are hot.  Groups of friends shout, dance around, and cheer as they really get into the games and contests.  This is especially true when they are playing our Virtual Prize Wheel, and they win a big prize.

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How to Manage Interactive Q&A With An Audience Response App

Event presentation app for successful question and answer experience

Several years ago, I was in Norway giving a presentation and using interactive Q&A for the first time in a conference. Previously, I had always used the microphone for my presentations. On this day, we had a new event technology that had a Q&A feature.

I discovered very quickly that if everyone had a chance to ask questions they would do it. I received dozens of questions via the interactive Q&A app.

Second, I learned that people were more willing to ask questions via the technology than stand up in front of the room with microphone.

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11 Social Media Wall Design Ideas for Events and Trade Shows

The concept of a Social Media Wall in of itself has great potential: Gather up all the relevant social media output around a company or organization at a trade show or special event, and put it on display for interested attendees to see!  Yet, clever design and execution are required to get the full value.

Here are 11 things that SocialPoint has built into the design of our Social Media Wall Event Displays, so that exhibit and event marketers can make a bigger impact:

1. Bring Content to Life

Instead of just showing content with traditional templates, we created templates that transform your attendees thoughts, ideas and photos into fun designs. Most companies are able to find a design template that fits their event theme or brand design.

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How To Write Successful Questions For Your Trade Show Trivia Game

Happy trade show trivia game player

Our Challenge Bar Trivia Game is perhaps our most popular game.  Trade show attendees love to play trivia to test their knowledge, compete with friends, and win prizes.  And we’ve made it easy for trade show exhibitors and event marketers to host this crowd-gathering activity in their booth, with our easy-to-customize software.

But while our technology is easy, the visuals bold, and the crowds eager, it takes some strategy in formulating the questions to get the best results.

Here are some guidelines when you are organizing and writing Challenge Bar Trivia Game questions:

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10 New Ways to Visualize User-Generated Content with Event Technology

Socialpoint Social Media Wall Hub

Mobile devices and social media technology makes it easy to create attendee engagement experiences in our events.

You can capture polls, votes, surveys, ideas, questions, photos and much more through event apps, audience response apps, social media, SMS, tablet activations and much more.

In return, there are many fun, animated displays that will display user-generated content in real time back to the audience.  Here are 10 user-generated content visualizations that will forever change the way you use event technology to show user-generated content at your events.

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What’s the Marketing Purpose of a Social Media Wall in A Trade Show Booth?

A 10 foot trade show booth includes a social media wall

Social Media Walls are big digital monitors that show a constantly-updated stream of filtered social media activity about an event. They were originally invented for special events, to give attendees a way to see the pulse of the event, keep up to date with what’s going on, and visualize the event’s energy.

Other benefits of Social Media Walls at events include:

  • Recognize and honor the most active and interesting event participants
  • Incentivize more social shares to help promote the event, both on and offsite
  • Promote more learning and networking
  • Enhance the modern image of the event and its host (be it an association, media company, or corporation)
  • Provide instant analytics about the size and changes of social shares about an event, especially during important moments such as keynote speeches

IBM at SXSW Social Media Wall

Social Media Walls are now being used by more and more trade show exhibitors, because they bring some of those same benefits, but also many new benefits to the individual exhibitor:

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How Trade Show Game Leaderboards Drive Repeat Booth Visits

trade show booth visitor points to her name on a trade show trivia game digital leaderboard

How does a digital trade show game leaderboard drive more repeat traffic to a trade show booth?

It’s all about people — proud, competitive people – who like to win, be seen as winners, and stay on top.

This is what a digital trade show game leaderboard looks like:

digital leaderboard for trade shows and events

Thousands of people have stopped in a trade show booth to play our digital games such as the Virtual Prize Wheel or the Challenge Bar Trivia Game, drawn in by the visuals and the crowds of excited players.  Those games are very popular, and do a great job of bringing in people to the booth the first time.

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Using Digital Trade Show Games As An Icebreaker With Attendees

digital ice breaker for trade shows Ever seen a trade show attendee give your booth staffers the cold shoulder?  Maybe you just need something to break the ice.

Many trade show attendees shiver at the thought of walking boldly into a booth and striking up a conversation.  They just want to avoid getting pounced upon by an overzealous booth staffer.

It’s a real problem for trade show exhibitors, that attendees (who are at the trade show to find solutions to their business problems!) avoid booth staffers. Without a start to the conversation, there is no lead taken by a booth staffer.

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How to Drive Trade Show Booth Traffic with Interactive Technology

trade show games bring in more booth traffic

Booth traffic. Over and over, clients tell us they want to drive booth traffic. They are constantly looking for interactive technology ideas that will help them get more people into their trade show booth.

And we’ve heard it for a long time. We’ve been working with interactive, digital, and social-media driven attendee engagement in events for more than 10 years. Some of our over 1,000 activations have worked very well. Some have not. So let’s give you the best of those 10 years.

Here are 5 lessons we’ve learned about attendee engagement that should help you as you plan your next trade show booth experience:

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8 Content Ideas for the Screens in Your Trade Show Booth

Digital flat screen monitors in your trade show booth.jpg

If you are like most exhibitors, you have screens, monitors and tablets in your booth … but you aren’t really sure how to best use this powerful digital tech to create more impact.

According to a 2015 white paper Tech for Trade Show Exhibitors from Skyline Exhibits and Access Intelligence, most exhibitors are still putting PowerPoint slides or their own websites on the screen.  That’s probably because they don’t know how easy it is to create content that will go beyond websites and PowerPoint and generate more leads and sales.

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