Featured Story

The Anti-Booth Movement: Designing a 5-Senses Trade Show Booth

Walk into almost any convention center and find a sea of cookie-cutter booths with pop-up banners, stacks of brochures, and maybe, if you’re lucky, a bowl of branded mints. It’s all designed to “show” and none of it is to make you feel.

That’s why more brands are ditching the booth and building destinations. They’re asking, “How do we create a space where people want to spend time?” The answer lies in designing for immersion.

This is where the senses come in. Humans connect through what we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. The more brand cohesive feels, smells, sounds, and touch points turn pitching products into staging an environment that people remember and share.

• Sight: Lighting, projections, and visual storytelling that break the monotony of logo walls.

• Sound: Curated playlists or soundscapes that set an emotional tone.

• Touch: Interactive displays or tactile product demos that invite play.

• Taste: Coffee stations, custom treats, or branded cocktails that add delight.

• Smell: Scents tied to the brand identity—fresh cedar, citrus, roasted nuts—that trigger memory.

When you combine these layers, a 10x10 space stops being a “booth” and becomes a micro-world full of possibility. Add a digital thread—like QR codes hidden in a mural or NFC-enabled samples that unlock exclusive content—and suddenly your booth doesn’t just live at the convention center, it ripples out online and sticks with people long after the show (Read our article on The Phygital World)

What This Looks Like at Your Booth

Building a Third Space Trade Show Booth That Attracts and Engages

On a trade show floor buzzing with noise, you need to create an experience that is one of a kind and has a visual hook that sparks buzz and makes people seek down your booth. To best achieve this, a cohesive and thoughtfully designed booth with a theme, clear identity, and story is a must, and the more immersive the better. Your booth should be where your audience can let loose and play with your brand, without the feeling of ever being sold to.

Is it recreating a barber shop setup to create a fun and safe space for your mental health brand? Or, a 1950's style candy shop for your beverage brand? Where there’s a curated playlist setting the mood. Where the scent of whatever ties your brand and audience together hits the senses before they even realize what they are looking at. Maybe there’s a tasting element or some soft seating to make them want to hang around for 10 minutes and charge their phones. Now your trade show booth isn't a booth at all, and you've immersed your audience into your brand’s world.