Another Branded Tablecloth Is Not an Event Strategy

I love events. Admittedly, I am probably a little biased.

Before Biz Hero, I spent years producing events, working in hospitality, booking artists, managing volunteers, and generally being one of those people running around behind the scenes making sure the thing everyone else is enjoying actually happens. My first business was even built around producing arts events, so I have seen firsthand what can happen when you put interesting people, businesses, nonprofits, artists, food, music, and ideas together in one place.

I was reminded of that magic recently while volunteering at the NC Folk Festival in Greensboro. I wrote about the more human side of that experience over on my Substack in Art is Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, because I came home thinking a lot about art, entrepreneurship, history, my 96-year-old Grandma, and a six-year-old in butterfly wings. (It makes sense in context, I promise.)

But I also came home with an idea I heard over the weekend rattling around in my head. It was shared in the context of supporting people with disabilities, but I couldn't stop thinking about how broadly it applies:

Change the environment, and you can change the outcome.

That is, in many ways, exactly what a good event does.

You take people out of their normal environments and put them somewhere designed for discovery. Suddenly they're wandering. Talking to strangers. Trying things. Listening. Touching. Eating. Learning. Dancing. Asking questions. Meeting businesses they would have scrolled straight past online.

The environment changed, so the possibilities changed with it. And for a business, that is a pretty incredible opportunity. Not simply to advertise at people, but to let them encounter you differently.

Yet somehow, we have taken this pretty magical opportunity and often reduced it to a branded tablecloth, some brochures, a bowl of candy, and three pens that will mysteriously disappear before noon.

Before You Buy 500 Koozies, Why Are You Going?

There are plenty of perfectly good reasons for a business to participate in an event. You might want new customers, but you might also be trying to become better known in a particular community, meet potential partners, demonstrate a product, support an organization you care about, launch something new, or simply get out from behind your laptop and talk to the humans you're supposedly building all of this for.

Those goals are different, which means the way you show up should probably be different too.

This is where businesses can get caught in the same trap we see everywhere else: somebody said this is what you're supposed to do, so you do it. Businesses need social media. Businesses need networking. Businesses need email lists. Businesses need booths at events.

Maybe you do. Maybe you don't.

An event costs more than the vendor fee. There is your time, your team's time, materials, travel, planning, setup, breakdown, follow-up, and everything else you could have been doing with those resources. Before you decide how to show up, it is worth deciding whether this particular event gets you closer to something that actually matters for your business right now.

If it does, then we get to have some fun.

Create an Environment Where Something Can Happen

One of my favorite things about events is that they give businesses a chance to have a personality. Your website can have personality. Your social media can have personality. But there is something entirely different about a person walking into a space you've helped create and getting to experience something.

This is where an event activation comes in. It sounds very marketing-industry fancy, but really we're just talking about intentionally creating an environment where people can interact with your business rather than simply walk past your logo.

And no, that does not mean every business needs a 360° photo booth and a prize wheel. Although I have absolutely used a prize wheel before, and will again.

The better question is: What environment would help create the outcome we're actually looking for?

If you want conversation, don't build something people can complete without talking to anyone. If you want people to understand a complicated service, give them a simple way to experience what you make easier. If your work is deeply creative, let people create something. If you're a nonprofit, perhaps there is a way for someone to participate in a tiny piece of your mission rather than reading about it on a trifold brochure.

And if what you really need is stronger relationships with five potential community partners? Maybe forget the booth entirely and create something those five people actually want to be part of.

That's the part I think gets lost when we start with tactics instead of outcomes.

The question isn't “What do people do at event booths?”

It's “What are we trying to make possible here?”

5 Ways to Make Your Next Event Activation Actually Worth It

If you've made it this far and you're now side-eyeing the box of branded pens in your office, don't worry. You do not need to reinvent your entire event marketing strategy before Saturday.

But before your next festival, conference, expo, vendor market, or community event, here are five places I'd start:

1. Decide what success actually looks like.

Please don't default to “get our name out there.” What does that mean?

Maybe you want 20 conversations with people who could actually become customers. Maybe there are five organizations you want to build relationships with. Maybe you're entering a new market and simply want people to experience your brand for the first time. Maybe you're supporting a community that matters to your business and sales aren't the primary goal at all.

Figure that out first. It becomes much easier to design an event activation when you know what outcome you're trying to create.

2. Design for the people who will actually be there.

A great activation at an industry conference could completely flop at a street festival. Your audience has a different amount of time, attention, energy, and willingness to engage depending on where you meet them.

Think about the environment you're entering. Are people rushing between conference sessions? Wandering around with a beer? Wrangling three children? Looking specifically for vendors like you? Just trying to find somewhere shady to sit?

You aren't designing an activation for “customers.” You're designing it for these humans, in this environment, on this particular day.

3. Give them something to interact with, not just something to take.

Products are a must if you are selling something. Swag can be useful. So can brochures, business cards, stickers, samples, and giveaways. But none of those automatically creates a connection.

Ask yourself whether people could do something with you. Try something. Make something. Answer a question. Solve a tiny problem. Contribute an idea. Learn something useful. Experience a miniature version of what makes your business valuable.

Your event activation doesn't have to be elaborate. It needs to give people a reason to remember the interaction after the free pen disappears into their junk drawer, so they think of you when the need the product or service you provide. If that’s at the event, or years later. 

4. Don't be afraid to get a little weird.

If every booth has a giveaway, you don't necessarily need a better giveaway. Maybe you don't need a booth at all.

Your business could create the rest area, commission the artist, host the scavenger hunt (Biz Hero is working on one of these for an upcoming event this Fall- stay tuned!), partner with another organization, offer a useful service, create something for kids, sponsor an overlooked part of the experience, or solve a problem nobody else thought about.

Different can be strategic. The goal isn't to be weird simply so people look at you. It's to create something memorable that makes sense for your business and the people you're trying to reach.

5. Pay attention to what happens — then change it.

Your first idea does not have to become your forever event strategy.

Afterward, ask what actually happened. What made people stop? What created real conversations? What did people completely ignore? Did the people you hoped to meet actually show up? Did anyone follow up? Did it generate sales, relationships, leads, visibility, content, or something else valuable enough to justify what you put into it?

That's the beauty of treating events as experiments instead of obligations. You get to learn something and make the next one better.

Change the Environment. See What Becomes Possible.

That's ultimately what I keep coming back to.

A good event activation isn't about having the coolest booth in the room. It's about intentionally changing the environment in which someone encounters your business and seeing whether that creates a different outcome.

Sometimes that means a wildly creative installation. Sometimes it means a conversation you couldn't have gotten through an ad. And sometimes it means realizing you never needed to pay for that booth in the first place.

So before you order another 500 koozies, start with three questions:

Why are we going? Who will we meet there? What could we create that actually feels like us?

Then build from there.

And if it's a little weird? We're definitely into it.