How to Plan a Trade Show Booth in Toronto

Trade Shows and Booth Activations.

A booth has one job: start conversations with the right people.

Everything you spend on the floor either does that or gets in the way.

Start here.

If you already have a signed space contract, open the planning timeline and the checklist; the show services deadlines in your exhibitor manual are the dates that cost money when missed.

If you are deciding whether to exhibit at all, start with the budget guide and the event ROI calculator, and work out how many qualified conversations the booth has to produce before you commit.

The Toronto show landscape.

Most GTA trade shows land in one of four places: the Metro Toronto Convention Centre downtown, the Enercare Centre at Exhibition Place, and the two large halls near Pearson, the International Centre in Mississauga and the Toronto Congress Centre in Etobicoke.

Smaller industry shows run in hotel ballrooms and at suburban conference centres, and a growing number of consumer shows use arenas and sports domes.

The four decisions.

Space selection is the first and least reversible choice.

Corners and spaces near entrances, food courts and the main stage carry more traffic and higher rates.

What it costs, roughly.

For a 10 by 10 inline booth at a major Toronto show, in our experience the space is often only a third of the total once build, show services, shipping, staff time, travel and entertainment are added.

A 20 by 20 island with a custom build and a scheduled show can run several times that.

Measuring whether it worked.

Decide the measure before the show: number of qualified leads, meetings booked, demos given, or pipeline created in 90 days.

Put the cost of the whole programme, not just the space, into the event ROI calculator, and compare the cost per qualified lead with your other channels.

Hospitality around the show.

Much of the real selling at a Toronto show happens off the floor: a hospitality suite in the hotel attached to the convention centre, a client dinner in a private room on King West, or a breakfast before the doors open.

The food and drink page covers what the floor allows, what the hotel charges, and how to run a dinner that reps will remember without a hangover in the morning shift.

The full guide, with tables and checklists, continues below this video.