We run a hyperlocal news site called West St. Paul Reader. When your coverage area is five square miles, it makes a lot of sense to meet people at local events. So we’ve had booths at community gatherings.
One challenge has been creating a professional looking booth space on a very limited budget. Printing your logo on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper just doesn’t cut it (we’ve tried).
This weekend we took it up a notch with a custom-printed stretch table covering. You can make the design anything you want, but we went pretty simple with a big logo on the front (and one on each side) and our brand colors. It’s professional, eye-catching, and the stretch table cloth wraps around the table so it doesn’t blow in the wind (doesn’t seem to wrinkle either!).
We paid $130 at one of the online print shops, but definitely look around (a local place charged more than twice that and they were still outsourcing it).
We debated getting a big banner with our logo, which might have been cheaper, but we’d still have to deal with tying the banner down somehow. The stretch table covering solution gets our big logo out there while also making our table look super professional. Two for the price of one.
Our booth setup got lots of great comments (and some envious fellow vendors) and made it easier to connect with people.