Brite Winter in Cleveland attracts visitors each year for music, food, and outdoor exhibit experiences. Whether it’s an augmented reality telescope or a photobooth that people are talking about, the energy there makes it one of our favorite events to attend.
Creating indoor experiences for your business educates your target markets: a showroom that explains your latest offerings to customers, a museum exhibit that gives people an overview of a topic, a trade show booth marquee explaining what you do. While these are a crucial part of a business strategy, outdoor exhibits bring curiosity and novelty into the mix, too.
Outdoor exhibits offer another way to educate at museums.
For museum directors and curators, consider putting an exhibition element outside. Outdoor exhibits can bring an influx of visitors because it’s a less-often used strategy than indoor exhibits. It’s important to have those robust, permanent indoor exhibits, but an outdoor exhibit could be just what you need for a little refresh.
By capturing their attention with an engaging outdoor exhibit that also teaches them something, you’ll solidify your museum as a memorable entity. Around the world, art museums especially have been breaking the mold of what an outdoor exhibit looks like: Oeno Gallery’s Sculpture Garden, The Enchanted Garden: Colors in Motion by Dorothy M Gillespie (Rockland Center for the Arts), Albuquerque Museum’s Sculpture Garden, and so many more. These exhibits are subverting expectations, creating opportunities for visitors to strike up conversations about what they’re viewing.
Trade show booths can benefit from an outdoor strategy as well.
When a trade show is staged outside, exhibitors need to come up with ways to keep their booths appealing and sturdy all the while adding an element of fun. Gamify your booth with an idea that’s suitable for outside. For example, we created an Angry Birds Cornhole game many years ago that we used at multiple venues.
People’s attention is not only getting pulled to other booths but to the weather—regardless of temperature. If your trade show coordinator doesn’t have a plan in place for rain, be the solution! Offer ponchos or umbrellas (for a larger budget) so attendees can stay dry. If it’s especially sunny, consider sunscreen packs or visors for visitors.
Outdoor events can be unforgettable experiences, too.
Consider adding AR/VR components to your outdoor experience like the aforementioned giant telescope. Or create a Christmas light display like Glittering Lights at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Breaking away from the traditional indoor business event shows your target markets that you’re innovative and thoughtful.
Having all that extra space outside gives your ideas no bounds and less restrictions when crafting experiences. This sect of the exhibit industry is so broad; it offers opportunities for people to carve out what an outdoor exhibit means for them and design something truly spectacular. Make sure you’re always testing things out to see what sticks and what doesn’t, but more importantly, enjoy your time outside!