Enhancing the Educational Fair Display - Lessons Learned

Here are the essential elements that need to be considered when developing an educational fair display.

Costs Involved

Costs vary from country to country, and from fair to fair. For a large fair in a convention center, expect to have to pay for the following:

• Stand area (m2)
• Technical: back walls, carpets, furniture, lights, fuse box, (internet access), etc.
• Manpower (custom-made solutions more expensive than standard ones)
• Advertising
• Displays (Roll-ups? Posters?). Do you need professional help, or can you make them yourself?
• Handouts

Working with Design and Designers

• If you have to make a large investment, make sure that the end result can be used in many different settings
• Designers are creative – but they need suggestions and ideas!
• On the other hand – you need to let them do what they are good at, and not be too controlling
• Make sure you end up with a solution that is practical, not just stylish
• Use colors! Warm (red, orange) colors attract, draw you in – cool colors (blue, green) seem more distant. Light colors can make a stand look larger, dark colors can make it look smaller. Some colors are modern, others are classical, and others seem tacky…
• Design elements: Are elements such as a U.S. flag, Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, etc. seen as positive in your country, or not? This year, the fair we attended took place in February 2004, at the same time as the large demonstrations against the war in Iraq were held. We deliberately played down the use of such stereotypical U.S. images.

Technical Elements of Large Fairs in Convention Centers

• You need light – lots of it, especially if your stand has walls on three sides. Otherwise, your stand will look like a dark cave.
• Colored back walls can be an easy and relatively cheap way of making your stand more visible.
• Tall chairs (“bar stools”) and tables allow you to sit, while talking to people who are standing. In addition, you need brochure racks for your handouts.
• Bring a laptop computer, if at all possible – even if you don’t have internet access, you can have a running Power Point presentation. You can also bring CDs with various information.
• You probably need some kind of storage area.
• A meeting with the technical staff is highly recommended. They can e.g. help you set up a list of all the things you need to order – lights, electricity, etc. If you talk to them early on, you can also discuss location (a corner stand is more visible than one squeezed in between two others). However, they will NOT always tell you if your creative solution will work or not, or if it will cost a fortune – unless you ask.

Handouts, Information, Free Candy

Ironically, many students told me they feel more confused after visiting a fair than before they came – usually they end up with lots of flashy brochures that are never read again.

• Bring your best handouts, but not too many. No need to bring college catalogues from every university in the United States.
  
• Make sure that your contact information is on each handout
• The “If You Want to Study in the U.S.” booklets are extremely informative, but in addition you probably need a one-page, comprehensive handout, possibly in the native language of the students
• A small selection of your favorite reference books, such as Peterson’s, books on college athletics, accreditation, etc can be extremely useful as you talk to people. Students – and their parents – are hungry for actual information, not sales pitches.
• We tried using U.S. Fulbright professors on the stand, but discovered that the students prefer speaking with someone who knows their language. Also, American professors may know a lot about their own school, but they don’t know much about visa issues, financial aid for foreigners, and so on. And some professors “push” their own school, for various reasons – but as educational advisers, you want to make sure that the information the students receive is as objective and neutral as possible.
• Candy, mouse mats, pens and other “freebies” can be moderately popular, but they are not essential. You don’t want people to just grab candy and run. Finally, we discovered that nobody in Norway knows what Hershey’s Kisses are – typical U.S. candy only seemed to attract people who had already been to the United States!