We all know that the three most important determinants influencing the value of homes are location, location and location. Well it’s true of all real estate, including space on the trade show floor. We moved our booth at Web 2.0 Expo early this morning to a middle aisle with more foot traffic, based on our observations from yesterday. When we selected our booth initially, it wasn’t obvious from the floor plan that our booth faced a wall. We thought it faced “in” to the show, which is what the booths on the opposite perimeter do as well. We had a number of booths to choose from and what looked like bad booths because they were at the back, ended up being good ones because they were along the lunch/break/rest area where a lot of people congregate.

Now we’re in a middle aisle, near our friends from Sprout and across the aisle from Atlassian Software. I think the takeaway for people considering exhibiting at a trade show is to call the coordinator and try to get a feel for what the floor plan doesn’t convey. Ask questions. “Which direction will this booth face?” “Where is the lunch area?”