How I Built a Successful, Immersive Exhibit Booth for Under $500

12–18 minutes

When in Doubt, World-Build It Out

When I signed up for an exhibit booth at The Piano Conference: NCKP 2025, I knew I wouldn’t be selling anything. No product, no financial ROI.

So what do you do with an exhibit booth like that?

The same thing you do to make a splash anywhere: world-building. Immersive experience. Something unique and unexpected.

Every world-building project comes with limitations. For me this time, the biggest one was a small budget. But, I knew I’d get a bigger bang for my buck this way, rather than spending on cheap swag no one would care about.

So instead of a standard table with a stack of flyers and pens, I built The Great Method Book Expedition: a riddle-based scavenger hunt through the exhibit hall, complete with jungle maps, crates of prizes, firefly lights in the foliage, and my family’s cookie recipe tucked into branded cellophane bags. My little marketplace table became “base camp” for an adventure.

So what the heck was I even there for? Piano Method Navigator (PMN), a free, non-commercial project I’m working on in my other line of work, music education.

Why an Expedition?

The “navigator” in Piano Method Navigator practically begged for an explorer theme. Or maybe that’s me being a sucker for Adventureland and Jungle Cruise at the Disney Parks. Either way, it felt like the perfect way to give attendees something playful and immersive to do while also pointing them toward PMN, and it kept costs low, since I already had plenty of jungly props at home.

My hope was that a well-executed theme would leave people walking away feeling curious, delighted, and impressed. I wanted them to think, “Wow, this is such a cool idea and so well done!” And, of course, I wanted them to ask the real question: “So what is Piano Method Navigator?”

The theme also needed to connect naturally to PMN’s identity, and “navigator” made that easy. (Cue me being very glad I landed on “Navigator” instead of “Encyclopedia” for the name… although, a library-themed experience would also be rad…)

World-Building on a Budget

Despite what you might think, immersive experiences don’t have to be expensive. With some creativity and shopping my own inventory (and my brother’s– he conveniently lives near this conference), I pulled this off for less than $500.

The Exhibit Booth Table

Before and after setting up.

Instead of splurging on a full-size exhibit booth, I went with the “Marketplace Table” option. The space was tiny (a cocktail table), but at $250 compared to $1,000 for an exhibit booth, it was the right fit for this experiment.

The Map

The crown jewel. I used Canva to redesign (from scratch!) the conference’s exhibit hall map to look like a jungle, complete with waterfalls, ruins, and cliffs. Folded like a brochure, it did triple-duty as map, game instructions, and a PMN promo piece. Not only did it declare, “This is now the jungle,” but it made attendees feel like explorers. Honestly, how could you not when holding a life-size map filled with riddles? It was my most expensive item, but also my highest yield. Three birds, one stone.

The Riddles

Each participating exhibitor got a custom riddle leading to their exhibit booth. I used ChatGPT to get a rough starting point, but it’s frankly terrible at writing riddles. I had a blast refining them into something usable, fun, and packed with clever nods to the companies I was working with. If you can get your audience to use their brains a little, they’ll be so much more committed to what you’re doing. (See: NYT games). And sometimes, doing that is completely free. The riddles cost me nothing but time, a little clever thinking, and a whole lot of nerdy fun.

The Props

Crates, baskets, twine, a leather bag to hold the maps, Indiana Jones-esque hat propped on the side of the banner, and plants galore. I even spotted a huge planter at the venue and (with staff permission) dragged it closer to my table for maximum jungle vibes. I suspect no one noticed the firefly-simulator lights hidden in the greenery, but knowing they were there made me happy. (if you look closely at side-by-side images at the top of this post, you can spot one in the final set up, glowing under a leaf on the left side). Most props were things I already had. Translation: free.

The Cookies

When I was first planning, I knew I wanted a “swag item” that was memorable, unique, and way cheaper than branded pens (those things are expensive!). After some brainstorming, I landed on individually wrapped field rations—homemade cookies with branded recipe cards—which ended up being one of the most talked-about parts of the exhibit booth.

And they were cheap. About $30 in Costco ingredients, a few cellophane bags, some printed recipe cards, and five hours of baking. That’s it.

When was the last time you got to eat a homemade cookie at a conference exhibit booth?

For a tiny fraction of the price of branded pens no one keeps, attendees got something homemade, memorable, and useful for years to come (if they actually liked the cookies and wanted to recreate them, ha!).

I also had fun stories to share, like how it was my grandmother-in-law’s recipe, and how I packed an entire suitcase full of cookies and crammed all my clothes into a backpack to make it work. People loved those details almost as much as the cookies themselves.

While there’s always more you dream of doing with an immersive experience (imagine a tented exhibit booth with a lighting package and sound effects), this felt like the right scale for PMN’s first time in the wild.

It turned out exactly how I wanted it to: high impact, low cost.

Partnerships and Generosity

One of the best parts of this project was that it wasn’t just about me. Because I wasn’t selling anything, I wasn’t in direct competition with other exhibitors, which opened the door for easy collaboration. And what a blast that was! I’m so thankful for everyone who believed in this project from the start. Without the exhibitors, this wouldn’t have been the splash that it was, full stop.

Twelve awesome exhibitors jumped in:

Each contributed prizes (over $600 worth in total!), and participants could scan a QR code at each exhibit booth to enter the raffle. Some exhibitors even upped their contribution at the event itself, which was amazing.

I made sure to thank them for their participation with a small bag that included their QR code + a stand, an exhibit hall map, a thank-you note, and cookies, of course!

It was a ton of work to coordinate all those QR codes, prize lists, and communications, but it was worth it. The relationships I built (and deepened) with other exhibitors were rewarding all on their own. It’s a great crowd of people in the NCKP exhibit hall!

Besides, part of my goal was to help bring traffic to other exhibit booths too. I knew I could design the Expedition in a way that would spotlight my partners’ work, encourage more conversations, and give attendees a reason to explore the whole hall. I really believe a rising tide lifts all boats.

Or, in more modern slang… instead of a girl’s girl, I’m an exhibitor’s exhibitor. (High fives to the three people who are tracking with me on that one.)

Design and Setup

Planning started in May with spitballing (shoutout to my brother, Jon, for being my creative partner) and kicked into high gear in June.

I knew I wanted to do something that amplified my impact while staying fully self-serve. The goal was to make a big splash for PMN but still leave space for me to enjoy the conference as both presenter and attendee. Partnering with other exhibitors gave me the amplification, and a QR-code scavenger hunt and grab-and-go cookies provided the self-serve experience. Together, they hit the sweet spot.

By early July, I had finalized designs, ordered props and printed materials, locked in exhibitor contributions, and made aaaaallll the lists: packing, prep, set-up, exhibitor needs, post-event… you name it, I listed it.

Let me know in the comments if you’d like a more detailed timeline and tasklist breakdown!

Setup day was July 23, and everything went smoothly—except the tablecloth. The venue’s was way too short. I’d even emailed in advance to confirm there would be one, but lesson learned: next time, ask for dimensions.

You may be wondering why this even matters. Fair question! When it comes to immersive experiences, details matter (see: the firefly lights that may have not clocked for most people). The more you can authenticate the experience through small details, the better the overall immersion will be. For me, at this tiny table, the tablecloth was actually a pretty big world breaker.

Besides, aside from looking aesthetically tragic (a tiny square cloth on a four-foot cocktail table is not the vibe), I had planned to stash empty boxes and extra materials under the table since I wasn’t staying at the conference hotel. So off I went on a tablecloth hunt. One store. Then another. Then another. Turns out, no one in Lombard, Illinois was interested in selling me a tablecloth.

I ended up safety-pinning clearance curtains from a closing HomeGoods into a makeshift full-length cloth. Scrappy, but effective. Problem solved, and honestly, the texture of the curtains fit better with the whole adventure aesthetic anyway. Check out the first photos in this post to see the difference.

Pulling off an immersive exhibit booth on a shoestring meant getting scrappy in more ways than tablecloths. So let’s talk numbers, because if you’ve made it this far, you probably want to know what it actually cost.

What It Cost

Pulling off an immersive exhibit booth doesn’t have to break the bank. Here’s the transparent breakdown:

Baseline: Just Attending/Presenting as Planned

Flight – booked with points
Lodging – free (stayed with my brother)
Registration – would have been $400 with presenter discount, had I NOT exhibited (see the registration twist below)

Incremental Exhibit Booth Spend

Materials & Printing – $338.13
Prizes (my contributions) – $97.04
Food (cookies) – $30
Total exhibit-booth-only spend: ≈ $465

Registration Twist
The exhibit booth registration was $250, including full conference access. If I’d just registered as a presenter, it would’ve been $400. So buying the table actually saved me $150.

All-In Gross Receipts
If you add the table cost back in, my receipts totaled around $715 for the full conference experience—as attendee, presenter, and exhibitor. But the real “world-building project” cost came in closer to $465.

Of course, part of how I kept the cost down was by wearing all the hats—experience designer, project manager, copywriter, graphic designer, exhibitor liaison, partnership coordinator, marketing strategist, logistics lead, on-site troubleshooter, and, yes, cookie baker. If you don’t feel like you’ve got all those skills in the bag already, I’m happy to help. I specialize in helping folks do big things on small budgets! Work with me⟶

The Results

So, what were my goals in all of this?

For Piano Method Navigator: brand awareness, email subscribers, and website hits.

In general: to bring a sense of community and fun to the exhibit hall—and to showcase my own skills along the way.

And remember, this was essentially PMN’s launch. The website had almost no traffic beforehand, and I didn’t have a PMN newsletter list yet (aside from like three subscribers—hi, mom!).

At NCKP

Raffle Entries: About 200 total entries, 30–40 active players.
Email List Growth: Around 50 new subscribers at the event (not as many as I’d hoped given 600+ attendees, but meaningful for the first launch of the newsletter).
Foot Traffic: The location hurt. Marketplace tables were tucked down a hallway past the main exhibit hall, and even the hall itself wasn’t bustling. I lost count of how many times I heard, “I didn’t even know there were exhibitors down here.” Once people found us, they loved it—but overall traffic was slow.
Event Buzz: Attendees loved it. Even with slower traffic, there was constant chatter about how fun the Expedition was, how good the cookies were, and how impressive the Piano Method Navigator project looked. More than once I heard, “Who did your design and branding?!” (answer: me). That single question even landed me a new client for design work.
Exhibitor Feedback: First of all, I have to thank the exhibitors again for being such generous prize donors. Their enthusiasic support set the tone from the very beginning. Several told me how much they appreciated doing something collaborative with their fellow exhibitors, especially since the hall can sometimes feel more competitive than it needs to be. This gave everyone a chance to connect and get involved in a shared project. I also heard how impressed they were with the professionalism of the whole package—from the graphics to the communications—which was incredibly affirming after all the behind-the-scenes work. Best of all, several have already asked to participate again if I run another version, and a few who weren’t involved this year said they want in next time.

After NCKP – 1 Month Out

Piano Method Navigator numbers, straight from the source.

Riding the post-conference momentum and rolling out all the new PMN features on socials post-conference gave me a big bump:

Website Views: 3,065 views (up 715%)
Website Traffic: 1,567 visitors (up 496%)
Email List Growth: 31 new subscribers, organic

Even though the raw numbers at the exhibit booth were lower than I’d hoped, the ripple effect after NCKP was significant.

Lessons Learned

Signage matters: My signs were a little too busy. Next time, simpler instructions like “Pick up your map here” and a clearer connection between the Expedition and PMN.
Presence helps: A self-serve exhibit booth was fun, but more in-person engagement would’ve boosted numbers. If I were selling something, I’d definitely staff the table full-time.
Print early (and twice): Printing snafus are inevitable. Office Depot reprinted my maps several times (free, thanks to shipping damage), so I ended up with four times what I ordered. Because I printed early, I had time to recover and still came out ahead. I was also glad I’d ordered doubles of all my “one-off” paper goods… because yes, I made a few cutting mistakes along the way. It’ll happen, so plan for it!

A few exhibitors misplaced their QR code signs, so I was very glad I printed back-up copies, just in case!

Frugal design works: Borrow, repurpose, and get scrappy. My curtains-turned-tablecloth were one example. Another was re-using extra banners. When the first set arrived with printing errors, VistaPrint sent replacements, so I sliced and reworked the originals to extend my backdrop all the way to the edges of the stand. Small tweaks like that made a big difference in the final look. Here’s the before and after:

Before and after adding additional banner pieces.

Post more on socials: My event posts were effective, but I could have built more excitement with a few clever teasers ahead of time. Posting one or two riddles every few days leading up to the event would have been a fun way to (a) pique curiosity without giving too much away, (b) spark natural engagement as people guessed answers, and (c) spotlight the exhibitors who took part.
Do the unexpected: Never underestimate the power of surprise. A themed exhibit booth, interactive scavenger hunt, and homemade cookies stood out far more than the usual pens and flyers, and people remembered it.

Final Thoughts

I had an absolute blast putting this together. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, maybe even with other themes and experiences (space? an Egyptian tomb? so many possibilities for a “navigator”).

Themed exhibit booths don’t have to cost more, and they make a bigger splash than a standard table.

The feedback made it all worth it. One of my favorite comments was, “I haven’t done a scavenger hunt in such a long time… this is so fun!” That kind of reaction told me I’d hit the mark of playful, immersive, and memorable.

It also propelled PMN forward in real and tangible ways. More visibility, more connections, more momentum.

If you’re considering a themed exhibit booth: do it. And if you want help designing something immersive and effective, you know where to find me.

As always, let’s keep doing big things on small budgets!

Or big budgets… I’m still dreaming about that tented, light-and-sound-controlled exhibit booth experience…

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Author

Anna Beth Rucker

Anna Beth Rucker (ABR) is the founder of Tree Frog Solutions, where creativity meets strategy. She helps nonprofits, small businesses, and events clarify their message, improve their operations, and make a bigger impact—without burning out or breaking the bank. With a background in the arts and a knack for strategic thinking, she brings creativity, clarity, collaboration, and calm confidence to every project.