Trade show booth layout: plan a 20 by 20 ft corner

A corner booth needs room for visitors to stop without blocking either open side. This 20 by 20 ft (approximately 6 by 6 m) study places reception near one approach, a conversation table near the other, and displays and storage toward the rear. Follow a visitor and a member of staff through those spaces to check the arrangement.

Where does a visitor stop first?

Turn the study from each aisle and ask three practical questions: where does a visitor first stop, where can a quieter conversation happen, and how can staff reach storage without crossing the product display. Use those routes to place the furniture and displays, and place the graphics afterwards. From both approaches the reception counter should read as a welcome rather than a barrier across the center, which is a question about where its ends land, not about how tall it is.

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How do you keep two open sides working?

A corner stand has two aisle frontages and two neighbors, and the two arrivals are not the same arrival. Inspect each one separately, then look diagonally through the center, which is the view most visitors actually get as they walk past. The stepped counter at the front-right should offer a clear first stop while leaving a visitor free to continue toward the plinths or the table. Keep the corner itself open: the diagonal is what makes a corner worth paying for, and a tall object standing in it turns your stand back into an inline booth with extra carpet.

Where does a conversation happen without blocking the display?

The round three-seat table sits at the front-left and the two product plinths sit at the rear, so a short seated discussion does not occupy the same floor as somebody looking at the product. At the back-left, the enclosed storage closet gives staff a destination away from the meeting. Use the model to walk the path between the four jobs a stand has to do at once, and if two of them share the same floor, move the furniture before you add signage telling people where to go.

What do the show rules decide for you?

Some of this is not yours to choose. Height limits, sightlines to your neighbors, hanging signs and what may sit on the aisle line are set by the show, and the binding version is the exhibitor manual for your event. IAEE publishes Guidelines for Display Rules and Regulations, the model North American rules many organizers adapt, which is the document your show’s rules usually descend from. Take the rest to the venue and the general contractor: the actual footprint you were assigned, power and rigging, permitted materials, and the install and dismantle windows. The model’s useful early check is simpler than any of that: does the storage route cut across welcome, conversation or product viewing?

What INK TO BRICK does here

Download the study’s GLB file to inspect the model in a compatible 3D viewer. When the layout is settled, the export library carries what the build team asks for: DXF and DWG drawings on Pro and Team, a SketchUp SKP model on the same tier, GLB and OBJ models on every plan for a viewer or a renderer, and IFC on Pro and Team. Plan exports print at a scale you set from 1:10 to 1:1000, and images render at up to 4096 px a side with daylight, warm evening or overcast lighting for the pitch deck. The export formats guide says which file suits which recipient, and the plans page sets out the tiers: Private editing with basic exports starts at $6.99 a month.

For the rest of the stand program, planning an exhibition booth works through it, and handing a model to a 3D team covers what to send a fabricator once the layout holds. To upload a stand plan, start a project.

Model the queue as well as the display

Mark where a visitor stops to watch the demonstration, where the next person waits and how someone leaves without crossing the presentation. Recheck the route with storage doors open. Keep the organizer’s supplied boundaries and rules beside the model; an attractive booth image does not establish permission to occupy the aisle.

To plan your own booth, ask the AI editor for one change at a time, for example “move the counter to the open corner”, then look at the booth from both aisles in 3D and check that staff can reach storage without crossing the conversation area. The manual editor lets you place each piece by hand on the same model. Save your current layout as a design option first, a saved copy you can return to, use the real sizes from your exhibitor manual, and check that your changes are saved before you refresh or share. Try it on the sample home to learn the tools.