The great booth-location debate: vendor loyalty, prime real estate, customer convenience, and the organizer’s never-ending floor plan puzzle.
A question comes up in vendor groups over and over: “WHY do you move artists who don’t want a different space from year to year?” And right behind it: “Why must we beg for the same space every year?”
Wouldn’t it just be easier for the organizer to put us where we were last year?
Well…
Sometimes. And sometimes absolutely not.
As an event organizer, I understand both sides of this argument. And yes, I have been known to make vendors move.
I am the Booth Boss. I am also an event organizer. So let’s talk about it.
First: Why would an organizer move you?
It isn’t necessarily because the organizer enjoys making your life difficult. Although, if you’ve ever seen an event organizer staring at a floor plan at midnight with 47 colored pens and a cold cup of coffee, you might wonder. 
There are actually some very good reasons organizers move vendors around.
We want the show to feel fresh.
If you attend the same show every year and walk through exactly the same aisles seeing exactly the same vendors in exactly the same places, the experience can become predictable.
One organizer compared it to a grocery store.
The milk is in the back for a reason.
You have to walk past things you weren’t necessarily looking for to get there.
The same principle can apply to a market. Moving vendors can encourage shoppers to discover businesses they might otherwise walk right past.
A customer who came specifically to buy a candle from Vendor A might suddenly discover jewelry from Vendor B, woodworking from Vendor C and a bakery from Vendor D along the way.
That discovery can be good for the entire show.
Prime locations shouldn’t become permanent property.
Let’s be honest: there are booth spaces that are better than other booth spaces.
Everyone knows it.
The corner. The entrance. The space beside the food. The spot where everybody seems to walk. The one with the outlet. The one without a support pole directly in front of it.
If one vendor gets the best location every single year, other vendors may reasonably ask, “How do I ever get a shot at that space?”
Organizers have to think about fairness, too. A great booth location shouldn’t necessarily become someone’s permanent real estate simply because they have been attending the show the longest.
Giving other vendors an opportunity can add value to the event.
But vendors have a very good argument, too.
Now let’s flip the floor plan around.
Imagine you’ve spent three years building a customer base. You have regular shoppers who come specifically to see you. You tell them, “I’ll be in the same place as last time!”
Maybe you’ve even put your booth number on your social media graphics.
Your customers arrive…
…and you’re not there.
You are now playing Where’s Waldo: Vendor Edition.
And that can cost you sales.
Your customer may search for you. They may ask at the information booth. They may walk around looking. They may finally find you.
Or they may simply say, “Never mind. I’ll catch them next time.”
That’s a real problem.
And then there is accessibility.
This part deserves much more attention than it usually gets.
Not every shopper can comfortably walk an entire event. Older shoppers, people with disabilities, people using canes or walkers, people with limited stamina, parents pushing strollers, and people dealing with temporary injuries may have a very different experience from the perfectly healthy person who can walk 10,000 steps before lunch.
If someone comes to a show specifically to see your work and knows you’re in Booth 112, they can make a plan.
If they have to search an entire convention center for you, they may simply decide it’s not worth it.
Accessibility isn’t just about ramps and doorways.
Sometimes accessibility is as simple as making it easier for people to find the person they came to see.
That doesn’t mean every vendor should automatically get the same booth forever. It does mean organizers should consider the people who are actually attending the event.
So what’s the answer?
As usual, it’s probably somewhere in the middle.
Organizers: communicate.
If you routinely move vendors, tell them why.
Don’t make vendors feel like they’ve lost their spot because somebody randomly spun a wheel. Explain your philosophy.
Maybe you rotate prime spaces. Maybe you redesign the floor plan. Maybe you move returning vendors so customers see something new. Maybe you group vendors differently from show to show.
Whatever your reason is, communicate it.
And if a vendor has a legitimate reason they need a particular location, listen.
You don’t necessarily have to say yes.
But listen.
Vendors: communicate, too.
Here’s your part.
Stop assuming the organizer knows why your booth location matters to you.
Tell them. And tell them when you register—not three days before the show.
If you have a customer base that specifically seeks you out, say so. If you have mobility limitations that make walking the entire event difficult, say so. If your display absolutely requires access to a certain type of wall, outlet or corner, explain that.
And if you’re simply saying, “I like that booth because it’s a really good booth,” …well, that’s probably not going to carry quite as much weight.
And please use the tools organizers give you.
If the organizer publishes a floor plan, share it.
Put your booth number on Facebook and Instagram. Tell your customers, “Find us at Booth 137!”
Take a screenshot of the map and circle your location. Send it to your mailing list. Put it in your event reminder.
Make it easy for your customers to find you.
Because here’s the thing:
Your booth number is part of your marketing.
Don’t make your customers do all the work.
What I do at my shows
At Made in Iowa, I personally don’t love having everyone in exactly the same place every time. I like our events to feel different.
But I’ve also learned that there is value in compromise.
We have vendors who register early and tell us that being in a particular area is important to them. When we can accommodate that, we do.
We take location preferences during registration and try to work with them. We also assign spaces as people register, which means:
The earlier you register, the more options you generally have.
And yes, the spaces near the entrance may change.
Because I want new vendors to have opportunities, too.
That’s the part of event organizing that vendors don’t always see.
We’re not just putting names in boxes on a map. We’re trying to build a show that works for vendors AND shoppers.
The Booth Boss Rule
Don’t demand. Communicate.
Organizers aren’t mind readers.
Vendors aren’t mind readers either.
If a location matters to you, tell the organizer. If you have accessibility concerns, tell the organizer. If your customers depend on knowing where to find you, tell the organizer.
And organizers:
Don’t dismiss those concerns just because you want the floor plan to look different.
Sometimes the best floor plan isn’t the prettiest one on paper. It’s the one that works for the people walking through it.
One final thought…
There is no perfect answer here.
Sometimes moving vendors creates discovery. Sometimes keeping a vendor in the same location creates customer loyalty. Sometimes a prime booth needs to be rotated. Sometimes a vendor has a very good reason for needing consistency.
And sometimes…
The organizer just has a floor plan that makes perfect sense in their head and absolutely nobody else’s.
The goal isn’t to make every vendor happy with every booth assignment.
The goal is to create a successful event where vendors can sell, shoppers can discover, returning customers can find the people they came to see, and everyone has a reasonable opportunity to succeed.
That’s a pretty good floor plan.
I am the Booth Boss, and I am listening to vendors.
