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The hardest thing about exhibiting at a channel event isn’t the build. It’s knowing how to present a joined-up brand message when the business behind them is anything but simple.
The hardest thing about exhibiting at a channel event isn’t the build. It’s knowing how to present a joined-up brand message when the business behind them is anything but simple.
Sophie Hughes, Client Services Director, CI Group
I’ve been delivering events in the IT channel for over a decade, and the question I hear most often from vendor marketing teams in the run up to an event isn’t about stand dimensions or AV specs. It’s some version of: “How do we fit everything we need to say into this space?”
It’s an important question, and it’s getting more challenging to answer. Portfolios are more complex than they’ve ever been. Acquisitions have brought new product lines and new messaging into organisations that need to tell a joined-up story. AI has given almost every vendor something new and urgent to communicate. You only have to look at this year’s Computacenter GSKO floor to see it playing out in real time: Cisco needing to fold Splunk into a unified security-meets-networking story, Lenovo holding Client, Data Centre, and Motorola together under a single narrative, Microsoft balancing Windows, Surface, Copilot, and a sustainability commitment in one breath. And yet the stand footprint is the same size it was five years ago, and the delegate walking past has roughly the same amount of time and attention they always did.
This is not a small challenge to meet, but that’s not a reason to scale back ambition. In my experience, the vendors who get this right don’t simplify their story. They sharpen it. And when executed well, the results are genuinely powerful.
A channel event isn’t a trade show
It’s important to be clear about what’s truly at stake at a channel event, as it’s often underestimated. You are not speaking to end users; you are engaging with the people who will recommend, resell and champion your products over the next twelve months. A salesperson who spends just fifteen minutes at your stand in January can influence more pipeline than a campaign that runs all year. The right conversation, with the right person, at the right moment, even over a quick coffee, can shape commercial priorities in ways that few other channels can replicate. That hugely changes how you should think about your stand. It’s not a branding exercise. It’s a sales tool, and every decision you make with it should centre around that.
The ‘one brand’ problem
The challenge I see most often is vendors wanting their presence at a show to contain five key messages, three product families, two recent acquisitions, and a sustainability commitment, and needing to make all of it land in a space that delegates might spend five minutes in. That’s a clear reflection of how genuinely complex these businesses have become. The question isn’t whether to tell the full story. It’s how to tell it in a way that actually connects.
The stands that work best – and I mean work commercially, not just look good in photos – almost always have a single organising idea that every design decision serves. Not a tagline, but a genuine strategic thought that answers the question: what do we want someone to believe about us when they walk away?
When a vendor has done that thinking, the story clicks into place. A strong organising idea gives even the most complex stand a spine, and each product line, each interactive element, each brand message becomes part of a coherent whole. Without it, even the strongest messages risk getting lost within its own competing noise. Ands getting this right means that delegates walk away with something clear to remember, rather than nothing to hold onto.
At Computacenter’s 2026 GSKO, the vendors we worked with most closely had each done exactly that thinking before they briefed us. One came in with a clear “unified portfolio” story that needed bringing to life across distinct zones. Another had a proposition about being the definitive platform for a specific technology, and wanted every element of the stand to reinforce that claim. The results spoke for themselves – stands that felt purposeful, that gave delegates a reason to stay, and that gave the sales team a natural platform to have the right conversations.
Let the space do the work
Once you have that single idea, the stand design becomes a question of how the environment itself communicates it. Layout, flow, zoning, the placement of interactive elements — these aren’t aesthetic decisions, they’re strategic ones. Where does a delegate naturally walk first? What do they see, feel or do before a member of your team approaches them? What’s the moment that makes them want to stay rather than move on?
The best stands I’ve worked on are engineered around the sales conversation. Interactive elements, product experiences and tactile touchpoints aren’t extras that get added when there’s budget left over. They’re often the most efficient way to communicate something complex, because showing a proposition is almost always more effective than explaining it.
Brief your partner early, and properly
My final point relates to timing. The vendors who consistently get the most out of their event presence are the ones who bring their delivery partner into the conversation early, and share their commercial objectives rather than just their design preferences. A good brief tells us what you want someone to feel and decide when they leave your stand, not just what you want it to look like. When we understand the former, we can make much better decisions about the latter.
The build is the easy part. The thinking that goes into it is what makes the difference.
Sophie Hughes is our Client Services Director at CI Group, where she leads the agency’s event and exhibition activity. CI Group have managed the delivery of Computacenter’s annual GSKO Technology Village for over a decade.
For more information contact Sophie at sophie.hughes@cigroup.co.uk and learn more about exhibiting at channel events today.