Event spaces: why the concept makes the difference

At trade fairs and events, brands are building fewer stands and more places where people actually want to spend time, something close to a third place. But a pleasant space alone doesn't make an experience memorable. The difference is in the concept: the strongest spaces grow out of the brand itself, its culture, its audience or its own data.

From stand to place

What makes a place at an event worth staying in? Brands are asking this more and more. Instead of booths where visitors get intercepted, spaces are emerging that feel closer to a third place: the term sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined for places between home and work where people simply like to spend time.

That makes sense. The best conversations at events rarely happen in the session room. They happen next to it.

Comfortable isn't distinctive

Look at most trade show trend lists and you'll find the same ingredients: soft seating, warm wood, ambient light and dwell time as a metric. All of that can make a space more comfortable. It doesn't make it distinctive.

When everyone uses the same ingredients, the result is spaces that feel good and are still interchangeable. A pleasant space is no longer enough to make an experience memorable.

The concept makes the difference

Two examples from Cannes Lions 2026 show another way. Microsoft came with gardens built around the idea of human AI. What made them interesting wasn't the planting but what happened inside: visitors could generate a personal mantra and an AI artwork based on their own way of working. The concept shaped the whole space rather than becoming just another activation within it.

Reddit took a completely different route and opened a deli, with a to-go window and a secret menu. The idea came from Reddit's own platform, from the growing conversation around deli culture. That made the place feel distinctly Reddit and like no one else.

Technology gets generic too

The same applies to technology. Personalized AI experiences are already appearing on the same trend lists as soft seating and ambient light. If technology is added simply because it's available, it quickly becomes generic.

Anything you buy instead of derive from the brand turns interchangeable. Microsoft's garden worked because the AI in it made a brand idea tangible, not because AI was on the list.

A place like no other

That's why the strongest spaces start somewhere else: with the brand, its culture, its audience or its own data. Technology and design then become the means to turn that idea into an experience people actually remember.

That's what makes a place worth staying in, and worth talking about afterwards, because there's nothing else like it. See how we develop these spaces for trade fairs and events in Trade Fair & Event.