Music Shapes Exhibit Booth

An exhibit booth is a great way to share info about your organization and gain exposure to increase awareness of your purpose or mission. The Booth fits well with many community events which offer space/table to organizations. This includes Art Fairs, Historical events, Concerts in the Park, etc! Really any event within the community who invites local businesses to participate. One booth appearance Music Shapes does is with an event held by the library and included a special area for local nonprofits to have a table/booth.

Visitors have choices of which booths to visit; we wanted to give them a reason to visit ours. We have found a great booth needs certain components! This initiative shares what we have learned to be successful in setting up a booth for marketing our organization to the public on a small budget. Most importantly, the booth should emulate the spirit of your organization. We had visitors lined up at our booth and increased website activity during the weeks following the event. Be visual, be inviting!  

Booth Objectives:

1. Be visually appealing to attract students and parents: we used a turquoise tablecloth, with shiny and unique instruments on display.
2. Possess the spirit of how Music Shapes operates: explore the art & science of music, while learning and having fun.
3. Be informative for the parents about our programs, how we execute them, and what age group we focus on. We had general brochures and program-specific brochures on hand.
4. Have friendly, fun, knowledgeable people manning the booth. If the booth is successful, then the event is successful!

Event Objectives:

1. Always have our booth occupied with visitors; have at least 100 visitors during the two-hour event. (Event was said to attract 400 people.)
2. Have children and adults interested in talking with us about who we are and what we can offer.
3. Give away all of our 46 handmade pipe whistles.
4. Show young people how fun music education can be.
5. Have 10 visitors take specific brochures for future classes with us.

Children and parents were the focus. Our mission is to inspire kids and communities to engage with music. We do this through the exploration of the art and the science of music. We wish to create fun learnings about music, instruments, and how instruments are made. Our goal was to create a booth that would be visually appealing to both the children and to the parents. Children will see it and want to approach and bring their parents. We wanted parents to see it, find it interesting, and take the time to speak with us. Parents make the decision of what and how their children are taught. They make the decision of what activities are deemed beneficial to their child. Children see music instruments and want to play them. Our booth clearly said, “we are involved with music”! So when the child sees our Reverie Harp and shiny trumpet on display, they want to come visit. The parents are also interested in learning what we have to offer beyond our free giveaways. Once the parents visit our booth, we would like them to consider our programs and become a music education advocate. This may take the form of having their kids participate in one of our programs, or they may apply for Music Funds, or they may volunteer. They may be interested in donating or sharing info with their friends. They may simply want to learn how to play that whistle! All outcomes are welcome. The parents and the students are vital to the mission of Music Shapes.

1. Two months out from the event. Confirm intent to participate in Non-Profit Fair with Library
   • Gain Board approval to participate and confirm with the library – 15 min
   • Design Booth look and contents – 30 min.
   • Create MUSIC game – 6 hours
2. Within two weeks of the event:
   • Obtain 8×10 photos depicting our activities – 2 hours to select and submit for print
3. Within one week of the event (can be done earlier):
   • Make whistles – 6 hours ( more time needed if more whistles are made!) We used scrap PVC left over from our panpipe projects, so we had all different sizes, which was fun for the kids. No time spent on cutting pipe. Pipes were cleaned, then assembled with an end cap and decorative tape.
   • Make stickers for Hershey kiss candy and assemble to candy bottom – 1 hour
   • Print brochures for the table – 1 hour, We had information brochures, program booklets, and puzzles
4. Day of event – 3.5 hours
   • Travel to library – 20 min
   • Set up booth – 30 min
   • Attend booth for event – 2 hours
   • Take down booth – 20 min
   • Travel home – 20 min

Director of Music Shapes: Handled all tasks listed in the timeline above. 20-hour commitment

Volunteer: Assisted with manning the booth at the event for 3 hours

1. Laptop/printer
2. Local drugstore for printing of photos
3. Avery template and labels for candy kisses, whistle endcaps
4. Cricut machine for cutting out pipe endcaps (can be done by hand)
5. Internet research for True/False game questions/answers
6. Creative vision!

The library event was a kickoff party for their annual Summer Reading program, which they state brings in 300-400 people. They added the NonProfit Fair to the event as a means to support nonprofits and to provide an opportunity for the community to learn about services available. Attaching the nonprofit fair to the Summer Reading program created the highest impact on our booth success. The library is a strong entity in the community, which naturally has our target focus of children and parents.

For specific marketing of the event, we used social media and word of mouth.

1. The library included our logo as a participant in their social media posts.
2. Music Shapes posted the event on social media using promo material provided by the library.
3. Word of mouth with friends and family.

For our booth, we incorporated items that we had and strived to keep costs low. Most items are also able to be used within our programs after the event, so there is little waste.

Booth Contents

Plastic tablecloth $2

Brochures/booklets – we printed $40 ( able to be used after the event)

Candy with labels- $10

Whistles- made from PVC scraps, added end cap and decorative tape – $20 (given to the children)

Game Cards- we created and printed $10 (able to be used again)

Reverie Harp – we made this previously for our programs. Zero cost for this event, but it was $400

Trumpet – donated to us, no cost for this event. Panpipe, kalimba, rattle instruments- no cost to this event, but $30 previously

Photos on tablecloth ( in plastic sleeves) $50 (able to be used again)

TOTAL new investment: $132

Total monies exhausted, cannot be used again: $ 32

Table and chairs were provided by the library.

None

Yes! Our booth was very successful, as shown by the following results:

1. We had over 150 visitors to our booth. People were drawn to the brightness of our turquoise tablecloth and to the shiny trumpet and unique harp on the table. Having the kalimba available with easy ‘how to play’ instructions nearby was also a hit with visitors.
2. We gave out all of our 46 pipe whistles within the first 65 minutes! Everyone learned how to play it, and learned about pitch due to the different lengths of whistles on hand.
3. Children and adults were lined up to play our MUSIC question game. Parents and children alike loved this game! It is fun, quick, and interesting. Many came back to answer another question. Receiving the Hershey kiss with the Music Message was also fun for the kids.
4. 20 brochures were taken, including brochures for General Info, Girl Scout Badge, Camp Fund, and some puzzle sheets.
5. Website metrics showed 45 site sessions in the 2 weeks after the event, which is a 67% increase over the previous month. All inquiries were from ‘new visitors’.
6. Please see the accompanying photo of all Exhibit Booth Contents contributing to a winning booth!

We strive to make our booth provide a similar experience which is designed into our classes. We like to create and provide each child with a moment of success. We created that same opportunity in our booth. The creativity of the booth inspired engagement with music. Kids, parents, and community members learned and played music, learned about instruments, and through the game, they learned different aspects of the music world.

1. Students were able to handle instruments at our booth and play them. They learned how to play the kalimba as we had instruction sheets present. It is a joy to see a child light up when they experience a moment of success.
2. We have homemade instruments at our booth to demonstrate to the kids that instruments started out as natural materials. Almost anything can become a musical instrument.
3. Kids and parents loved the whistle! We show them how it works, why it works, and with the different sizes of pipe whistles, they can learn about pitch and size of instruments!
4. Parents also were engaged in learning, and they especially enjoyed watching their child be successful in making music or playing the game.
5. As many booths have candy as an attraction, we required the kids to answer a question from the MUSIC game before they could have their chocolate! The cards have 5 categories with True/ False questions: M -Music theory, U – You and music, S- Science of music, I – Instruments, and C- Concerts. The Hershey Kiss had a label on it. Each one is different as we use our name to help create a musical thought. Examples are Music Shapes Fun, Music Shapes Success. See photos

Our booth provided a glimpse into music education for kids, parents, and the community.

Use colors & items which define the organization. Have a vision.

Create the same vibe as how you present and operate your organization

Make it interactive, allowing visitors to stay at your booth a little longer.

Ensure those manning the booth are knowledgeable about the organization. Make the booth fun!