Tips to Create High-Impact, Interactive Exhibits

Thank you for agreeing to create a fun, interactive, hands-on exhibit for the CORE4 Youth Career Expo! We appreciate your willingness to offer your time and resources to make the event a success.

The CORE4 Youth Career Expo represents the region's first-ever premiere career education event that will introduce approximately 5,000 high school junior and senior students to rewarding career paths in public service.

The following are tips to enhance the planning, design and implementation of your exhibit:

• How People Learn
  People learn best by listening, by seeing and touching. Therefore, the most successful booths are ones that engage students physically, stimulate the mind and make them want to learn more. Develop activities which encourage participants to touch something and be physically active.
  
• Remember Your Audience
  The majority of expo attendees will be high school students. Because of that, exhibits, as a general rule, should convey information at the 11th and 12th grade level of understanding or below.
• Speak in Clear, Conversational Language
  When communicating with students, avoid high-level technical words and terms. Instead, use "kid-friendly" words and examples. If using a technical term is necessary, follow it immediately with an easy-to-understand explanation.
• What Is Your "Take Home" Message?
  Develop one concise, central "take home" message you want students to remember after the expo is over. Using fun, hands-on activities, the message should demonstrate how public services careers are rewarding personally, and at the same time, give back to the community. Ideally, hands-on activities should be presented to 5-6 participants at a time and last only a few minutes.
• Draw Students In
  In an effort to increase audience participation, assign volunteers to draw in students and individuals passing by your exhibit. Plan adequately for supplies and materials your booth will give away.
• Booth Decorations
  Design visually attractive booths using signage and decorations.
• Staff Attire
  Matching t-shirts, uniforms and name badges give exhibits a team-like atmosphere and lets students know to whom to direct their questions.
• Safety
  When conducting hands-on, interactive activities, always take any safety precautions necessary and provide safety equipment for participants.
• Cleaning Materials
  Students love to get messy and hands-on activities can result in kids' hands and clothing getting dirty. Remember to bring any cleaning materials necessary.
• Share Your Experience!
  Do you have best practices and lessons learned from exhibits you've designed? Please share your experiences with expo organizers. Take photos of your booth and volunteers and send to Catherine at ccouch@marc.org. In your email, please describe the hands-on activities your booth used, explaining what worked well and what didn't. We'd love to share your best practice with others.