Attendees at the 2008 Minnesota Green Expo stopped in their tracks when they caught a glimpse of the huge, shaggy, stuffed bison head at the front corner of the 10-by-10-foot Buff Stuff booth. Buff Stuff, a division of Limpert Environmental LLC, produces organic fertilizers and soil enhancers made from, you guessed it, bison manure. As passersby stopped to gawk at, pet, and take pictures with the stuffed head, booth staffers took advantage of the momentarily stunned attendees to hand out product literature, information, and samples. The furry face-to-face encounters created a memorable experience for visitors that kept the Buff Stuff brand fresh in their minds.

What’s the best way to demonstrate the realism of a faux-ice floor in a 10-by-20-foot exhibit space? Turn your entire booth into a miniature skating rink. XtraIce, a Seville, Spain-based company that manufactures room-temperature, synthetic ice, did just that at the 2007 International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo. Complete with a whirling figure skater, the skating-rink booth not only generated and retained traffic, it also immediately communicated the company’s icy offerings.

To tout its new in-flight Internet technology, AirCell Inc. grounded a flight — or rather, it grounded a fuselage. At the 2007 World Airline Entertainment Association show, AirCell placed a 33-foot-long airplane fuselage in its 20-by-40-foot booth. Hoping to eliminate misconceptions that the technology was bulky and required too much space within a plane, AirCell installed the system’s Wi-Fi antennas under the floor of the cabin and replaced sections of the floor with clear plastic to reveal the wireless antenna boxes. By displaying the technology in a real-life setting, AirCell showed off the gadget’s small size and minimal space requirements. Plus, the gigantic fuselage generated more attention than an in-flight open bar cart.

Royal Philips Electronics N.V. offered attendees more than a mouthful at the 2007 American Dental Association’s annual conference. The company turned half of its 50-by-70-foot booth into a kind of art gallery featuring Philips products, including a giant, 8-foot-long replica of its new FlexCare Sonicare electric toothbrush. Designed to show the benefits of Philips’ latest oral-hygiene offering, the display featured an “X-ray” machine, which appeared to be scanning the enormous toothbrush. A stand on the floor held the horizontal toothbrush while a pole holding the 2-by-3-foot X-ray screen slid along a track from one end of brush to the other. Looping video played on the moving screen, revealing the inner workings of the FlexCare, while a voiceover explained what recent improvements meant to dentists and patients. Dental professionals left the exhibit with the inside scoop on the new product.