On the trade show floor, overhead design elements create an enticing, full-frame perspective that gives the illusion of more in addition to capturing eyeballs from long distances. But this year, we’re drawn to height of another kind—columns and towering booth elements that feel monumental and stick out in a sea of walls or lack thereof.
Columns caught our attention at IAAPA Expo in Orlando last December, where organizers took advantage of vertical columns on either side of the main escalators heading down to the show floor by adorning them with larger-than-life ticket stubs. Then at CES 2025, a two-story cylindrical LED tower within SK’s AI data center-inspired experience invited attendees to circle the space and snap photos.
CrowdStrike’s booth entrance at RSAC 2025 Conference this past May featured tall columns of vertical lighting that paid homage to cyber security tech and created just the right backdrop for photos of the large-than-life statue of Famous Chollima, a notorious hacking group, looming over the entrance.
At Expo 2025 Osaka, Pasona Group’s Pasona Natureverse pavilion opening moment featured a towering “Tree of Life Evolution” exhibit, which looked like a tree and a blood vessel at the same time (check out our full report). Uneven LEDs inside helped illuminate the “Thank You, Life” theme, a story of societal past and future.
And at Groceryshop 2025 this month, attendees encountered a dramatic entrance moment at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center featuring columns made of colorful grocery crates and dramatic lighting. Within the show’s The Sweet Spot Lounge community hang space, posts with spherical balls affixed to them (mimicking gumballs found in a larger-than-life installation) served as whimsical boundaries for the footprint.
Instead of “wall,” think tall.
Photo credit: Anna Huddleston
