veryone knows that trade shows are a gamble. Companies and nonprofits alike spend significant amounts of time and money to exhibit their products and services in hopes the investment will pay off. No matter the odds, there’s certainly plenty of risk involved, but the potential payoff is well worth it. However, if your company has high hopes of hitting the jackpot, you’ll have to convince attendees to make an investment as well — initially their time on the trade show floor, and ultimately their business. Here are nine examples of companies that took a tip from lady luck before placing bets on their respective exhibits, using casino-themed promotions to generate traffic, reinforce branding, communicate key messages, demonstrate new products and services, and increase sales leads.

Aspen Research Corp. let the chips fall in its favor during the Medical Design & Manufacturing show in Minneapolis. To reinforce its brand, it modified a standard roulette table, adding a side-bet box featuring Aspen services, such as “testing and analysis,” at the end of each column of numbers. After filling out lead cards or scanning their badges, attendees were entered into a drawing for an iPod, Minnesota Wild tickets, or a 128MB flash drive. Attendees also received a gold-wrapped chocolate coin to place a bet on the game, which they placed on a number or one of the side-bet boxes listing Aspen’s services. “Hits” earned players from one to five additional entries into the drawing. The St. Paul, MN-based company’s wager paid off, increasing its leads by 400 percent from the previous year.

Digital Security Controls Ltd. (DSC) transformed an oversized replica of its PK5500 PowerSeries digital security system into a slot machine at the International Security Con-ference West 2006 show in Las Vegas. To entice attendees to interact with its product, the Toronto-based electronic- and digital-security equipment manufacturer positioned the slot machine in the corner of its booth. DSC replaced the screen of the 5-foot-tall display with computer-generated slot-machine reels featuring graphics of cherries, bars, and the company’s logo. To qualify for the game, attendees watched a product presentation and filled out an online survey, which collected lead-generation data, market information, and opinions about DSC products. Attendees then received a DSC-branded playing card that served as a passport to play the game. Instead of pulling the slot machine’s lever, attendees activated the reels by entering four random numbers into a wireless keypad, the same way an end user would enter his or her security code. The reels then rolled through the various graphics of DCS logos, cherries, and bars. All participants won a DSC-branded prize, determined by the combination that appeared on the security display. For example, three DSC logos in a row earned attendees a DSC-branded jacket. Because attendees had to sit through a presentation and complete a survey before playing the game, DSC walked away the ultimate winner with a 35-percent increase in qualified leads over its 2005 exhibit.

GeoLearning Inc. counted its chips before it hit the trade show floor at Training 2005. To promote its TechLearn Cocktail Reception, the company sent pre-show invitations designed to resemble giant poker chips. Each chip was imprinted with its own unique four-digit code, along with text that encouraged recipients to register the chip at GeoLearning’s Web site for a chance to win instantly. Attendees visited the site and entered their codes to find out if they had a winning number. If so, the attendee brought the winning chip to the company’s exhibit at the show to claim a 30-inch wide-screen flat-panel LCD TV. As a result, 62 percent of attendees visited the site and provided their contact information prior to the show, enabling salespeople to schedule demos, meetings, and presentations before the show even began.

Casino and Gaming Television (CGTV) wanted everyone at the National Cable Television Association Convention to know it was going to be a high roller, offering the only 24/7 news and entertainment network for gambling. Not leaving anything to chance, the Los Angeles-based company simply put a casino on the show floor. Complete with gaming tables, dealers, a bar, a lounge, and show girls, the casino handed visitors CGTV “money,” which attendees turned in for chips. Later, they cashed in their winnings for prizes, including trips to casinos in the United States and the Caribbean. In the end, CGTV hit the jackpot, as the promotion generated buzz on the show floor, while immediately communicating what the company was all about.

The construction industry might not have much in common with the Vegas gaming world, but Link-Belt Construction Equipment Co. decided to roll the dice on a craps-inspired promotion at the 2005 ConExpo-Con/Agg show in Las Vegas, hoping to win big with increased traffic and sales leads. The in-booth activity challenged attendees to try their luck — and Link-Belt’s product. Players climbed aboard the Lexington, KY-based construction-equipment supplier’s 80 Spin Ace Excavator and used its bucket to pick up two 18-inch-square black dice. Then they released the bucket to roll the dice in hopes of getting craps. Attendees who rolled seven or 11 received a small-scale model of the 210X Excavator. More than 300 attendees used the Spin Ace’s bucket arm to raise and release the dice, while the promotion itself did double duty as a traffic-building activity that drew a huge crowd of onlookers and attendees waiting for their turn — and as a hands-on product demonstration that gave Link-Belt’s prospects an up-close-and-personal look at the company’s user-friendly construction equipment.

To launch its new corporate tagline, “Always Easy. Always On,” Radiant Systems Inc. devised a game-themed strategy using a direct mailer and an in-booth prize wheel that resembled the wheel-of-fortune games found at casinos. Radiant sent one of two pre-show mailers to attendees at FS/TEC 2005, a food-service technology exposition. Both mailers featured a picture of Aloha, Radiant’s point-of-sale technology for restaurants, and an invitation to visit its booth at the show. One version of the mailer included the “Always Easy” text, and the other version featured the “Always On” text. Attendees brought the mailer to the booth for a chance to spin Radiant’s 60-inch diameter prize wheel. If the wheel landed on a space matching the text on the attendee’s mailer, he or she won a gift card from one of Radiant’s clients, such as Rare Hospitality Inc. and Jamba Juice Co. The gift cards featured on the wheel provided indirect customer testimonials, displaying well-recognized companies that use Radiant’s products. As staffers cheered on attendees shouting “Always Easy” or “Always On,” Radiant reinforced its tagline and wheeled in approximately 40 percent more leads than it collected at FS/TEC 2004.

Attendees pressed their luck inside Pexagon Technology Inc.’s 10-by-10-foot exhibit at the 2006 Corporate and Channel Computing Expo (C3) in New York. To promote its Store-It Drive, a USB hard drive, Pexagon created a prize wheel as the focal point of its booth. After speaking with a staffer about the Store-It Drive, attendees stepped right up and spun the prize wheel. The wheel, which was divided into 16 sections, featured a Store-It Drive mounted in the middle. If the wheel landed on the section marked “Store-It Drive,” the attendee won one. Twelve of the other spaces were labeled with various scenarios in which you’d wish you had a Store-It Drive — for example, “Laptop stolen from car,” or “Coffee spilt on laptop.” Even if attendees weren’t lucky enough to win a Store-It Drive, the wheel taught them a little bit about why they should want one.

Eastman Kodak Co. knew when to hold ‘em at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The promotion, which capitalized on the popularity of Texas Hold ’Em Poker, was dubbed Kodak Hold ‘Em Poker. The game combined the fun of poker with the business of product presentations. Each suit represented a different product, from Kodak digital-imaging software to digital cameras. Within each suit, there were product cards that displayed images of that suit’s featured product, logo cards with the Kodak logo, and feature cards that listed key messages and differentiators for that suit’s respective product. To win, attendees had to match four suited cards — a product card, a logo card, and two feature cards. Attendees who successfully assembled winning hands received the featured product that corresponded to their hand’s suit, meaning some lucky booth visitors walked away from Kodak’s exhibit with digital cameras valued at $600. The promotion drove repeat traffic and held attendees’ attention for hours at a time as they stood in line to play again and again. It also gave Kodak an opportunity to point out its products’ differentials to a captive audience, while having a little fun in the process.

GeoLearning Inc. dealt itself a winning hand at the Training 2005 show in Long Beach, CA. Its integrated promotion, dubbed GeoPoker, pitted attendees against each other in a high-stakes competition for the best hand. The premise was simple. Attendees who collected playing cards and assembled winning poker hands were entered into a drawing for the grand prize — a plasma-screen television. The pre-show mailing to attendees included two playing cards with instructions on the back explaining how attendees could earn additional cards by registering online at GeoLearning’s Web site, visiting its booth, attending the company’s cocktail reception at the show, and sitting through GeoLearning’s educational sessions. The poker campaign created excitement and encouraged attendees to participate in all of the company’s events throughout the show. As a result, 80 percent of attendees visited the booth, attended the reception, listened to the sessions, and/or visited the Web site.