Say, for example, that you are a Sex Pistols fan and reckon that they exemplify everything about your company, brash, breaking boundaries and a challenge to the establishment. The only people you are likely to attract could well be will be thirty-something Guardian readers who look back fondly on their teens. Anyone under 30 won’t have a clue about what you’re trying to represent while people of your parent’s generation are still struggling to come to terms with the swearing incident on TV that famous evening in 1977.

"You can’t pick something just because you like it yourself," says Burton. "But, having said that, although you probably wouldn’t put a handkerchief on your head and greet every visitor with a v-sign, if you did want to portray your firm’s values as brash, aggressive and challenging established norms, it may be a great idea to have a pastiche of one of their album covers on your stand."

With all these companies, at any given exhibition, all trying to come up with bright and memorable ideas, is there not a danger of the visitor, far from remembering a particularly fine example of branding, simply suffering from branding overload? "Certainly not," thinks Burton. "People are sophisticated, they can distinguish what’s going on. At the end of the day it’s about experience, in our daily lives whether it’s going to the newsagent to buy a bottle of cola or going to a football match or buying a car we are looking for an experience and there’s no finer place than an exhibition in which to create an experience."

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