This informal group of Women in the Exhibit Industry have been meeting live for several years as well as our connection through our LinkedIn Group

Forty women met live in Las Vegas, in March at the Exhbitor2012 show.  We broke up into groups of 10 and spoke about Building Your Personal Brand.

I want to encourage everyone to join into this discussion on LinkedIn and add points that were learned through our open discussion.

I look forward to read all about it!  I will repost the discussion here to make this post rich with our collective knowledge!

Meanwhile, read my EXHIBITOR2012 Recap and take a look at our group photo!

The feeling and attitude in general of this year’s 2012 addition of the EXHIBITOR show was positive.  Walking in the hall your eye immediately focused UP!  And to me that feels like we are closer to being ”back” then we have been in the last several years.  Now mind you the booth size remained around the 20’ x 20’, 20’ x 30’ rather then the monster booths of the olden days BUT, the height returned.  Look up! Headers, integrated walls continued into ceilings (a trend) and over the top soffits and signage dominated the space.

Now I am speaking primarily about the Exhibit Houses – Additionally in the houses, full concepts – Experiences if you will, dominate – Telling a story, Branding a brand. And of course the use of technology was everywhere!

Now again, my observations tell me that everyone is “catching up” to these concepts – creating full concept environments that include dynamic visuals, technology, well trained staff etc.  And as this catch up happens, I am not so sure that everyone is really aware of what they are “really” doing, especially the technology area.  I imagine there is much rearranging, reorganizing and outsourcing of this work.  Let’s call it collaboration.

Common themes:

Overhead or ceiling treatments morphing into walls

Colors: white and orange / white and green, / red, white and black

Multiple screens for content traveling over all of them (creating very large digital media areas, in both touch screen and traditional)

Fabric, Fabric everywhere! Pop-ups, extrusion, and classic round tube construction. Primarily printed

Extrusion – I mentioned it in the fabric area but this is out of control everywhere!  And the beat goes on with each group pushing the next to create different profiles for a variety of uses.

Technology – It is everywhere yet, some understand it and are doing amazing work, others are showing it because it is in.

Blue Telescope is outstanding with their innovative work.

Blue Pony appeared as content and app providers

QuickMobile – Iphone and Ipad apps

V3touch – Vision3Creative.com – incredible 3d software on large touch screens and applications for live use.

NMR – Tech, production, content – stepping out of their typical comfort zone and looking great!

Favorites:

EEI Global – My Favorite! Elegant, classy, sleek while a nod to Detroit through some grittier elements

GES – won best large booth – Turning your thinking upside down!

Elements won best small booth – also a favorite – and very clever. 4 – 10’ x 10’ booths spread over the show – Water, Fire, Earth and Air. Great concept executed well!

Moss was a stand out with the curvilinear form in classic round tubing with a REFRESH theme and a re-skin from last years successful stand.

MG Design also had a REFRESH theme that was clean and well…refreshing – sorbet anyone?

MC2 and 3D Exhibits featured the “thought bubble” – makes you think doesn’t it?

Kubik – simple paper booth – loved the giveaway napkin sketchbook!

New Materials

More sustainable materials are making it into the marketplace at better price points and quality

SmartBoard by SMARTFORMS - Honeycomb paper product that can be

Printing – Pictura brings sustainable printing to the surface

Behind closed doors, I experienced the interesting and unusual paper products of Procedes Chenel.  Also Boothster – a sustainable booth builder.

Abex – reappeared after years of hiatus with an adorable booth – an airplane experience complete with their Abex stewardess.  Their Mod awards were delivered at the Hard Rock Café just before the infamous Exhibit City News Party.

And that infamous Exhibit City News party at the Hard Rock was great fun with sponsors that included Willwork and Moss providing specialty drinks such as The Grove and the Experience. The Spazmatics played to a dancing crowd and I must admit they are a very fun and talented music group disguised as some 70’s geeks!

Women in Exhibitions met with 40 women, mixing and speaking about “your personal brand”. Breaking out into tables of 10 we all learned from each other. The fact that we each have a personal brand whether you know it or not was a key first takeaway.  Pat Friedlander and I hosted the session. Thanks Pat! And if you are a Women in Exhibitions join our LinkedIn group!

The EDPA crowd was in full force; the FIT and Bemidji State University students were available on the show floor for meetings to see their portfolio’s.  Jump in if you need a design intern!  The EDPA international breakfast brought together exhibitors from around the world. The group discussion led by Marco Alvarez made us to realize that even though the USA has advanced our trade show habits, the rest of the world is still in crash and burn mode about creating and disposing their trade show booths. One reason for this is the high cost of storage in many places.

The social media channel was hot for those that DO participate.  Tweetups, checkins, and QR codes through BoothTag  all added to the value, info and fun.  I was personally excited to meet Ian McGonnigal (@iandavmcg ) a high level strategist from Jack Morton in real life (IRL) for the first time – and “old” favorites John Lindsey (@JohnDLindsey) from Moss, Melissa Skipworth from EFI (@EFIInc ) Exhibit Fair International and Eric Lukazewski (@EricLukazewski) from Echelon Exhibits were all tweeting away!

All in all this was another great year at Exhibitor.  The tradeshow floor was buzzing and the education was excellent.  I do attend a lot of events, conferences and trades show and I want to thank Lee Knight and his entire team for what they do for the Exhibit industry.  They have raised the bar on education, they care and train their instructors, something that is different from many education providers.  The Opening Night Party with drink tickets is open to anyone that comes to the trade show.  This party is always well attended and a great place to meet all the who’s who in the exhibit world.  All in all EXHIBITOR is a very well attended event and a must go for anyone in the exhibits industry!

Side bar:  Coincidently the TSEA has dissolved during this time.  The remains have been “given” to EACA and Jim Worm for dissection.

I am happy to be newly back from TSE 2012 – The Special Event 2012 in Tampa, Florida.  I have lots of thoughts and experiences so I will present a series of posts. Welcome to the first!

REthink REPink Powered by Moss booth and lobby installation Reconfigured

Pink Powered by Moss booth – When our creative team came together we created a campaign based on the mood of the times that we reflected as RE. REdefine REignite, REfresh, REthink, REPink! So REconfiguring our booth was of utmost importance with REconfigurable products. The time today requires us to REnew, REinspire, REcharge and the more we played with RE; the more fun we had!

Graphics enhanced our color identifying booth with a giveaway of 8 assorted pink campaign type buttons for you pinning pleasure (you have heard of Pinterest by now; havent’ you?) and our REshuffle ipod shuffle giveaway was fun.  We had a winner each day, and we still have more iPods to giveaway in our REshuffle iPod shuffle giveaway so stay tuned!!!

So below, see our booth REconfigured three different ways.  Our décor was REarranged each couple of hours out in the lobby, thank you Jesse Zryb for REvitalizing the lobby and documenting The Special Event 2012 for us.

This fall at the Pink Powered by Moss booth at the LDI Show at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando we took a different approach.  We approached the show as a tool for market research. Under that umbrella, we present the Wave Forms. These 4’ x 4’ units stack to create a textural backdrop, wall, ceiling treatments and towers.  Arrange the Wave Forms in different configurations to create dynamic textures.  Take a look and let us know what YOU think!

BizbBash West went off without a hitch this week at the Pasadena Convention Center. Exhibitors and attendees from the region and beyond to experience education, new trends, new ideas, networking and recognition!

Many event professionals walked the exhibition hall where assorted great ideas and products anchored the floor.  I was there to exhibit with our fabric structures and event décor design.  Below you will find photos of the work we executed at the show.

Our trade show booth featured our new Portico with a branded Circle Surround. The fabric printing of our work showed not only the range of our experience but actually shows the amazing quality of our dye-sublimation printing on fabric.

A large lounge area in the middle of the show floor showed AFR newest products as we delineated the garden area with several works from our Garden Line.  Spears and Vines, Lily’s and Daisy’s as well as Turning Birds created a colorful décor, separated the three distinct lounge areas and raised your eye, creating a complete vision.

Ribbonesque greeted guests as they arrived into Rose City’s convention center.  The yellow ribbon strands were sunshine in the all white lobby area. Several configurations added interest.

We are happy to announce that we won a BizBash award with the MTV- VMA show. Take a look at the massive project that we won the Best Staging and Set for.  We are also happy to be a part of the Warner Bros award-winning L.A. Screening Event which took home the honor of Best Event Decor (Budget Under $50,000).

1. The cars are the stars!

With some trade shows I attend I don’t always know what is being shown.  No guessing here! The Cars are the Stars!

2. Fabric. Fabric. And more fabric!

Talk about materials that these exhibits are built out of… Lots and lots of fabric!  Often in the form of walls or other flat surfaces fabric stretched into extrusion -(SEG) silicon edged graphics – into flat or simply curved surfaces.

3. Printed Graphics. Many fabric surfaces were printed. The trend seen here is not just the fabric printing, high quality dye- sublimation print process in wide widths and high quality imagery, but other flat panels in solid color as well.

4. Graphic Imagery. The idea and the feeling of the graphical treatments were repeated over and over again. The highlighted image in many backdrops featured super graphics that were abstracts of speed, the blur of the road, or the feeling of travel movement imagery.

5. Screens. LED screens were out in full force! Some curtains, many were LED tiled squares that were put together to create approximately 12′ x 16′ digital surfaces. While most LED screens showed traditional commercial imagery in a sameness kind of set up -Toyota broke the mold for the Prius. Toyota used sticks of truss jutting out above the Prius and covered them with the LED 12” squares.  The imagery was vibrant….Take a look at some of the photos below…

6. Signage – Clean. Fabric with elevated letters or logo’s.  This is a great look and another similar treatment seen reapeatedly.  Over and over again 3-D letters or graphics were shown as a relief over a flat, usually fabric wall or banner hanging above.  Lighting was often involved, backlit, reflection off the back wall or projected light.

7. Total Environments.  Full ceiling treatments. These massive trade show booths were truly integrated environments – they are little villages. Really impressive!

If I didn’t know better I would say that a small group of people designed many of these trade show booths. Many of the elements observed here were repeated. The graphic, the screens, the open-ness of the spaces and similarity in the branding all made me think that between Czarnowski and George P Johnson most of the designs must have come from a few Exhibit Buiders.  Does anyone know?

AND Although there were the tons of fabric walls, I don’t want to call them Tension Fabric Structures as I find this a different way of working from the classic aluminum tube frame covered in fabric –In this case the Extrusion/System and the flat stretched fabric with the silicon strip (SEG) inserted into a frame with a recessed groove was prominent. Does anybody have a name for this “new” way of working with Fabric Architecture?

We at Moss DID do some of the fabric at the show and we are proud of it!

All and all, The New York International Auto Show is QUITE impressive.  Now I have to go back and look at the cars!

This year 2011, as most years, I hopped over there for a look see! I did see lots of materials – bits and pieces if you will. And some cool booths and holiday products.

Take a look at my impressions of the Visual Merchandising, POP and Store Fixture Displays that makes up the world of Global Shop!!!

Both Live Marketing and Freeman have introduced an aggregator that will take all your digital feeds and put them in one place. Whether you are onsite or online these are the tools we will all be using.  My first time using something like this was the election in 2008. (And I was AMAZED!)

QR codes, Microsoft codes were everywhere! And I did snap a few myself. For the most part right now I was taken to websites – most of which had been optimized for my device.  These codes were used simply but hey, we ARE at the beginning now aren’t we. I enjoyed MG Designs take on several Technologies, RFID, QR codes and Augmented Reality woven into an Integrated Marketing Program with the board game CLUE as their theme. Fun, educational, and a good demonstration of how these technologies can enhance and educate.

Gaming, prizes etc. Even I won something – A 22” Philips Monitor from Exhibit Fair International (EFIINC.com) just for re-tweeting! And of course I want to mention this so they get the value of their giveaway.

But seriously – back to gaming – Blue Telescope brought in a wonderful interactive experience that used music as a theme. You were engaged through questions and experiences and awarded a prize all right there in the confines of the trade show booth. This is also very significant as the Blue Telescope booth won Best in Show of the Large booths.  This really demonstrates that the Digital Technology IS the prize winner as the components of the digital technology with the complete experience IS their booth.  Take notice agencies and exhibit houses! This was the first time that a non-exhibit builder won this high honor!

And just a little plug for us at MOSS, our EZ Engage won a coveted EXHIBITOR’s Buyer’s Choice Award. I understand it was a unanimous vote and the reason this product is in demand it fits the new requirements of digital interactivity with an easy to use interface (both for the user and the provider). The motion censors trigger the content to appear on the screen. The fabric front is easily customized for any brand. And at an affordable price point the EZ Engage is available for both rental and purchase.

AND I declare FABRIC as the #2 Trend at EXHIBITOR 2011!

My last little comment is – I was at EuroShop trendspotting in Feb 2011 and digital technology in integrated marketing programs were NOT out in full force. In Europe, handshakes, a coffee or beer and relaxed focus relationship building ruled. Different cultures, different approach, perhaps we have a lot to learn from each other!

Enjoy! Keep digging into digital, it ain’t going away!

Not surprising to me, the EXHIBITOR show exhibitors heartily embraced the power of NOW! The technology available to us today, integrated into full marketing programs. Some of the practitioners really understood and highlighted the technology, to others it was secondary but it surely was out in force on the trade show floor AND in educational sessions.

Where last year social media was being questioned as what and why, this year it is but of course we are! And if one is NOT you surely have the sense of being left behind.

Interactive, touch screens, 3-D visuals have invaded the tradeshow floor. This year, few were pushing the virtual trade show and many realized that Hybrid is not only the way to go, but the way your company needs to think if you want to stay in the live marketing, exhibit or events game.

Speaking of games, finally we are seeing some of these components come into our world, the idea of discovery, growing and learning to naturally take us to the next skill level through honest PLAY – focus, interest and repetition. And of course the idea of winning, whether or not there is a small prize. a big one or none at all, the idea of healthy competition (often with oneself) is finally starting to be a potentially exciting concept on the show floor.

This is my personal choice as the #1 trend at the EXHIBITOR show.  It was everywhere! Any Agency that is NOT looking closely at this as the new frontier, well, I would like to let you know that indeed, you WILL be left behind. As you know, The Future is NOW!

Our NYC team dreamed up and designed the PowerStation booth that we cleverly used for 2 shows with a re-branding built in. The Pink Powered by Moss booth was seen in Phoenix at The Special Event show. The EXHIBITOR show saw the Power of MOSS this past week!

This giant form circled around our perimeter – a visual demonstration of the Power of fabric and design. Seen from far away this fabric structure pulled you in to discover the Power of Moss. Our own branded energy drink heightened your awareness while the Juice Bar powered your devise! Our iPads and EZ Engage allowed you to peruse our portfolio. Take a look at the photos posted here and don’t forget the cool new products – The Juice Bar – Charging Stations and The EZ Engage! In fact our EZ Engage won a coveted EXHIBITOR’s Buyer’s Choice Award! This interactive wall catches your attention through branded graphics, motion and technology! Its easy interface and realistic price point make it affordable for your clients. Available for rental and purchase this product is flexible therefore fitting your interactive digital demand!

Also look at our 10’ x 10’ booth – Moss+ = Display Hardware and Light Boxes. Right across from the PowerStation, our little booth was mighty with LIGHT! Take a look at how our R&D team are developing this technology in our Radiance product line!

Come back again soon as I will be posting more info on the Exhibitor show. Enjoy the Visuals!   Also take a visit to our team member John Lindsey’s blog about Exhibitor 2011!