Trade Show Booth Flooring – Thick or Thin?

Overrated Comfort is an Oxymoron

Standing around your booth all day doesn’t need to kill your feet or your back.  Not only does the proper flooring ease your pain, it makes your exhibit booth space comfortable for visitors as well as booth staff.  It also hides under-carpet electrical and internet cables.

Standard booth carpet is around 20 oz.  When combined with 6 lb. 1/2″ pad, it provides basic comfort but doesn’t quite hide under-carpet cables.  Channeling the pad certainly helps hide cables.  This means cutting the pad away in strips where cables lay so that no pad is on top of the cables – only carpet.  This usually hides cables but the down side is your pad is no longer one piece and re-using it becomes a challenge.  Depending on how many channels are cut, it may be more economical to purchase new pad for the next show than to pay booth installation labor to piece the old pad together.  Carpet pad is relatively inexpensive but using it only once goes against the Green principle.

The next carpet weight level – Plush – is 26 to 30 oz.  While the comfort level is an improvement over standard 20 oz. carpet, Plush carpet may still leave you wanting and under-carpet cables may still look like speed bumps.

Deluxe Plush at approx. 50 oz. with 6 lb. 1/2″ pad makes your booth staff and attendees very happy while reflecting positively on your exhibit booth.  Extreme comfort is possible with Ultra Plush 60 oz. carpet with 8 lb. 1/2″ pad.

Using Plush carpets definitely sends a message about your exhibit booth and thus your company.  But how does it affect your exhibit structure?

The thicker or more plush the carpet, the more it impacts how well the exhibit structure fits together which can prolong installation time on the trade show floor.  When your exhibit is constructed, it is most likely set up for the first time on the shop floor – a smooth, flat, hard concrete surface.  Everything fits together perfectly.  Setting up the same structure on carpet – thick or thin – changes how the components fit together.  Keep this in mind when designing and building a new exhibit structure.  And keep a supply of shims in your gang box.

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Trade Show Exhibit Booth Design

How much space do people need?

Most of us are uncomfortable in narrow aisles – especially when there isn’t enough space to pass someone without brushing them. We don’t like being squeezed tight when perusing a booth. When designing your booth, leave enough room between display elements so visitors can maneuver in your booth space untouched. And instruct your staff to avoid blocking the narrow spots.

Find more tips at www.espexhibits.com

How to be a Trade Show Tightwad

With tight budgets in an uncertain economy, exhibit managers must find ways to minimize costs. Below are a few tips drawn from an article published in 2003 that still apply.

1. Negotiate Booth Space Discounts

Bypass the salesperson and call the show manager directly. Show management would rather make less money on an occupied booth space than no money on an empty booth space.

2. Trade Your Stuff

Is your product or service something that show management or exhibitors can use during the show? Can your CEO give a speech? Trade for free booth space.

3. Partner-Up

Get a partner to pay for the booth space in exchange for doing all the show preparation.

4. Staff Your Booth with Local Drama Students

Students can quickly learn enough about the product to pull attendees into your both and turn them over to an experienced sales person. This saves employee travel expenses or the cost of high-priced actors.

5. Record all Vendor Mistakes

Don’t request a fix, negotiate a discount instead.

6. Never use the Official Show Freight Carrier

At the very least, get quotes and compare to other carriers. If your booth can be shipped FedEx or UPS, do it. And send it to your hotel rather than to show site. Wheeling your display into the show hall yourself will save drayage charges.

7. Hurry Up and Wait Until the Last Minute

For shows you know you want to attend, start negotiating early for discounts on booth space to give show management time to consider your offer. Follow-up periodically. As the show gets closer, show management will be more interested in filling empty booth spaces (see no. 1).

By Sandy Flom/CEO, Extraordinary Show Productions Ltd. (ESP)

Find more trade show tips at www.espexhibits.com

Source: Secrets of a Trade Show Tightwad by Whitney Archibald, Exhibitor Magazine, September 2003

Graphics Made Simple

As an exhibit manager, you are expected to know everything about everything – including graphic production – when it comes to managing your trade show program.  Graphics used to be my least favorite topic simply because I didn’t know a PMS from a CMYK.  While I still defer to experts when it gets too deep, just knowing the basics gives me comfort.  Hopefully it will do the same for you.

Know Your Suppliers
Make sure your graphic designers are capable.  Review samples of their work from concept to end product.  Evaluate quality and compare to your need.  Is the work relevant to the scope of your project in terms of graphic size, materials, and level of difficulty?

Resolution = Dots per Inch (dpi)
To assure quality images, hire a professional photographer or purchase images from a photo company or web site.  Images simply copied from a website are rarely good enough for exhibit graphics.  Usually at 72 dpi or less, copied website images lose resolution when enlarged which translates to poor quality.

Your images should be 100 dpi or more at final size.  That means an image at 300 dpi can be blown up to three times its size (to 100 dpi at final size) before losing quality.

The Color Challenge
Maintaining consistent color is challenging.  Printing the same graphic from the same artwork on the same printer on different days can result in a difference in color.  Also, different digital printers print colors differently.

To prevent color differences, many graphics including logos use the universally recognized Pantone Matching System (PMS).  Traditional ink printers use the exact PMS color ink to print colors.  Digital printers however use CMYK – a 4-color (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) printing process.  Digital printers can be calibrated to achieve PMS colors.  Providing a printed sample of the color you want matched is very helpful but a printed proof is the best way for you to confirm that the color will be accurate.

The finish (glossy or matte) of a printed graphic can make the color look bright or dull.  If color matching is critical, request a printed proof – preferably a finished printed proof.

Formats and File Types
You don’t need to be an expert on formats and file types.  Your printer should provide guidelines specific to their production capabilities and your graphic artist should follow those guidelines.

In general, the most commonly accepted files for PCs or Macs are those created using Adobe software including Illustrator, PhotoShop, & InDesign.  Files created in Quark Xpress, Macromedia Freehand, and Corel Draw are also accepted by some printers.

Vector Art
Vector art often referred to as being “outlined” consists of lines and curves that are mathematically defined.  Vector art is ideal for type and drawn shapes because they can be enlarged to any size while maintaining crisp outlines and details without sacrificing quality.

Raster Art
Raster images consist of colored squares called pixels.  Digital photos are made up of pixels.  Printing a low resolution file at a size larger than its resolution results in pixelation which translates to reduced quality.

TIFF or JPG?
Graphics can be printed from either a TIFF or a JPG.  TIFF files are large uncompressed files that produce excellent quality.  JPG files are compressed and although quality is usually not as good, they can be used for printing if resolution is high enough.

Linked Images or Embedded Images
Linked images are files that are “placed” or “imported” into your document.  Printers prefer linked files because they can verify resolution and color information and edit or adjust during the printing process for optimal output.

Embedded images are files that are placed into your document and then “locked” or embedded so that the document is self-contained.  Embedded files cannot be edited or checked for resolution or color.  This means the overall quality of the graphic cannot be determined until it’s actually printed at full size.

Files That Won’t Work
Word, PowerPoint, and Publisher documents cannot be used to print large format graphics.

Submitting Artwork
Simple files with just a logo for example are usually small enough to email. Production files of good quality are frequently too large for email and must be submitted on a CD or DVD or zipped and uploaded to an FTP site.  Printers typically have an FTP site with easy upload instructions however we often download artwork from a client’s FTP site or a third party site such as yousendit.

Sandy Flom | CEO, ESP Exhibits | sandy@espexhibits.com

Primary Source:  “Graphics Made Simple” by Susan Bendily/Freeman

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Trade Shows Work!

Trade shows and events still represent the best and most meaningful way to connect with key customers.

According to Exhibit Surveys, Inc., “Exhibitions and events accelerate the sales process faster than any other media or form of direct marketing.”  A bold claim that is measurable and provable.

While costs keep rising, trade shows continue to attract qualified buyers and influence their purchasing decisions.

Approximately 81% on average of trade show attendees are in a position to recommend or make final purchasing decisions.

This statistic known as Net Buying Influence (NBI) has remained constant since 1998.

Additional results of Exhibitor Surveys’ April 2009 report:

• 52% of attendees planned to buy within 12 months of a show (this figure has remained consistent over the past seven years ranging from 52 to 55%)
• Exhibitors spent $165 on average per attendee who entered their exhibit (the average cost of a sales call industry wide is $300)
• Exhibitors spent an average of $271 per attendee with whom a face-to-face conversation took place in their exhibit
• Attendees spent an average of 8.1 hours per show visiting exhibits

During slow economies, companies cut costs by sending fewer staff to trade shows.  Trade shows in all sectors saw fewer attendees per square foot in 2008 from the previous year.  What most exhibitors don’t realize however, is the staff they do send are the decision makers.  Therefore fewer bodies on the show floor doesn’t mean the show is less successful.  In fact you’re likely to spend most of your time talking to the right people – the decision makers – rather than those who are simply curious or looking for free pens or chocolate.

Accelerate your sales path.  Invest in trade shows.
Sources:  Exhibitor Magazine, Exhibit Surveys, Inc.

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Trade Show Reform in Chicago

Reforms passed earlier this month by the Illinois General Assembly are great news for exhibitors and long overdue.  Pressure for change by those affected in the convention and trade show industry forced these reforms into reality. 

Fewer rules, less hassle, increased flexibility, expanded rights and lower costs for exhibitors.  Sounds great to me!

Highlights for exhibitors include:

• Although five unions remain at McCormick Place, new labor work rules reduce crew sizes, require less overtime pay and eliminate hassles for exhibitors.  A standard crew size is now just two people and stewards will be working; individual workers can be requested by name.
• Straight-time shifts can be any eight consecutive hours between 6 AM and 10 PM Monday through Friday.  That means big savings on booth setup labor costs since overtime rates won’t necessarily kick-in at 4:30 PM.  Saturday and graveyard shifts are time-and-a-half while Sundays and holidays are double time.  Labor charges are based on a half-hour minimum.
• Exhibitor rights now allow exhibitor staff to do much of the light work on their booth during setup and take down regardless of booth size.  The only requirement here is that exhibitor employees need to have been employed full-time by the exhibiting company for at least six months.
• Although McCormick Place will continue to offer food service, exhibitors will be allowed to bring food in for personal consumption. 

Less stress in managing logistics for your trade show booth leaves more time for focusing on other aspects of your trade show marketing program.  And perhaps makes exhibiting in Chicago a pleasant rather than dreaded experience.  Have a great show!

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