Displayit.com's Blog - Trade Show Displays, Booths, & Exhibits

Exhibitor Planning Diary Jan 23rd: Time for some paperwork

We are exactly 2 months away from the opening of the show, and we are busy working on our message, graphic design and preparation for the Exhibitor2009 show in Las Vegas, NV.  If you are interested in attending this year's show, you can come as a VIP guest of Displayit. You will receive free entry to the Exhibit Hall and admission to the Monday evening networking event.

We've decided to stick with the message that we brought to our show last year: "The Exhibit Industry's Premier Online Superstore." The basic graphic concept for our backwall will be like the image below.  

We are going to continue to fine tune it but we will continue to emphasize how Displayit is the premier online superstore for trade show and portable display products.  We would have liked to develop a new message, but truthfully we just didn't get started early enough and we feel most comfortable trying to reinforce our message from a year ago.  We are going to get the design finalized early next week and order the graphics.  We are using an Exhibitline EX1V and the booth is ordered.  Once the graphics arrive, we will set up the exhibit and shoot our pre-show videos to give prospects a feel for our booth and Displayit.

I also took care of a lot of logistical issues that are getting me stressed. I ordered electrical and made my flight reservations: Atlanta to Las Vegas $283 + taxes.  Looking forward to that return red-eye flight.  We are 60 days away but I'm still stressing about logistical planning and you should, too.  Always start early.

Top 10 Small Booth Graphic Design Mistakes from Exhibitor Magazine

There was a great article in Exhibitor Magazine this month about the most common graphic design mistakes made in small booths.  This is a great article for most of our clients and there are plenty of lessons to be learned.  I think the key thing is to clearly identify the most important message you want to deliver at your trade show and craft your design around that.  You've really got to break it down into one powerful statement.  Here is an excerpt from the article.

“If your text takes more than three seconds to read, you’ve got too much text,” says Chuck Michel, manager of business development at St. Louis graphics firm Group 360 Communications. That means your graphics can feature a maximum of roughly six to 10 words and maybe an eye-catching company name or logo. Paired with an interesting image that also communicates your message or offerings, the text should complement the accompanying image to create a powerful, cohesive, can’t-miss message that stops people in their tracks and draws them into a conversation with booth staff.

Visit Exhibitor Magazine for more great articles.

Outdoor Banner Stand Solution

Do you host outdoor marketing events? If you are looking for a heavy-duty, high quality banner stand that can stand-up in a brisk wind, you need to take a look at the Expand Double-Sided Outdoor Mediascreen Banner Stand.  This unit has full-color graphics on both sides of the stand and an extra-heavy-duty base.  The pole is designed to bend, if necessary, in the wind. We created a product video earlier this month. 

Exhibitor Planning Diary Jan 16th: Is more less?

I hope that 2009 is off to a great start for you.  We are entering our busy season but are also trying to get ready for the Exhibitor2009 show in Las Vegas, NV.  We are a little over 60 days away from the opening of the show, so we need to get rolling on our graphic concept. If you remember from my last Exhibitor planning entry, we want to get our booth in early so we can shoot video of our booth staff in the booth and send it out to prospects before the show giving them a sneak peek at our booth and message. 

Right now, we are trying to focus on the main message we want to send prospects.  Our ideas are centered around trying to encourage visitors to take a look at displayit.com and see how we can help them. It is really that simple.  We were thinking about going with a real simple black and white concept that would ask, "How can we help?".  That would certainly get some attention but we are not totally sure if that is the direction we want to go. It might be too simple.  We are going to sit on it for a few days and see if we get any ideas.  What do you think?

Exhibitor2009: Planning Diary: January 6th, 2009

On Monday March 26th, the curtain will open on Exhibitor2009, The World Conference for Trade Show and Event Marketers.  Displayit will be exhibiting in Booth #669.  I thought it would be fun this year to blog on a regular basis about the things I will be doing as an exhibitor to get ready for the show. 

We spent much of December brainstorming as a company about what we would like to do at the show.  We still have plenty of work to do but I think we've come up with some ideas about what we want to do:

1. Create our booth and graphics well before the show so we can do a virtual booth video.  This will allow us to send prospects a link via e-mail and postcard to visit our "video booth" before the show.  We hope this will allow them to get to know us a little before the show and also have an image of our booth in their minds so they are more likely to stop by.

2. We are planning a special "secret" promotion that we believe will drive traffic to our website before and during the show.

In order to create the virtual booth videos in time, we've got to get our booth ready quickly, so today I'm going to meet with my design team about creating the graphics for the backwall so we can get those produced ASAP.  I also received my show manual yesterday, so I can begin ordering services such as electrical, cleaning, and other supplies soon and meet early bird discount deadlines.

I hope that this diary will help spark ideas for you and your company and also remind you that it is never too early to start planning for your next show.  Till next time....

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We encourage you to become a fan of Displayit on Facebook.  Join us on Facebook and take advantage of special offers and discounts that we will send to our Facebook friends on a regular basis.  Our fan page will also provide updates on products, new videos and other fun stuff.  We hope your 2009 is off to a great start.