Exhibitor Show: In and Out are done, Now comes Services

The past two posts have dealt with the complexity of completing the show book, all around moving our exhibit in and out of the space. Now we’re moving on to completing the show book.

At this stage, we think about how the exhibit will be built. If we have an overhead hanging assembly, we’ll install that before anything else goes in to the space. Then we work from the ground up, starting with electrical, then carpet, then the display, then accessories.

Next, we look at the electrical needs. Our display will need 2 overhead lamps, a large LCD flat screen, a CPU, the lead reader, and an open plug to charge phones and i-pads. We add up the wattage of these (75+75+30+40+3+6=229) and we know that the order has to be placed for a single drop at 250 watts.

Always check your wattage math. This is one place where many exhibitors go awry, and where budgets start to get out of whack. You cannot exceed the line wattage – if  you do, you risk shutting down the entire electrical feed string. This will cause great angst and a visit from the chief electrician. It will also require that you unplug items, or purchase more wattage.

We will send over our overhead floor plot indicating where the electric feeds needs to be placed, and off we go!

Now we look at IT feed. In this day and age, you might think that it’s easy to get wireless connection on a show floor, but it’s not. It’s very mysterious as to how all cell phone signal evaporates within a show hall. Ask me about that sometime…

So we place our order for either a T1 cable or a wireless router. This is also the order form for technology staff who can any sound system you are deploying in the space.

We are bringing our own carpet, so we don’t need to think about either carpet or pad. Any experienced exhibit road warrior knows that nice carpet, and especially a nice pad, helps manage those long hours on your feet. If you want your sales staff to be fresh and energetic, put some extra money in the budget for the good stuff!

Now we work on the display assembly. At this point, we schedule labor and supervision. Generally, we want labor to arrive within an hour after the carpet and electrical goes down. We think about how to unpack the display, and hopefully, we’ve loaded and labelled the crates so that the materials we need first are clearly identified. We use a bright yellow label that reads UNLOAD FIRST.

This load works into the labor order form just like everything else.

We will be setting up a combination of extrusion, custom fixturing, tension fabric and furniture. We plan on 2 men 4 to 5 hours to complete the project.

Here’s where experience makes a difference. Having more labor available to build the display does not always translate into a faster set up. It;s more complex to manage a large group of I&D staff, and the staff needs to be really clear about the unload and build sequence. Also, a more experienced, smaller group may be more effective than a less experienced, larger group.

Managing this is how and why we get paid. Effective installation strategy can save thousands of dollars in a large event environment.

At this point, we are pretty much through the show book. Once our exhibit is assembled, our own staff members will detail it. We personally want to clean it, position literature, business cards, furnishings, etc. to support how we interact with the space. We work all this out in advance in our warehouse, especially with a new build such as the one we are revealing at EXHIBITOR.

So off we go! Show book is done, payments are confirmed, and we are ready to work on the exhibit design.

Come visit the Image 4 team at space 1870. Exhibitry Starts Here.

 

 

Getting to (y)our Show: Shipping to the Show

Now that I know the date we’re shipping out of Exhibitor, I’m working on getting the display and our staff TO Las Vegas.

Our display will be a custom linear 20-foot, with seating. Seating is bulky to ship, but it’s a critical part of our design so we are not renting at the show site. This means we’re shipping our display in a 50x50x100″ crate, thus managing the freight cost is paramount.

I start by looking at the move-in dates. Look for the move-in date for YOUR SPECIFIC footprint number, especially in a very large show such as IMTS. Large shows often schedule move-in dates by footprint number to allow the riggers and set-up staff to build from the rear of the hall. Don’t assume your hardware will move in on the first day of the show!

Once I’m sure of the move-in date, I check the cost of direct-to-venue freight vs. ship-to-warehouse freight. There’s some savings to be had here if you look carefully, but there are some things to be wary of:

1. Will your delivery truck have to wait for an unloading slot? If so, there’s a good chance you will be charged wait time by the freight carrier

2. The ship-to-warehouse trucks ALWAYS have dock priority over the direct-to-show trucks. Especially in a smaller venue such as the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, your truck WILL be bumped from the dock until the warehouse pre-shipment trucks are unloaded.

3. Be cautious, particularly in winter time. Weather has a direct affect on how a truck moves, and the direct-to-show dock will accept your freight only in a very specific day and time window. If your truck is delayed and misses the window, you’re either going to pay a lot of money for a special unloading, or you may be standing in your spot with no exhibit! We’ve had this happen.

4. On the positive side, if you ship direct-to-show-dock, very often your crates will be the last moved onto the show floor. This means they are last OFF the show floor into storage, and thus generally are the FIRST to come out!

This year, we want to ship to the warehouse. It’s slightly more expensive than shipping direct, but our airline schedule is such that we want to get off the plane and go directly to the show hall to set up. It’s important that the crates be on the floor when we arrive. Also, it’s winter and we are shipping from New Hampshire to Las Vegas. A lot can happen in 2800 miles.

Take a look at the first and last dates that the warehouse will accept your shipment. This is a safety window for you, and good project managers use this as “buffer” for clients who might be late in preparing for their show. (I know, that NEVER happens). We ALWAYS tell our clients the first date that the warehouse will accept the shipment, and we manage the production timeline to that date. Trust me, this hint will make you a corporate hero one day!

Now, back up from that date and figure your transit time. It seems obvious, but remember to take Sunday out of the transit days. From New Hampshire to Las Vegas, we figure on 4 transit days, then we add two more as safety.  This is your RELEASE DATE.

The RELEASE DATE is a very important moment here at Image 4. In our project planning software, we mark this date in CAPITAL LETTERS in RED. This is the date that the truck arrives to pick up the crates from the outgoing staging section of our warehouse. All work must be completed before this date, and all transit paperwork must be taped to the side of the crate on the night prior.

Now that you have the release date, you can go to bid with your freight requirement. I’ll share some ideas about that in the next post.

Show Services and Getting it Right

I’ve been in the trade show industry for close to 30 years – back in the days when the Exhibitor manual (show book) arrived in the mail in a large package along with those quaint ID badges. And when you opened it, the 3-ring binder was 120 pages.

This is the industry’s busiest season. All of my project managers are busy completing our client’s showbooks for the next quarter, so I’m on my own, pecking way at the EXHIBITOR showbook for Image 4.

Today, of course, everything that can be web-enabled has been. First of all, it’s cheaper – for the sponsoring organization (no printing and mailing costs) and for the customer (you/your company). It’s also more convenient – I’ve worked on showbooks on-line sitting in airports, sipping at Starbucks, and yes, even at my desk.

So what’s the point of my intro?

Everyone in our company is directly involved in the mega-system that is the trade show industry. We deal every day with precisely what our clients deal with. And, today I have the opportunity to experience first-hand again how complex it is to get to a show!

I could use this as a plug for our show services offering (Try us sometime, our project staff is superb!)

But what I want to share is a little of the magic of how we execute a show book when we’re being paid to be perfect – and how we think about a project. Take it as advice from the other side.

First, find a quiet spot with no interruptions. Really. Get a coffee, take a personal break, and settle in for 30 to 60 minutes of high-focus decision-making and execution.

Next, get out a tablet. I write the dates of the show at the top of the page. Why? when you’re making the plane reservation for the 6th remote staff member who cannot fly Monday…you will probably need to remember the dates.

Once I know the dates of the show, I work the take-down and shipment window going OUT of the hall. Why? Because most of our return freight and schedule problems happen on the outgoing side – late crate arrivals, late tear downs, running out of labor on overtime, late truck arrival to the dock, weather-related delays…and ESPECIALLY if you are heading off to another show, this part of the program needs to be water-tight.

As always, check your days in transit. Holidays don’t count. Sometimes, Sunday does not count. This goes for tariff freight on trucks as well as for UPS and FedEx, etc.

Getting the back-end worked out informs me when my sales staff are freed up to either have the closing sales review meeting, make fresh prospect connections, or return to the office for the daily routine. After all, shows are about developing sales!

It’s also the easier side to accomplish, and it gets my head into the HARD side – setting up the show on the front end.

I’ll talk about the front end when I get to it tomorrow.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

Image 4 is taking a couple of days off to recharge before the first quarter rush – we’re closed 24 and 25 December, and New Years’ eve and Day. We’ll be in the office ready to go on January 2.

Thank you to all our clients, vendors, business partners and friends for your support through this fantastic year of growth. We look forward to collaborating with you on growing your business through 2013.

A colleague asked recently: Taking Photos of exhibits on the show floor…ethical or not?

This has been a long term discussion in the exhibit industry. But I think the question is really slightly different.

Let me put this out there. A  graphic designer I know has a literal photographic memory. She retains 100% accuracy of anything she chooses to recall. So, if she walks onto the show floor and looks at your booth, is her accurate retention of that image unethical?

I think not.

So perhaps, capturing a photograph of the display is not unethical.

The ethical question is in what you do next.

An old professor of mine once said “Using one person’s idea is plagiarism, using 20 is research.”

If you duplicate something for personal gain, that is unethical. See: Chinese Manufacturing in the dictionary.

If you use the concept/design/execution as a starting point for your own journey, I believe there is some grey area as to how far you need be from the original to have created an individual element.

If you, like my company, encourage all your employees to develop a visual vocabulary, and as part of that to photograph things that affect them – a great sign, a great building, a lovely architectural element, a striking exhibit – then you are creating an encyclopedia.

And if you proceed from that with integrity, then you look into the encyclopedia for ideas, executions, details that you can employ in your personal execution of a design.

Chime in – What’s your perspective? Who are you – designer, exhibitor, marketer, manager?

 

 

Can a Distribution Place (Store?) be a marketing platform?

Today, I was asked “How can a ‘distribution place’ (i.e. The Store) best be used as effective marketing communication tool? “

This is a really interesting question. What if I proposed that it cannot?

Image 4 commissioned research a few years ago from a major retail research firm. We learned that the consumer viewed the function of shopping as 2 completely different things.

One shopping interaction was all about “distribution” where the value was in lowest price, ease of entry/shopping/exit and appropriate selection. We call this the WalMart approach – a really big distribution box with a lot of stuff, with low prices, in every neighborhood, with easy parking. There is a value here, but it is neither marketing value nor experiential value.

The other shopping interaction was all about “experience” where the value was in the quality of the merchandise, the store experience, the ability to shop with friends and relatives, investing time in the non-commodity experience. Cost of merchandise is rarely a factor, but display quality, and affinity to the brand values is a major factor attracting the shopper.

By definition, this is a marketing platform for the brand’s values. In fact, we see it as critical that the brand create affinity with the shopper within this environment – the 3D selling space.

This is the basis for our re-thinking of the retail design process, all the way from brand positioning to site selection to store layout, to merchandising, to signage – an integrated environmental approach specifically focused to communicate brand values.

The retailers who are succeeding today have accomplished this. Those who have not – particularly WalMart – are enjoying lower or flat same store comps, customer abandonment, and ultimately must clarify with the consumer their brand value.

Image 4 exists to align a brand’s value and project, even embed, it within the store environment. And today, a store means a shopping location – from a tent at an event to a popup shop in SoHo or LaBrea, to a retail mall.

We’re rolling (and racing) today!

The entire team at Image 4 is proud of this one – our first race car conceived  as an Artistic Car!

Does art on a car make the car art? Or is the car art to be enhanced? You be the judge.

Image 4 was asked to conceive, design and produce this exciting, dynamic design for the BMW. This historic, former Turner Motorsports E30M3 race car, is owned by Mig A. Rios.

Mig’s insight, and fearlessness, allowed our designer Amanda Christensen to pursue her artistic muse. Perhaps Mig is so fearless because he, too, is a consummate artist, living his “day job” as founder and Principal of Veloz Media.

The project took about 3 weeks to design. Mig shared his vision and tastes, and Amanda took off from there. The design plays upon the energy and physics involved in race car driving, hinting at the explosion of force radiating from the front driver’s wheel.

After several design refinements, the final art files were created, and our internal graphic production department took over. The design was printed on our Roland Eco-solvent printer using 3M vehicle decal material. The panels were matched, some refinements made in how the graphics were to apply to the vehicle, and our installers fitted it to the BMW in a 2-day blow out in our production facility.

Wrapping any vehicle has its challenges. This one proved a bit more difficult than most. The air deflectors and wings on the car had to be matched into the theme, and the car has many small details that require careful attention. Plus, we all knew how much publicity this car would receive!

Designed and produced by Image 4, the BMW E30M3 ArtCar makes its debut at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

This is the view most drivers will see – the rear view as they are passed by this stunning race car!

Liz shows off the vehicle graphics before installation

Careful sizing and placement makes a wrap job look like a paint job.

In the install bay. Here we are installing a graphic panel on the car

The car debuted at the BMW Autumn festival at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on October 21.Thanks to GermanAutoNews, the car already had a following – a teaser had gone out about the project. Crowds were on hand to watch the unveiling.

This BMW is no Trailer Queen! Mig drove the car to Triple first-place finishes in class at the weekend’s races!

Future trips include Sebring and the Daytona Rolex24, where Image 4 will be developing a display pavilion experience.

Be on the lookout and Experience. Space (design).

The LITE trade show exhibit system is so easy, we’re bringing it to you!

Image 4, New England’s premiere custom portable exhibit designer, will be in Burlington, MA August to demonstrate this brand new trade show display system. Let us know which day will work best for you to be able to come learn more about LITE, August 11th, or August 12th?

Learn more about LITE: http://www.image4.com/thatlite​thing/

NewGround – Lebanon, TN: Bank Interior Project

These photos show part of a large bank interior project that we produced and installed in Lebanon, TN.  The merchandising design was fun, exciting, and unique and our production team was up to the challenge!!  One of my favorite parts was the hanging circular banner.  The lightweight aluminum frame was quick and easy to install with impactful and changeable graphics; adding both a design element and a messaging vehicle.  Another interesting element was the soffit treatment!  We used a combination of custom printed wallpapers as well as custom cut and printed layered acrylic that stands out from the wall.  Check out the photos!

- Cara Conti, Project Coordinator

Kalypso Booth – E3 Show

Here’s a sneak peak of the 20×30 Kalypso display that will be traveling across the country to LA, California for it’s debut at the Largest Gaming Expo, E3. 

- Emily King, Project Manager